Photographs by Chuck Salter
Even for Hollywood, where long odds and high stakes are staples of storytelling, the plotline is a doozy: A couple of old business rivals facing the threat of a lifetime agree to put aside their differences and join forces on a half-baked experiment that makes them laughingstocks. (We're thinking Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty.) And who do they put in charge? A young guy, a newbie to the biz. He promptly cleans house and hires an even younger guy who's halfway around the globe. These renegades throw out the rule book -- and they pull it off. Their idea kills. The naysayers feast on crow.
This pitch meeting would not end well. Cue Ari Gold: Nobody'll believe it, not in a million years. Are you nuts? Get the %*#$ out of my office! Yet this is the tale of Jason Kilar and a company called Hulu, costarring the heads of NBC and Fox, with guest appearances by Andy Samberg, Tina Fey, Jeff Bezos, and Walt Disney. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
KaylaMosley: @hulu hulu i think has taken over my life just like crazy commercials said it would. YIKES.
MeGustaCountry: HULU, I'm gonna marry you.
-- posted on Twitter in August and September
Imagine that The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal had gotten together and created Google News. Or that Sony Music and Warner Music Group had introduced iTunes. That's Hulu, a daring attempt by would-be victims of the digital revolution, NBC Universal and News Corp., the parent company of Fox, to control their content -- and their fates. In just two years, Hulu has become the premier broadcast video site on the Web, featuring free instant access to full episodes and clips from more than 800 TV series -- from 30 Rock to The Mary Tyler Moore Show -- via 190 content providers. Not to mention 450 free movies. In July, Hulu had more than 38 million viewers (according to comScore Video Metrics) and delivered more videos than any site but YouTube (Nielsen). "If we didn't do this," says NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, "we knew someone else would."
The mogul-in-the-making who defied skeptics and at times shocked the networks is Kilar, Hulu's 38-year-old CEO. He's more Silicon Valley than Hollywood, a buoyant and boyish straight shooter with humble charm and an obsessive streak when it comes to site design. (Jason Bateman would play him in the movie.) Kilar made his mark at Amazon, building the DVD business from scratch. After nine years, he left and contemplated his next entrepreneurial move while traveling the world for a year -- blogging from 19 countries and 56 cities, and taking nearly 12,000 photos -- with his wife and two small children.
Meanwhile, Zucker and Peter Chernin, then president of News Corp., were collaborating on an unlikely joint venture that they named NewCo. In the spring of 2007, after Kilar returned to the United States, they approached him about doing for NewCo what he'd done for Amazon. Kilar wasn't convinced the joint structure would work and worried that he wouldn't be given true independence. He declined. A week later, at a Seattle Mariners game, he found himself revisiting the decision with his wife. The Mariners came from behind to win on a go-for-broke gamble, a suicide squeeze. By the end of the game, he'd decided to gamble too.
"The industry goes through moments like this every 25 years or so," explains Kilar, a voracious student of media history. "It happened when the major networks started. It happened with cable TV. I realized I'd have way too much regret not doing it."
Of course, it may be the networks that wind up with regret. Because even as Kilar set out to help NBC and Fox avoid the drift toward obscurity that threatens the music and newspaper industries, he began creating something that could contribute to their undoing: a new and better way to watch TV shows.
"My first Hulu experience made my head explode in a brain-spray of awesome." -- Chicago viewer Marisa Wegrzyn's comment on hulu.com, now featured on staff shirts
"Nooo!" the room groans at the stalled video.
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Recent Comments | 12 Total
October 15, 2009 at 12:56pm by Jeff Davidson
Why is anyone surprised that putting Hollywood produced content on the Internet would draw viewers like flies to honey? The real question is what happens to Hulu after TV Everywhere?
October 18, 2009 at 4:21pm by Ruth Schwartz
I am disarmed by these lines in the first page;
"Imagine that The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal had gotten together and created Google News. Or that Sony Music and Warner Music Group had introduced iTunes. That's Hulu, a daring attempt by would-be victims of the digital revolution, NBC Universal and News Corp., the parent company of Fox, to control their content -- and their fates."
Someone save me. Its been said out loud! After 25 years in the music industry I can safely say: What was wrong with Sony and WEA that they didn't do this 10 years ago and handed their fate into the hands of the computer industry? Even when I sat at the independent content provider intro to itunes in 1996 in Cupertino, I wondered why they allowed this to happen. I also was thrilled that someone- anyone - picked up the gauntlet and moved the industry out of inertia even if for a short time. Apple didn't solve the music industries problems but they did pull us along with them. And now, Hulu with their benefactors at NBC and Fox are an example of facing change head on. Shame on the music industry. You still embarrass me, years after my exit. Way to go Hulu.
In this same copy of Fast Company, The Heath Brothers write an article on looking out of your box to solve problems. It is the same thought as the Hulu article- thanks again for saying it out loud:
"The biggest barrier to the idea hunt, in fact, may be you. It may never occur to you to start searching because we all commonly keep our thinking penned up within our company or industry."
Ruth Schwartz
http://highperformanceadvocates.com/audio-video-and-book-recommendations...
Ps: Hulu are positioned to be broadcast tastemakers long after TV Everywhere.
October 19, 2009 at 3:25pm by John Mcknightl
Hulu isn't accessible in any part of the world, that's the downfall of it. Despite that matter, I've heard that it really gives high quality of service to their viewers.
John Mcknight
October 19, 2009 at 6:12pm by Kevin Lenard
This is a pivotal “tipping point” article for broadcast TV’s future, but also for both “legacy media” people and the entire “ATL dinosaur ad agency industry.” Interestingly, so many of the fundamental, step-change answers, the consumer insights Kilar ‘listens for’ so carefully and constantly on Twitter, have already been uncovered, but remain untouched by the industry, in part because they're anathema to our status quo, "Push Marketing" model.
Some telling quotes from the article:
‘Kilar: “Users deserve to have whatever they want to watch," he says, "whenever they want to watch it, however they want to watch it."’
‘At a conference in early September, News Corp. chief operating officer Chase Carey warned, "Ad-supported only is going to be a tough place in a fractured world....You want a mix of pay and free."’
And users will, through TV Everywhere, Boxie and Hulu competitors, get “whatever they want whenever” very soon (Apple’s “iTablet” plus all their competitors and “always on Super 3G wireless Internet” combined with Bluetooth 3-D glasses will soon give it to them wherever they are). The key point that is not being addressed by Hulu due, in large part, to the ongoing power of the legacy-dinosaurs is “The Death of Frequency (Repetition)” -- NO ONE wants to watch a 30 second video ad more than once or twice. Really not. Lee Clow and Apple are one of the few marketing teams who get this at the moment. ( http://advertisingbusinessmodelredefined.blogspot.com/2009/01/DEATH-OF-F... )
‘For the June launch....Microsoft ran a Bing-a-thon....”This gave us the right audience, the ability to educate and entertain, and the opportunity for them to try out the product and then market our product for us....No other ad platform lets you do all that."’
The latter should have read: “No other MASS MEDIA ad platform lets you do all that.” The oldest marketing medium in human history does all of that and much more: Buyers at a market stall speaking with a seller about her/his product. Snake oil salesmen at a travelling fair. Door-to-door Fuller Brushmen. Blue-haired sampling ladies at your supermarket. Every experiential marketing effort being leveraged today. According to Fast Company panel of Marketing gurus, we’ve entered the age of “One-On-One Marketing,” face-to-face, buyer to seller.
In the mid-term, this is where the marketing industry’s focus will shift, to Brand Experience/Engagement as the starting point for evert successful marketing campaign. ( http://advertisingbusinessmodelredefined.blogspot.com/2009/03/NEW-ATL.ht... )
Just a thought.
October 19, 2009 at 6:54pm by Kevin Lenard
Apparently my links above were too long for the system. Should you be interested:
"The Death of Frequency": http://preview.tinyurl.com/yzast9p
"The New ATL": http://preview.tinyurl.com/yf47efx
October 20, 2009 at 12:26am by Varun Arora
Excellent story on a service that those of us outside of the US are hungry for (lust after? are desperate for? take your pick, they're all correct!)
@John: their unavailability doesn't make it their "downfall" - it just means that they can't [yet] tap overseas markets and overseas advertisers. It takes a LOT of effort to get the overseas advertisers on board and overseas viewers (like me!) are otherwise just bandwidth and resource hoggers who contribute nothing to hulu's bottomline, so this approach is understandable, regardless of whether Hulu has the rights to show their programming to folks outside of the United States (and I suspect they don't).
That said, I'm a HUGE fan of ad-supported PLUS paid-subscription business models (which is also where we're headed at HomeCamera, and where I think you're going to see many top-notch publications by 2013). I'd be delighted to be a PAYING overseas subscriber, cheerfully forking over $9.95 per month or $99.95 per year, while -still- seeing ads.
Anyone from Hulu reading this? Get in touch! Now! Pretty please?
- Varun Arora
CEO, HomeCamera
www.homecamera.com
November 5, 2009 at 3:12am by vivian cu
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November 12, 2009 at 12:07pm by Russell Warner
Hulu is one more step of intermediation in a disintermediating world, i.e. the middle-man in every industry is going bye-bye. If you want to see the future of TV, look no further than southparkstudios.com. Hulu will direct you to it and the producers of South Park keep the ad revenue. Who needs Hulu? I'm as much of a fan of Hulu as anyone, but thinking that it's a long-term strategy is short-sighted.
November 17, 2009 at 6:50pm by Mary McKnight
I love Hulu - I am hopeful that film companies will publish their old media libraries and start generating online dollars from them on demand. I think it would help them fight piracy which we all know the MPAA is dead set on doing. On the flip side of that I am most hopeful that the recording industry will find a music solution similar to this and Spotify that generate revenues from ads yet offer a free model to consumers thereby reducing the need for pirating songs and videos.
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November 23, 2009 at 8:37pm by Blu-ray video
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November 23, 2009 at 8:40pm by Blu-ray video
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