Founded in March 2007, Hulu is co-owned by NBC Universal, News Corp. and Providence Equity Partners. That's from Hulu's media info page. I think it boils down

Founded in March 2007, Hulu is co-owned by NBC Universal, News Corp. and Providence Equity Partners. That's from Hulu's media info page. I think it boils down to: the networks trust themselves with their content. They aren't going to trust an outside company founded by people who made their name of pirated content (the Joost founders are the Kazaa people). Frankly, why give someone else the profits when you can create your own content distribution system? Hulu gives them both the control and the revenues. Note: I'm not making a moral judgement on pirated content, merely explaining a possible thought process of the networks.