Although Hulu has been pushing its $8 per month Hulu Plus service lately, the company's free Website remains a big draw. Apple, meanwhile, sells premium content on premium hardware. You don't see Apple giving away free music and videos on iTunes to promote its paid content. I concur with Kafka at All Things Digital, who says the free content business is "pretty alien to Apple."

Ever notice that iTunes doesn't exist on Android phones, Xbox 360s, Roku set-top boxes or any other non-PC devices that aren't made by Apple? The company uses its content services as a hook into its hardware, but that strategy is at odds with the Hulu Plus, which aims to support as many devices as possible. Surely, Apple wouldn't want to support subscription video on non-Apple devices, but if it pulled the plug on Hulu Plus for competing hardware, a lot of subscribers would jump ship.

The main reason Apple would want Hulu is for its content. , any deal would include five years of programming with two years of exclusivity. But as any Hulu Plus subscriber will tell you, the current selection carries baggage. Not all shows from Hulu's free Website are available on Hulu Plus, and some shows that are available may only be viewed on a PC. That's all thanks to content providers who are afraid of online video replacing cable. Does Apple really want to pay billions for those headaches?