Hulu is being threatened by a specific condition that Washington is proposing for the Comcast-NBC Universal deal, which would force the merged company to offer NBC's shows to any Web competitor. "What does that mean for Hulu, which has already locked up exclusive rights to NBC's Web video?" asks MediaMemo. "Perhaps Federal Communications Commission head Julius Genachowski is trying to put a fork in Hulu." Hulu's three co-owners, including NBC, Fox and ABC, all previously agreed to mutual exclusivity pacts. If users want to watch one of their shows for free online, they can see them on the networks' own …

To expand in digital entertainment services, Rovi Corp plans to acquire Sonic Solutions, reports Bloomberg. A provider of parental controls and interactive video systems, Rovi plans to use technologies available to its TotalGuide customers to power Sonic's RoxioNow services, a move that will "result in accelerated uptake of premium content," according to the company, adding that the proposed acquisition of Sonic has an enterprise value of about $720 million. Citing Rovi's official statement, Bloomberg notes: "Sonic investors may opt to sell their shares to Rovi at $14 apiece, or receive 0.2489 Rovi share for each of Sonic …

Content carriers like Verizon and AT&T spent more money in Washington than any other tech constituency during the third quarter of the year. That's according to new disclosure reports for lobbying expenditures analyzed by the Associated Press and reported by AllThingsD's NewEnterprise blog. "Verizon spent $3.83 million lobbying on several issues, including taxes and texting while driving, at numerous branches of the federal government, including the White House, Congress, the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Trade Commission." Meanwhile, AT&T spent $3.47 million with an agenda including legislation on calling cards, broadband buildouts and distracted driving. Nearly …

While Google still leads the pack, Facebook has surpassed Yahoo in the amount of traffic sent to video destinations, reports All Facebook, citing a new report from Brightcove and TubeMogul. Facebook accounted for 9.6% of all the traffic referrals to video destinations in the study, based on usage data from nearly 2,000 sites during the third quarter of this year. As All Facebook notes, the report is based on Brightcove customer data, and, by default, "That means non-YouTube player data, so YouTube traffic or referrals is not at all represented in this sample." The referral data is …

What lies at the seedy intersection of the sex trade and online media? Craigslist, of course -- or at least it did. Under pressure from several state's attorneys general and law enforcement officials, the classifieds site has officially shuttered its "adult services" section worldwide. "This worldwide shutdown of the erotic services sections on Craigslist is a victory in the fight against sexual exploitation of women and children and human trafficking connected to prostitution," Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal said in a statement cited by The Wall Street Journal. "Evidently, it's hard for companies that want to be …

Google has agreed to pay $1.9 billion for the former Port Authority building in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood. At nearly 3 million square feet, Wired likens the edifice to "a beached, red-brick cruise ship." Meanwhile, "It's worth noting that the Empire State Building has just over 2 million square feet of office space -- about 1 million less than 111 Eighth Avenue." In a blog post Wednesday, Google announced that it has closed the deal and said it has re-upped with Taconic Management Company to continue running the leasing and management operations of the building. The …

A technical glitch cut off millions of Skype users from friends and loved ones on Wednesday. The Internet-phone service, which was still experiencing user issues on Thursday, is obviously feeling the pressure of increased usage over the holidays. "Some Skype features may not work as reliably as usual," notes USA Today. "Users' online status may be slow to update, and instant messages might not be delivered as quickly as normal." Meanwhile, the outage will likely put additional pressure on Skype as it prepares to go public. The VoIP provider filed to go public in August, but is …

In what seemed like a win for Net Neutrality supporters, the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday adopted new rules to govern how Internet providers treat Web traffic and services. On both sides of the debate, however, many are unhappy with the development. "Some people are decrying the new rules as backward (including Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell), warning that they'll 'inhibit innovation and investment,'" writes Search Engine Land. "Many consumer advocates, however, believe the opposite that they don't offer sufficient consumer protection and are too friendly to corporations." Under the headline, "Net …

Behavioral ad targeting marketplace eXelate on Wednesday said it has promoted Chief Revenue Officer Mark Zagorski to CEO. Company found Meir Zohar handed over the reins so he could return to his native Israel. "The company," as paidContent explains, "which was started in Israel, has become more internationally focused and is now firmly planted in New York." Zagorski is credited with helping to establish eXelate stateside since he joined the company in mid-2008. Last week, eXelate completed its second round of financing with the addition of Trident Capital as a new investor. In August, Menlo Ventures and Carmel Ventures …

Om Malik thinks Google has a "user experience" issue, which gets to the core of the problems presently facing the search giant. "No one can argue with Google's ability to engineer great software -- they've done so in the past -- but that simply isn't good enough in the new worlds they are trying to conquer," according to Malik. In particular, "Televisions, phones, productivity applications and even Google's own local pages are less about search and more about engagement: something not core to the company's corporate DNA." To succeed going forward, Google needs to make software usable …