Yahoo! Reportedly Flirting With Adding A Video Unit, Has Its Eye On Hulu

These days, it’s not enough for the big Internet brands to just offer one service, like say, a search engine. As such, it’s not surprising to hear the rumor mill spinning over whether or not Yahoo! is looking to find a streaming service to call its own, and if so, that it’s got its eye on Hulu.

The courtship has begun, claims AllThingsD, which reports that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer had a sit down recently with some Hulu bigwigs. Hulu’s owners have reportedly been looking at selling it off now for some time, and perhaps Yahoo could be the perfect match.

Sources tell AllThingsD that the whole thing is “in the process,” but there hasn’t been any kind of formal bid for Hulu’s hand. There are apparently others in the running to make a go of it with Hulu, including Amazon.

The meeting was apparently an in-depth, let’s get to know each other kind of situation. Yahoo might be smarting from its recent failed attempt to buy 75% of France Télécom’s Dailymotion video service, so perhaps this is a bit of a rebound.

Mayer’s under pressure to ramp up the company’s video effort, after telling investors previously that video is key to her plan for Yahoo.

To that point, she recently addressed the issue onstage during a Wired conference in New York.

“I think video is really important … video is something that we’re all innately designed and born to experience, everyone is born being able to watch and to hear,” she said. “Video is just this amazing format.”

She should know — she was still at Google back when the company snatched up YouTube.

Hulu and Yahoo are staying mum for now (would they become Yahulu, ya think?) so only time will tell whether these two kids make that long trip down the aisle or remain just friends.

Yahoo’s Mayer Has Met With Hulu Execs in a Preliminary Look-See at Premium Video Unit [AllThingsD]

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