There has been major speculation over the past few weeks about a possible sale of Hulu the streaming video site owned by NBC, Fox, and Disney. There has been speculation of potential bids coming from every big name tech company you can think of, from Microsoft, to Google, to Sony. But there is no word yet who is making bids for the site, but I am going to take a moment to suggest who I feel should make the bid.
Yes, despite stores closing down all over the country, Blockbuster is still alive and kicking and now owned by parent company Dish Network, together they should seriously consider a move for Hulu.
Why?
With Netflix recently raising their prices for their online only subscription, there is a a opening for a competitor to grab some market share. Blockbuster already has a video on demand service to compete with Netflix, but has a small fraction of their users. It was reported that in 2007 at their peak Blockbuster had 3 million users, which is dwarfed by Netflix 24 million users. Currently the Blockbuster service is more like typical rent-by-mail service similar to Netflix and allows for a Rent on Demand service online, but doesn’t offer unlimited streaming videos like Netflix does. This needs to change if Blockbuster is going to compete, and having Hulu could be a big reason why users would join.
Dish Network as well needs to begin thinking about a future in which all video is watched online and satellite TV is a thing of the past. Because they are not able to offer internet service like AT&T or Comcast, Dish Network and Direct TV will always be at a disadvantage, and as more young people start watching shows and movies on their computers and not on their TVs, it could be the death of the satellite providers. It is essential that Dish Network develop a online infrastructure that will allow them to offset loosing users on their satellite service over the next decade. A Blockbuster/Hulu partnership could become a major player in the online video market, and could allow Dish Network to remain relevant long after their satellite technology has become obsolete.
Blockbuster + Hulu = Streaming Service that can actually offer the streaming version of the movie when it actually comes out instead of at least 30 days later with netflix.
Blockbuster also gets exclusives that are sometimes still in theaters – get a feature like that streaming instead of pay-per-download and you have a service that anyone would want a piece of.
My hope is that DISH is successful in its bid for Hulu; a perfect symbiotic relationship between two content providers.
…Pandora would just be a cherry on the cake.
Well, by now we know Google won’t be buying Hulu, since Google will be acquiring Motorola and they have Google TV. I wander, if Google will implement their rules of doing things? If not Google, I don’t think any other major company are well prepared financially to risk buying Hulu and compete. Take Microsoft for e.g. they are spending so much money to compete with Google in every aspect of ads, software, and specially now that Microsoft is losing in the mobile market. I’m guessing, Hulu will survive on it’s own.