With its Apple TV product and selling television shows and films through iTunes, a purchase of TV streaming service Hulu could align well with Apple‘s current product offerings, some the Cupertino-based company have apparently noticed according to a Bloomberg story. Apple have recently announced their iCloud service for streaming music from the cloud, but a purchase of Hulu could allow them to stream television shows and films as well.
Hulu has been officially up for sale since the 6th July in a statement by Disney CEO Robert Iger with Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft all having been named as possible suitors. The fit for Apple, however, may be even closer.
Apple already sells downloads and rentals of tv shows and films through iTunes, but does not offer a streaming service. The Hulu purchase would come with a 5-year continuation on program rights, and a 2-year continuation on exclusivity and would parachute Apple into a possessing a full media network with deep control over online distribution multimedia content. As more and more people consider “cutting the cord” of cable access and turn to on-demand downloads and streaming for consuming TV and film content, the Hulu deal would make Apple well placed to embrace these consumers. Tying the service into iPad and iPhone streaming services could also bolster the sales of those products and media devices against the onslaught of cheaper Android products.
Apple is sitting on roughly $76 billion in cash, and whilst normally is loathed to go for large purchases has just shelled out $2.6 billion for a portion of the Nortel patent portfolio, so the $2 billion Hulu asking price may not appear so daunting.