Hulu To Invest $375M In Content

Kilar

Even as Hulu is for sale, CEO Jason Kilar gave credit to the company's backers for having the "courage to actually invest in this crazy thing" several years ago and to continue to give it freedom to innovate.

As a result, "we've been able to create something that's very, very valuable," Kilar said Wednesday at a Goldman Sachs event.

Kilar indicated that the online video site does not need to increase its amount of ads to boost profitability, partly because CPMs and viewer engagement are strong. As much as pricing has been high, "the efficacy has been even higher," he said.

"Economically, we don't need to match the [TV] ad load," he added.

He said that Hulu, which is investing $375 million in content this year, is mindful of preserving the content distribution windows for networks that have been so successful and finding a strong non-disruptive role within the ecosystem.

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Hulu recently dipped its toe into original content with a documentary series from Morgan Spurlock and runs programming supplied by Disney, News Corp. and Comcast, which each hold a stake, in addition to others.

The three media companies and Providence Equity share ownership in Hulu.

In many ways, he said Hulu is more a technology than content company with designers and computer scientists, where "we value those folks so darn much." Kilar said Hulu has made choices that are "very synonymous with technology ... as opposed to traditional media."

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