23 August 2010 | Author: J. Morton News Editor

Yahoo! set to snap up shares of Hulu

Yahoo!, the venerable search and news portal, has an interest in purchasing a significant amount of stock in video streaming site Hulu if the company goes public, with investment bank Stifel Nicolaus & Co claiming Yahoo! would like a "considerable" stake in the start-up.

Although wildly popular in the United States, Hulu still lags well behind the leading video portal, the Google-owned and operated YouTube. However, with 28.45 million unique viewers in that market alone, such a deal would be nothing to sneeze at.

The site also generated 783 million ad impressions in July 2010, which beat out Microsoft, according to analyst comScore.

Figures released last April by Hulu's chief executive, Jason Kilar, also indicated the company raked in $100 million in revenue over 2009, an amount they hoped to eclipse in the first six months of 2010. This may be achieved with help from the recently released Hulu Plus pricing model, which grants viewers more access than the free service at $9.99, including full series of programmes.

Shows on offer from the site include The Office, Family Guy and Desperate Housewives, in addition to other popular shows, which US viewers can stream at their leisure. Backers of the venture include NBC Universal, the Walt Disney Company and News Corp.

Investing in Hulu could give Yahoo! a better footing in the streaming video arena, as well as give it a leg up on Google, as Hulu has exclusive rights for many of its programs.

The video service went live in 2007, but plans to roll out an international version of the service have been marred by a business and legal quagmire, including obtaining international streaming rights.