Jason Kilar, CEO of online video site Hulu, would like the world to know how much he cares about street sweepers.
Speaking this morning at the OMMA Global conference in New York, Kilar began his talk by plugging Disneyworld (his first employer) and Walt Disney’s attention to detail, before explaining how Hulu plans to become the main aggregator of premium content online.
When he worked at Disneyworld, Kilar learned that old Walt thought that the street cleaners at the amusement park were some of the most important people on the payroll:
Kilar says that every decision on the site is obsessed over, from the size of the logo to the resolution of video thumbnails to the content the site shows: "there is no better business model than obsessing about quality.”
And it appears that attention to detail has paid off. Hulu recorded 119 million of the 11.4 billion streams consumed in the month of August and boasts 8
million monthly users. Even better perhaps, PC World Monthy named Hulu the #1 product of 2008 (the iPhone came in at #2).
So how is Hulu capitalizing on its popularity? In terms of advertising, "we’re letting users self-select what they'd like to watch," says Kilar.
Hulu viewers now get a choice of ads that they will be shown before viewing video content. Though the choice is limited — all ads are from the same brand — viewers can choose if they'd like to see a Nissan ad for a mini-van, SUV, or compact car or choose between a spot for Coke,
Diet Coke, or Sprite. Viewers on Hulu.com can also choose their formatting. Many videos ask if the user would rather watch one pre-roll ad or a fewer, shorter ads within the programming.
These options let advertisers know exactly how their spots and formats are performing, which is in line with Hulu's efforts to "create a service that users, advertisers, and content owners unabashedly love."
“Our appetite is insatiable," says Kilar. "We’re trying to get all of the world’s premium content.”
That’s all well and good, but what about those pesky networks that haven’t yet signed on (and may never agree) to partner with Hulu? The recently shuttered WB network launched this month with the entirety of its stable of shows at TheWB.com. CW and CBS content cannot be viewed at Hulu. And ABC’s Executive Vice President of Digital Media
Albert Cheng may have appeared with Kilar on an OMMA panel directly after his keynote speech, but that network remains a holdout as well, choosing to stream on various sites that do not include Hulu.
Kilar said that Hulu’s position as an aggregator of content comes from being as clear as possible about the traction of the business. “By being transparent about results, we’ve moved from having two content providers to over 90,” says Kilar. “With monetization rates that they feel good about.”
If Hulu succeeds in pulling audiences to its site, they may just get enough visitors to make revenue sharing profitable for all the networks. But if individual networks can make their online content popular enough, they may feel even better about the monetization rates they can get alone.
CORRECTION: Post has been updated to reflect the number of streams Hulu recorded in August.
