Amazon Scores NBCUniversal Streaming Deal

From newser.com: Amazon Scores NBCUniversal Streaming Deal

Amazon Prime customers can now access 7K shows, 2K movies

Netflix and Hulu beware: Amazon has struck a new blow in the battle for streaming content. A deal with NBCUniversal has added some 1,000 movies and TV shows to the web giant’s streaming library. Alongside a deal with CBS, Amazon now provides its Prime customers—who pay $79 a year for free shipping and other perks—with 7,000 TV shows and 2,000 movies, Mashable reports. Meanwhile, Netflix faces a setback as customers quit over its new pricing plan. 

Apple to Consider a Bid for Hulu

From Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. (AAPL), with $76.2 billion in cash and securities on its books, is considering making a bid for the Hulu online video service, two people with knowledge of the auction said.

Apple, the world’s second-most-valuable company, is in early talks that may lead to an offer for Hulu, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

Hulu would give Apple a new subscription service and represent a possible challenge to Netflix Inc. (NFLX) Hulu’s media- company owners, Walt Disney Co. (DIS), News Corp. (NWSA) and Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)’s NBC Universal, are offering suitors a five-year extension of program rights, including two years of exclusive access, people familiar with the matter said earlier this week.

“Part of the ecosystem of Apple’s future is to include more video,” said Scott Sutherland, Wedbush Securities Inc. analyst in San Francisco who recommends buying the stock. “It’s something they are focused on.”

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Google, Microsoft are among potential Hulu buyers

Talks have begun with potential buyers of Hulu, and Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger says the site's current owners are "committed to selling." The company, which is on course to reach more than 1 million users faster than initially predicted, could go for more than $2 billion. If Hulu is sold, its current owners, which include Disney, Comcast's NBCUniversal and News Corp., would continue to supply content for the site, but it is not clear for how long.

Bloomberg: Disney’s Iger Says Hulu’s Owners Are ‘Committed to Selling’   

The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model)

Reuters:  Hulu to hit 1 million paid users by summer's end

TV Mogul Bonnie Hammer’s Secrets of Success

TV Mogul Bonnie Hammer’s Secrets of Success

It’s hard enough to persuade one person to fall in love with a product. Now try 3 million, seven nights a week. Such is the power of Bonnie Hammer, newly minted head of seven cable channels at NBC Universal. In 2003 she revived the SyFy channel, luring in viewers with Ron Moore’s revamped Battlestar Galactica. Then Hammer took over as president of the USA Network, where she linked beefy wrestlers (WWE) to quivering neurotics (Monk) under the chirpy rubric “Characters Welcome.” And it worked: USA has been the number one basic cable network for five years, valued at $11.7 billion. The 60-year-old Queens native explains her plans to make other NBC Universal channels grab your eyeballs.