Hulu puts itself up for sale • Hacker News Board

Re: Hulu puts itself up for sale

#41

Post by po » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 12:29 PM UTC

mbesto wrote: post #37

staunch wrote: post #3

Hulu with no content licenses is still valuable. The brand is established, they have significant traffic, the technology seems to be pretty well put together. Maybe even valuable enough to recoup their $100 million investment.

> The brand is established, they have significant traffic, the technology seems to be pretty well put together. Disagree. If google reader couldn't use the NYTimes, ChiTribune, LA Times, etc. would it be valuable?

Yes. I don't subscribe to NYTimes, ChiTribune, LA Times or any other traditional media outlet in Google Reader and I use it every day.

Although the analogy is flawed, your point still stands that Hulu is nothing without content. The difference is that the television industry is so much more bound up in distribution rights than the web in general.

Re: Hulu puts itself up for sale

#42

Post by chopsueyar » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 12:41 PM UTC

redthrowaway wrote: post #18

spydertennis wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thought I had was that Hulu/Netflix should buy the rights to cancelled shows that have popular followings and pay to have new seasons made. Obviously this is fraught with potential problems (people are committed to other projects) but it could be cool.

They would have to buy those rights from TV studios, who would for obviously reasons be loathe to part with them. Even producing their own shows is problematic, as the studios can blackball any actors/writers/directors/production people who work with them. The television and film industry is a tight-knit group, and I can easily see them circling the wagons in order to protect their distribution monopoly.

Isn't that what Canada is for?

Re: Hulu puts itself up for sale

#43

Post by chopsueyar » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 12:43 PM UTC

jeffool wrote: post #26

sukuriant wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stargate.

And shows like Arrested Development, Firefly, and Jericho. Maybe not those shows in particular given the amount of time that's passed, but, the next time it happens.

Arrested Development and Jericho agreed!

Never got into Firefly.

Re: Hulu puts itself up for sale

#44

Post by chopsueyar » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 12:44 PM UTC

lucasjung wrote: post #38

samirg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other obvious issue is that if the show was cancelled by the studio, what makes you think it would be profitable to pay for and produce new shows for distribution across a smaller network (Netflix vs. sum of cable/satellite distribution, which is the case for most major studios)? I suspect FNL/DirecTV may be a counter-argument here, although I don't know the specific economics of that agreement.

TV networks often cancel profitable shows because they aren't profitable enough . There are enormous opportunity costs involved in allocating a network time slot to a show: you only get 24 hours in a day, and only a few of those are prime-time. If a prime-time show isn't making big bucks, you cancel it and try another one, and you keep doing that until you find a show that makes you say, "Hmm...if I cancel this, ther…

Profound. Upvote.

Re: Hulu puts itself up for sale

#45

Post by chopsueyar » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 12:47 PM UTC

ianb wrote: post #35

Hulu feels technically sufficient to me. It's about content now. A sale seems like it could go two ways: 1) They've been getting by on sweetheart deals from their owners, and once departed their licensing dries up and they are useless. (Their licensing already look pretty pathetic IMHO - for god's sake there's shows you can view for free online that you can't view as a paying custom on a TV) 2) Separated from TV they…

But if Yahoo buys them they are fucked, because Yahoo fucks everything up.

Viaweb?

Re: Hulu puts itself up for sale

#46

Post by smackfu » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 12:48 PM UTC

spydertennis wrote: post #16

jsherry wrote: post #11

Same theme over and over and it's frustrating: technology is fully ready to support streaming and on demand programming, but the content providers don't like licensing the content because it cannibalizes their TV product. And who can blame them really? They're the only show in town and they should cash in via whatever method best suits them. The only real chance for things like Hulu and Netflix to succeed no-holds-ba…

One thought I had was that Hulu/Netflix should buy the rights to cancelled shows that have popular followings and pay to have new seasons made. Obviously this is fraught with potential problems (people are committed to other projects) but it could be cool.

Another consideration is that Netflix uses an HBO model, not a broadcast TV model. So a show is only worth however many new subscriptions it drives. Existing subscribers who watch the show are worthless, unless it prevents them from cancelling.

Re: Hulu puts itself up for sale

#47

Post by chopsueyar » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 12:52 PM UTC

americandesi333 wrote: post #14

jerf wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'Why wouldnt netflix want it?" I'm pretty sure the correct question is "Why would Netflix want it?" (companies don't generally acquire other companies "because why not?", at least not ones that hang around long), and I can't say I see a good answer to that. The only thing that Netflix could win with would be licensing deals, except Hulu doesn't actually have them, as they are all short term deals. If Netflix and NBC…

Just to play devil's advocate here, if you step back and see, Hulu is not a bad acquisition for Netflix and why? Its because Hulu will bring Netflix the 'scale' and additional premium customers. I know a lot of people who purchase Hulu or Netflix, but cannot justify buying both.

Netflix already has the scale.

Why would Netflix want a bunch of 'users' that want free streaming?

Netflix needs to license more current tv episodes and they could crush Hulu.

Wouldn't you rather the company spend money to license content instead of acquiring physical infrastructure considered obsolete after 6 months?

Re: Hulu puts itself up for sale

#48

Post by vaksel » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 12:57 PM UTC

spydertennis wrote: post #16

jsherry wrote: post #11

Same theme over and over and it's frustrating: technology is fully ready to support streaming and on demand programming, but the content providers don't like licensing the content because it cannibalizes their TV product. And who can blame them really? They're the only show in town and they should cash in via whatever method best suits them. The only real chance for things like Hulu and Netflix to succeed no-holds-ba…

One thought I had was that Hulu/Netflix should buy the rights to cancelled shows that have popular followings and pay to have new seasons made. Obviously this is fraught with potential problems (people are committed to other projects) but it could be cool.

pretty sure Netflix is already planning to do just that

Re: Hulu puts itself up for sale

#49

Post by jerf » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 2:59 PM UTC

americandesi333 wrote: post #14

jerf wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'Why wouldnt netflix want it?" I'm pretty sure the correct question is "Why would Netflix want it?" (companies don't generally acquire other companies "because why not?", at least not ones that hang around long), and I can't say I see a good answer to that. The only thing that Netflix could win with would be licensing deals, except Hulu doesn't actually have them, as they are all short term deals. If Netflix and NBC…

Just to play devil's advocate here, if you step back and see, Hulu is not a bad acquisition for Netflix and why? Its because Hulu will bring Netflix the 'scale' and additional premium customers. I know a lot of people who purchase Hulu or Netflix, but cannot justify buying both.

I do not recall recently reading stories about how Hulu traffic is now 30% of the internet traffic during peak times. I do recall reading this: http://www.telecompetitor.com/report-netflix-represents-30-o...

I don't think Hulu has much scale to offer Netflix.

Re: Hulu puts itself up for sale

#50

Post by roc » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 3:44 PM UTC

diogenescynic wrote: post #29

Why doesn't Netflix buy Hulu? They seem complementary to each other--Netflix has movies, Hulu has tv. Unless this wouldn't be allowed for legal reasons.

Because the only thing HULU has over Netflix, is sweetheart content deals. Deals that are poised to evaporate for the publicly stated reason for the sale in the first place.

(the networks don't like how HULU is encroaching on their TV money)