DirecTV Drops Out Of Hulu Bid, Starz Wanted Netflix To Charge More

With all the stuff going on with IFA last week it was easy to miss out on some interesting developments in the streaming media world. Certainly, the two companies that most of us know in streaming media are Netflix and Hulu. Apparently the sale of Hulu has lost one of the key bidders, and honestly the one I was hoping to see come out on top. DirecTV has dropped out of the bidding after being the lowest bidder in the last round reports VentureBeat.

That leaves Amazon, Yahoo, and Dish Network still in the running. Amazon is the company favored to win the bidding war. The bids are thought to be in the $1.5 billion to $2 billion range right now. While Hulu is looking to sell, Netflix made headlines last week with Starz walking away and bringing an end to Starz content on the streaming service as of next February.

I was not happy at first, but now the LA Times reports that Netflix offered Starz big money to stay. The word is the offer was $300 million but that wasn't good enough for Starz. Starz reportedly wanted Netflix to start a tiered pricing model. That would have meant that subscribers would have to pay more to get the Starz content along with other premium content from providers. With that fact now known, I am glad to see Starz take a hike and happy that Netflix said no to charging users more. I can only imagine the backlash had that premium tiered mode gone into effect after the outrage at the last price increase.