Hulu CEO Jason Kilar on the Future of TV Advertising Online

[NewTeeVee Live 2010] Jason Kilar, CEO of is presenting Hulu’s perspective on the future of TV viewing online at GigaOm’s NewTee ee Live 2010. The company, only 3 years ago the company was referred to as “dead on arrival,” will be making 240 million dollars in 2010. Below are some of the key points Kilar made today:

• Hulu, says Kilar, is in the business of creating services that users, advertisers, and content owners “unabashedly love.”
• Consumers will be able to consume content where they want, when they want, how they want.
• Today, 41 cents of every dollar generated against premium content is from advertising. Hulu believes any business model will have to include advertising and is in “pursuit of a better way for brand advertising.”
• Hulu’s motto is that: “When it comes to amount of advertising, lighten up.” In 1859, Alfred Hitchcock Presents is 26 minutes long; in 2010, a popular show like The Office is only 22 minutes long. Ad load today is high for linear TV. Hulu believes that letting people choose which ad they want to see creates better experience (we’re still not convinced) and enable brands to use the platform for surveys (Are you planning to buy a new or used car in the next six months?).
• With its massive viewership and analytics, Hulu is now able to provide personalized and targed ads. Hulu can address viewers by name on screen and attaches emotion-based ads or messaging. 10% of people bookmarked Peep Show promo presented in personalized manner (compared to 1% industry response benchmark). Similarly, Hulu is able to serve ads with much more precision than the networks because of its rich analytics and behavior tracking, including viewing history, ad clicks, etc.
• Today, brand advertisers spend over 400B in brand advertising globally. In the US alone, $60B is spent on ads in the living room—double the ad dollars spent online. Kilar hints there’s room for turning this model on its head with the greater ad effectiveness and efficiency a service like Hulu can provide to advertisers.

When asked by Om Malik about upcoming IPO, Kilar—who has been remarkably transparent and open over the years—humbly stays on mute. But don’t be surprised if we hear big announcements broadcasted by Hulu by the end of 2011.

This post was written by Ravit Lichtenberg and is also published on her blog.

Hubert Nguyen
Categories: Events, Top Stories
Tags: advertising, business, hulu