Updated: I attended Hulu CEO Jason Kilar’s keynote, and he announced that traffic has tripled over the last four weeks (since leaving beta) and revenue is already exceeding plan. To date, Hulu clips have been embedded 105,000 times on 12,000 sites (short embedded clips have overlay ads, longer clips have :15 pre-rolls). Some shows, like Hulu’s most popular, Arrested Development (an “unbelievable stat,” he says), are pulling in higher CPMs than network TV shows in primetime. Kilar said Hulu’s mission is a bold one: “Help people find and enjoy the world’s premium content when, where and how they want it.” So clearly, Hulu has a long ways to go, but Kilar said many more content providers will soon be on board. One of Kilar’s key points was his team’s obsession with design simplicity. “It can’t look like Toyko at night” like many other content websites out there, he said, adding that his team obsessed over whitespace, nitpicked over the muted navigation and worked hard on video quality. (By the way, I love Hulu’s design.) When asked about local affiliates, he said Hulu’s not a competitor, and he encouraged local TV sites to become distributors of Hulu’s “entire content library.” One woman from the audience said she was contemplating canceling her cable, but Kilar brought up Hulu’s relationship with Comcast’s Fancast and said the service is additive, not a replacement of TV viewing. Have an “offensive attitude, not defensive,” he told the media attendees, bringing up that American Idol has 25 million TV viewers and a “non-audience” of 278 million who may want to watch it online. And when asked when Hulu will be wired into TV sets, he said he couldn’t discuss details of his product roadmap but it’s a “fantastic opportunity,” along with mobile applications, as well.
One other thing: did you know that when you search for a non-Hulu show on Hulu, like ABC’s Lost, that the search result will link you to the show on ABC.com? Smart thinking.
