Venture venture CEO named, launch target delayed

Cory Bergman June 28th, 2007

Update: NBC Universal and News Corp. have named a former Amazon.com SVP Jason Kilar as the CEO of their upcoming joint video venture. Kilar oversaw Amazon’s entry into the video and DVD business. NBCU and News Corp. revealed on the conference call today that the launch date has been pushed back to September at the earliest. “We’ll launch when we’re prepared to launch with a world-class product,” said News Corp. COO Peter Chernin. This comes as no surprise as a summer launch date would seem next to impossible given the fact the management team is just being assembled. A name has also yet to be finalized. Press release on Kilar’s hiring follows below…

Adds Staci in comments: “NBCU told analysts earlier this month it would be September. When I asked today, September was still held out as a possibility but not as a definite.”

PRESS RELEASE — NEW YORK - York, June 28, 2007 – News Corporation and NBC Universal have appointed Jason Kilar, a key executive at Amazon.com for nearly a decade, to Chief Executive Officer of the online video joint venture the companies formed in March, 2007, it was announced today by Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer of News Corporation and Jeff Zucker, President and Chief Executive Officer of NBC Universal. Mr. Kilar will join the new company on July 9 and will report to its Board of Directors, which include Mr. Chernin and Mr. Zucker.

The company’s video-rich site will debut later this year with thousands of hours of full-length programming, movies and clips from myriad networks and two major film studios and with an unparalleled reach. With distribution partners AOL, CNET, Comcast, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo!, the new venture will have access to 98 percent of the monthly U.S. unique users on the Internet.

“Jason’s product and consumer expertise in the world of e-commerce is arguably unrivaled in this business and gives him a great insight into what it takes to create a superior user interface,” commented Mr. Chernin. “We already have access to world-class content and near ubiquitous distribution, and the next step is marrying it with the features and tools that will help define the ideal user experience for video content on the web. We think Jason is the ideal person to lead that effort.”

Said Mr. Zucker: “We are very pleased to have an executive of Jason’s caliber take the reins of our groundbreaking joint venture. Jason is a proven leader and innovator with a wealth of experience on both the technology and content sides of the equation. He is the right person to make sure our new initiative offers a consumer experience worthy of remark.”

Mr. Kilar, 36, spent nearly a decade (1997 – 2006) at Amazon.com, where he quickly rose to help expand the company’s core business beyond bookselling. Mr. Kilar originally wrote the business plan for Amazon’s entry into the video and DVD businesses and ultimately led that unit as General Manager and Vice President. The video and DVD business grew to several hundred million in revenue under Mr. Kilar’s leadership. Mr. Kilar went on to become Vice President and General Manager of Amazon’s North American media businesses, which included the company’s books, music, video, and DVD categories.

He later served as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Application Software, where his responsibilities included Amazon’s Marketplace business and ownership of a significant number of the applications which can be found throughout Amazon’s global websites. He reported directly to CEO Jeff Bezos and his organization included hundreds of world-class technologists that innovated the customer experience within the areas of community, media storage and serving, item metadata, automated merchandising and more.

“As a team, we have a unique opportunity to create great customer experience through the combination of innovative technology and high quality content,” commented Mr. Kilar. “In the process, I believe we can play a significant role influencing how consumers find, discover, and participate in premium content over the web. This is a big, inherently fun mission with which I’m proud and very excited to be associated.”

Mr. Kilar began his career at the Walt Disney Company, where he spent two years with Disney Development Corporation (1993-95).

He received his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School in 1997. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1993 where he studied Business Administration and Journalism & Mass Communication.

He is married with two children.