Conflicted Hulu owners face tough choices

Now that all the bids are in for Hulu, the question is: What will become of the service? And the answer is: Nobody knows for sure, but it's possible that the Hulu as we know it will disappear, or at least be diminished from a viewer's perspective.

The reason for that is the odd, conflicted position the current media-company owners find themselves in. Disney, News Corp., and Comcast want to get as much as they can for the service they co-own, but they also want to be able to strike the best possible licensing deals they can with whoever buys the site. Those two considerations are in opposition, and striking a balance won't be easy. Clearly, the owners will take a lot less money for Hulu than it might be worth if they can get favorable licensing deals, which would explain why a company that has grown so fast over the past two years has nevertheless seen its reported value cut in half, from $2 billion in 2011 to the $1 billion that bidder DirecTV has offered.