Potential Hulu Sale Seen Raising Few Antitrust Concerns
The potential sale of Hulu to any of the dozen reported would-be buyers of the online video company, a list that includes the likes of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AT&T, raises few antitrust concerns, industry executives and lawyers said this week. Though some of the potential buyers already enjoy a large online video market share -- Google’s YouTube is the top online video site according to comScore data -- and their own online video platforms, most industry officials we spoke to welcomed a sale that would dissociate Hulu from its current owners: News Corp., Disney and Comcast’s NBCUniversal.
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The officials weren’t concerned that companies would limit access to Hulu to their preferred platforms, they said. For instance, the prospects that Google would buy Hulu and then limit access to Hulu’s content to its Google TV service, or that Microsoft would make its Xbox Live service the exclusive platform for Hulu content, seem unlikely, they said. “It would be hard to imagine that someone would buy Hulu and then try to restrict where it would go,” said a consumer electronics attorney. “It would just kill the value of it."
Seeing Hulu divorced from its TV network owners would be good, said PlayOn CEO Jeff Lawrence. His company makes software that lets consumers stream online video from their PC to a TV set or mobile device. “It’s as bad as it can be right now,” Lawrence said. “The people who own the content are the ones who own Hulu.” If they sell, each of the previous owners could independently and competitively pursue its own online video strategy, he said. Comcast’s purchase of NBCUniversal and its stake in Hulu raised far more competitive concerns, Lawrence said.
Disney CEO Bob Iger told reporters Wednesday that Hulu’s owners are committed to selling the joint venture. But Lawrence said he doubts they'll fully part with it soon. “As tempting as it would be for the networks to make a buck right now, I don’t think they want to give up control,” Lawrence said. “There’s still so much unknown” about the potential for revenue in online video, he said. Google and Yahoo declined to comment. Disney, Microsoft and AT&T didn’t immediately respond to our queries.
Certain buyers could draw attention from regulators, said an attorney who works on online video issues. “Google as a buyer is very interesting,” the lawyer said. “It’s under significant scrutiny right now, and expansive transactions could be of interest at fairly high levels of the government.” If Google were to buy Hulu, Microsoft would surely raise some antitrust concerns, and vice versa, the CE attorney said. “People will try to gin up something,” the lawyer said. “But is it really an antitrust problem? I'm not sure I see it. I'm not sure Hulu really has enough of a dominant position.”