According to BI, Yahoo would be willing to purchase on-demand streaming TV service Hulu for $2 billion, as long as certain demands are met.
Hulu is owned by Disney (ABC), News Corp. (Fox), Comcast (NBCU) and private equity firm Providence.
Yahoo is only willing to make the deal if Hulu guarantees them 4-5 years of exclusive access to the media content.
Hulu, on the other hand, seems to be only willing to give 2 years of exclusivity, albeit with 5 years guaranteed access to the content.
Says one source:
If [Hulu's content creating owners] came out and said, we’ve renewed [Hulu's exclusive rights] for four years at the same terms we have today – it’s really easy to model [a valuation between] $1 billion and $2 billion – maybe more.
Without four or five years of exclusive streaming rights to TV shows and movies, Hulu is not worth anything.
If Hulu does offer 5 year exclusivity, Yahoo would have enough time to “build enough equity with consumers that you’ve created a real leader in premium content and premium advertising,” adds the source.
Without exclusivity, Yahoo (and other bidders) could simply just bid for the rights to stream the content in the future, as it would cost significantly less. In fact, when the exclusivity period for Hulu’s current content ends, Google and Amazon are expected to bid hundreds of millions of dollars for the rights.
Result for: media content
Microsoft has confirmed today that they will be releasing Zune software for Macs by the end of the year, following many months of speculation.
Says the software giant: “Later in 2010 Microsoft will make a public beta available of a tool that allows Windows Phone 7 to sync select content with Mac computers.”
Windows Phone 7 owners should be able to quickly connect their smartphones to their Macs, and sync media content stored on their hard drives.
Microsoft first announced the news via Twitter: “Daily #WP7 Announcement: I’m glad to confirm that Mac users would be able to use Zune on their Macs to sync with #WP7. More details soon.”
The company finally unveiled its initial WP7 lineup earlier this week, with two phones headed to T-Mobile, three headed to AT&T and one each on Verizon and Sprint next year.
Result for: media content
Last month we reported that the New Xbox Experience dashboard update was headed to Xbox 360 gamers on November 19th.
However, like most media content, the NXE has been leaked online and has seen thousands of downloads already. If you download it though hoping to be the first person on your block to do so, you are in for an unwanted surprise though. Any user trying to log into Xbox Live while running the leaked NXE will be blocked from XBL until November 19th.
Although unconfirmed, you also run the risk of being blocked from XBL permanently, in the same boat as users using flashed firmwares and copied games.
If you are really that excited for NXE, I think it pays to wait the almost three weeks for it.
