Rumour: Google Wants Hulu Really, Really Bad

All Things D’s Peter Kafka says that Google is willing to offer significantly more than what Amazon, Yahoo or Dish Network would be willing to offer in the bidding war for Hulu. But they also want more than what’s being offered.

Kafka doesn’t have exact details from his sources, but he believes Google wants more exclusive content for a longer period of time.

Google seems to want something much more than that, and is willing to pay much more to get it. If you want to speculate, you could imagine Google asking for access to more content, for a longer period of time, and perhaps offering up a couple billion dollars more.

Since that’s not what Hulu’s owners have put on the table, “normally we would have thrown people out if they’d said that,” says an executive familiar with the sales process. But Google “indicated that there’s enough money” involved so that Hulu’s owners are at least thinking about continuing the discussion.

But money alone won’t guarantee a successful acquisition for Google. Studios and networks are notoriously gun shy about making their content freely available and given how new and unpredictable online TV still is, locking themselves into a long-term deal is something they probably don’t want to do (hello Starz!). And though Google’s willingness to toss cash at Hulu is promising, we still want Amazon to prevail in this fatal four-way. [AllThingsD]