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"A new report indicates that Comcast, Disney and News Corp. will soon own even more of the streaming television service Hulu.\nAccording to Bloomberg, Providence Equity Partners \u2014 the one non-media conglomerate invested in Hulu \u2014 is close to selling its 10% stake in the company to the other owners. The companies behind ABC (Disney), NBC (Comcast) and Fox (News Corp.) each own a 27% stake in the Hulu.\nProvidence invested $100 million in Hulu back in 2007. Bloomberg's sources say the firm will get $200 million for its share. Not a bad return on a five-year investment. The $200 million sale would give Hulu a $2 billion valuation.\nLess than a year ago, Hulu's owners were considering selling the over-the-top (OTT) and subscription streaming service. The fact that the three majority owners are now going to invest more in the company underscores just how much the online video and streaming space has changed over the last six to eight months.\nHulu Flourishes in New Content Wars\nLast July, I wrote about the content battle taking place between TV Everywhere and OTT online streaming. Since then, that battle has only expanded, as cable networks have launched their own OTT offerings and content owners have signed more robust TV Everywhere deals.\nAs a result, Hulu (like Netflix) has had to shift its focus from simply licensing content and branch out into original content creation.\nHulu started playing with original reality programming in 2009. Earlier this year, the company launched its first scripted series, *Battleground.\"\nMoreover, Hulu is flipping the switch on the licensing model and syndicating its original programming to traditional television outlets.\nThat focus \u2014 coupled on improvements to the ad platform and support on more devices and set-top boxes \u2014 has helped Hulu gain premium subscribers. More than 2 million users now subscribe to Hulu Plus, the company's $8 a month offering. This is a far cry from Netflix's 26 million streaming users, but it shows that Hulu is catching on.\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/04/26/hulu-sells-stake/>