DirecTV, the second-biggest U.S. pay-TV service, and two other bidders are each offering at least $1 billion for Hulu LLC, the online video website, said people with knowledge of the bid. The other two couldn’t be identified immediately. Los Angeles-based Hulu’s board has been weighing at least seven buyout offers and plans to narrow those to three or four in a few weeks, said the people, who requested anonymity because the deliberations are private. Bids of at least $1 billion increase the odds that owners Walt Disney Co., News Corp. and Comcast Corp.’s NBC Universal will sell Hulu after a previous auction and plans for an initial public offering faltered. Hulu would give DirecTV, with 20 million subscribers, a lower-cost online video offering alongside its more expensive pay-TV packages. Darris Gringeri, a spokesman for DirecTV, declined to comment, as did Meredith Kendall, a spokeswoman for Hulu.
