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OK, Hulu. What’s Next?

Comcast’s NBC Universal, News Corp and Disney yanked around a lot of people and wasted their time and money before deciding that keeping Hulu is the best way for them to remain in control of their Internet future. With every passing day and every smart TV that’s sold, it’s increasingly obvious that OTT will become a prime way to distribute paid content — perhaps even THE prime way. Nothing beats owning your own highway to where the customers are increasingly looking for content.

Each of the three network could go its own way and distribute content directly as Viacom’s Paramount is testing. There are many advantages to that including avoiding anti-trust laws.

They could also really bond together and develop a front end for consumers that is a one-stop shop for all of their goodies much as what TV Guide has done with TVGuide.com.

There are two other matters they need to clean up:

1. The FCC has prohibited Comcast and its NBC Universal from strategic management of Hulu. Comcast could sell out to the other Hulu owners. It probably wants to chart its own course on the Net as shown by its OTT and VoD efforts. It could sell out to a another company like Time Warner, which owns Warner Bros and a number of pay TV channels like CNN and TBS. Viacom might also be interested, what with owning Paramount Pictures and a number of pay TV channels like Comedy Central and MTV.

Sony should be interested in buying into Hulu but probably isn’t — too busy strategizing about its money-losing TV operations. It has lots of content — Sony Pictures, Sony Music — plus every type of CE device that will need content. Think about what Amazon is doing with launching devices that will consume its content! Sony may soon have even more mobile devices if and when it buys the 50% of Sony Ericsson it doesn’t own.

2. Providence Equity Partners, the fourth Hulu owner, is only in it for the money and to lend credibility by being a non-content owning owner. It may be itching to sell out and the remaining owners may have to buy its shares. It is also in the best position to take Hulu public if that becomes the owners’ choice. It has $23 billion invested in companies in the media and communications industry.

See: http://www.provequity.com/portfolio/index.asp?Section=0,2,1&

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HBO Adds Its 1,400 Titles to Roku Boxes

HBO is another example of a content company, in this case Time Warner, using the Internet to deliver its content directly to consumers.

HBO GO is becoming like Netflix in that it’s everywhere, as long as the would-be viewer has a paid subscription to HBO with his pay TV service. Next up for HBO is Roku boxes where its HBO Go app will be available. HBO subscribers will be able to access 1,400 HBO titles, none of which are their current season.

Last week Microsoft said it was adding HBO Go to its $60-a-year Xbox Live service. It’s also available on a variety of mobile devices.

HBO GO gives Roku about 300 channels of content. No wonder the Best Buy sales reps recommended it “unless you use iTunes or other Apple products.”

Time Warner no longer has a vested interest in pay TV, having sold off Time Warner Cable. You have to wonder how long it’s going to take Time Warner to realize it could make a lot of money selling Internet subscriptions to prior seasons to people that don’t now and will never subscribe through a pay TV company. That’ll be the day the scales tip from being in favor of the pay TV companies to favoring the Internet.

Movie Studio Shows New Tactic to Stop Piracy

A film studio is trying a new trick to keep its content from being leaked on the Web, using a court order to keep thousands of ISPs and Web sites from making an upcoming film available on their services.

Reliance Entertainment said it is pursuing the tactic with its film “Bodyguard” and expects to see up to a 60% reduction in piracy because of the efforts. A recent effort similar to this but on a much smaller scope is said to have reduced piracy by as much as 40%.

The move does raise some concerns, however. In July, millions of Indians were barred from accessing file-sharing sites and digital locker services because Reliance had obtained a similar court order barring services from hosting the film “Singham.” In an effort to not give access to the content, especially not pirated versions, some ISPs blocked file sharing sites on a large scale.

“Singham” went on to break several box office records, which the company attributes to its anti-piracy efforts.

According to TorrentFreak, file-hosting services outside of India don’t plan to remove the content unless they’re served with takedown notices or if the studio puts pressure on local ISPs.

Reliance is also taking other anti-piracy measures, saying that it will release “Bodyguard” on DVD this month, just six weeks after it premiered in theaters.

Would You Sell Hulu if You Were a Pay-TV Parent?

Hulu, the streaming TV lovechild from News Corp, Disney and NBC Universal, is in play, thanks to a mystery bid that hit early this week and has been lighting up the news feeds ever since.

Or, at least that’s what someone wants us to think, someone who’d benefit from the possibility of a Hulu sale being thrust into the limelight. There’s a lot of skepticism on this because it’s hard to nail down a buyer and because sources are all over the place. Our double agent behind Hulu lines says that the word coming down from the top is that a bid was indeed made but another friend in the digital content distribution and licensing arm of a Hulu parent has said the bid is all hype.

The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday that an offer from a mystery bidder did indeed happen and that Hulu’s board is considering a sale. paidContent said it confirmed Hulu management and owners are discussing a bid and other options but that there’s been no formal board meeting.

The Los Angeles Times was one of the first to say that Yahoo was the mystery bidder, which makes some sense as the company is trying to reinvent itself as more of a content destination. However, Yahoo’s EVP Ross Levinsohn has recently told paidContent and others that there “are no game-changing acquisitions for Yahoo” planned, but Levinsohn has been a big supporter of Hulu since his days at News Corp, so it’s a statement that can be overlooked if Hulu is up for grabs.

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