Apparently owning cutesy GIF factory Tumblr is just not enough to slake the thirst of Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer. AllThingsD reports that the aging Valley giant made a bid to acquire Hulu this morning, just days after spending $1.1 billion (ca$h money) to buy Tumblr.
Don’t be alarmed, but it’s very possible you wasted money on that smart TV. [PC Mag]
Companies might be reconsidering Amazon Web Services, after one outage too many. [Wall Street Journal]
Netflix is preparing to roll out new social features, like the ability to share what you’ve watched (if you want) through the company’s Facebook app. So you’d better finish watching every available episode of “Say Yes to the Dress” on the double quick. [TPM]
Doesn’t look like Poke is going to dethrone Snapchat juuust yet. [GigaOm]
Speaking of online video: is Hulu about to lose a lot of employees? [AllThingsD]
We hope you didn’t bet any serious money on the new version of Myspace turning the old girl around. [The Verge]
Good news! HBO is now on Hulu. Bad news: It’s only in Japan. [GigaOm]
While everyone was distracted by the health care ruling, the Supreme Court decided not to rule on another case, concerning whether you can sue a company for breaking a federal law, even if you can’t prove damages. Forbes explains why that doesn’t make Facebook, LinkedIn, Zynga, and Yahoo too happy. [Forbes]
Look, RIM has options, okay? (They’re just not great options.) [Reuters]
Amazon is making it easier for developers to create games on the Kindle Fire. Good, because the current selection is zzzz. [Bloomberg]
Yet another I/O roll-out: Google Compute Engine, the company’s very own infrastructure-as-a-service product to compete with Amazon Web Services. What, no skydiving to announce it? [Google Blog]
Speaking of the GOOG, they’d like everyone to know Gmail now has 425 million users which, by our calculations, means they’ve dethroned Hotmail. [TechCrunch]
This should really liven up the debate over data caps: Netflix wants Congress to step in. Man, cable companies are just going to love this.
Bloomberg reports that, in a hearing today, Netflix general counsel David Hyman told the House subcommittee on communications and technology that, “When you couple limited broadband competition with a strong desire to protect a legacy Read More
The days of Saturday Night Live as cheapo Sunday morning hangover cure may be coming to a close. The New York Post reports that Hulu is getting ready to upend its current business model and require users to login with their cable or satellite account numbers. If you don’t have a cable or satellite account and therefore you don’t have a number, well, tough cookie.
Sources tell the Post that Hulu plans to transition to an authentication model, meaning access to content will be predicated upon some sort of subscription. Those same sources point to the shift as the reason for Providence Equity Partners unloading its stake for $200 million. Read More
Earlier this week, the New York Times chronicled Hulu’s trajectory from an upstart streaming video service into something more in the vein of a traditional TV network with its own original programming, much like its corporate masters. Of course, that change has been in the works since January. But as Hulu and Netflix face increasing difficulty in convincing TV and cable stations to hand-over programming in a timely manner, they’ve put more of an emphasis on creating its own content to fill that gap. Read More
Depending on where you read the coverage of Hulu’s revenue numbers, the picture of the company looks very different. Read Write Web declares that the company turned in a “pretty big year,” growing 60 percent and “raking” in $420 million in revenue. But as Peter Kafka points out at All Things D, that falls short of the $500 million Hulu CEO Jason Kilar predicted the company would make in several blog posts.
Mr. Kafka attributes the miss to rumors of soft ad sales which have been percolating for a while. Hulu also was on the chopping block for a while, then off again, then back on. And several of its partners, most notably Fox, either took away next day rights for programming or discussed the idea. All that volatility is sure to make it tough for Hulu to sell ads. Read More
About a week ago, a GigaOm writer Janko Roettgers stumbled across something big: an integration that would allow anyone who owns a Boxee Box to watch live broadcast TV over the device without having to switch back-and-forth between inputs.
Now, Boxee is finally prepared to speak about the feature. In January, the company will start selling a USB dongle that transforms the antenna on the Boxee Box into a tuner to capture free over-the-air HD TV signals from channels like ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC. The dongle is a one-time cost of $49 and the company is currently taking pre-orders.
So that’s a little more expensive than your typical digital converter box, which also lets you get free live broadcast TV. But you get some special social juice with Boxee, plus everything in one unit with one remote control.
Betabeat spoke to Boxee founder and CEO Avner Ronen yesterday about why he thinks this could be a tipping point in getting consumers to cut–or at least shave–the cord. Read More
The Revolutin Will Be Televised
Maybe it’s the sudden threat of Apple TV and Google TV, but content providers have decided to play nice with Hulu. The CW Television just signed a five-year licensing agreement to stream in-season episodes of the CW’s programming on both Hulu and Hulu Plus, the platform’s subscription service. Read More
After letting just about every big tech titan on the block swing by to kick the tires on Hulu, the conglomerate of Comcast, Disney and News Corp. has decided the best move is to keep the old gal after all. Bidder’s included heavyweight like Amazon and Google, who reports indicated was willing to pay a premium for the service. Read More
