Hulu to Offer Buyer Five-Year TV Programming Deal (Report)

NEW YORK - Online video site Hulu, which is going through a sales process, plans to offer suitors five years of guaranteed access to TV shows from the media giants that own it, including two years of exclusive access, Bloomberg News reported, citing people with knowledge of the situation.

Such programming terms would allow a new owner to have content locked up for a while.

Hulu's owners are Walt Disney, News Corp., Comcast's NBCUniversal and private equity firm Providence Equity Partners.

The details of the content rights and financial data will be provided to bidders who sign a non-disclosure agreement, Bloomberg said, adding that such suitors as Amazon.com and Microsoft Corp. are unlikely to bid without such long-term guarantees of access to programming.

Hulu officials couldn't immediately be reached.