DirecTV to acquire Hulu for more than $1 billion, sources say

Shawn Knight

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hulu directv acquisition

DirecTV is expected to acquire Hulu by the end of the month as part of an acquisition deal that could be worth more than a billion dollars. Multiple sources have told PandoDaily that a deal is imminent and the satellite provider is the likely victor following months (or years, depending on how you look at it) of reports that such a deal was just around the corner.

Hulu currently has roughly 4 million subscribers that pay for content each month. It’s a solid figure but when you compare that to the 29 million or so Netflix subscribers, it quickly becomes less impressive. Furthermore, Netflix is signing up an additional 2 million users each quarter which equates to adding Hulu’s entire pay base every six months. It’s clear that Hulu needs to do something quick to remain competitive and relevant.

If true, the move would give Hulu a solid shot at producing original content and competing with rival Netflix. At present, DirecTV boasts more than 20 million subscribers that bring in roughly $20 billion in revenue each year. With that kind of financial backing, Hulu would have little trouble getting multiple original content deals signed and into production.

Of course, nothing is final until a deal is announced and it gets approved by the necessary regulatory committees. As such, things could fall apart at the last minute but based on what sources are saying, this seems like a lock that we should be hearing much more about in the coming weeks.

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Maybe they bought them so they can shut it down. Oh wait, that's Time Warner, looks like DirectV isn't perhaps isn't opposed to evolving a little.
 
I would love to be a huge company with a lot of money and buy things like crazy.
 
DirecTV could limit access to Hulu to only users with DirecTV subscriptions... Or they could offer DirecTV subscribers a lower price and charge non-subscribers a higher price.
 
DirecTV could limit access to Hulu to only users with DirecTV subscriptions... Or they could offer DirecTV subscribers a lower price and charge non-subscribers a higher price.

Thus screwing everyone in the process. This is one of the last things I wanted to see.
As it is, even paid Hulu was airing advertisements. It's going to be much worse now.

Everyone seems to forget some of the primary reasons that things like Hulu and Netflix gained ground to begin with.
1) zero advertisements
2) we watched what we wanted to when we wanted to

This is just going to be a step backwards in progress.
 
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