For Sale: One content streaming company with lots of high recognition programming. Must agree to previous owners’ terms of use and distribution; comes as is with angry user base. Asking price: $2B+ or best offer.
At least that’s how I image the “For Sale” sign would read. In either case, Business Insider is reporting that Dish, the satellite TV provider, has won a bid for the TV networked owned Hulu for $1.9 Billion. Dish’s offer comes in higher than Yahoo and Amazon, though nowhere near Google’s offer of $4 Billion.
From the report, Dish would be willing to accept the current terms of use (read: paywalls and delays in offering the latest content) simply because contracts will be going up for renegotiation in the not too distant future coupled with the fact that Dish may be more interested in back-end technology than providing additional content for customers. Google on the other hand bid an outlandish considerably higher amount but was unwilling to bend on how the networks’ demands on how to offer the service.
It’d be interesting to see if the deal goes through or if Hulu will hold out for more cash, after all, they almost got what they were looking for.
Source: BusinessInsider
I’m tempted to speculate on the powerhouse that Dish Network could create if they combined Hulu and their previous purchase of Blockbuster. I’m tempted to believe that with Blockbuster’s (dwindling) retail presence, combined with streaming movies options, coupled with Hulu’s streaming television options, and Dish Network’s history in the entertainment delivery business, that the combination of all these superpowers under one roof would be a force to be reckoned with.
Then I remember that both Dish Network and Blockbuster are part of the old guard. Hulu, as forward-thinking as it was in the beginning, has lingered, slowly, behind the likes of Netflix who are still more forward-thinking than the rest of the competition despite their unpopular moves lately.
I really hope that Hulu doesn’t go through with this deal. Dish Network is beginning to feel like the place where content delivery companies go to die.