Hulu CEO Jason Kilar was feeling triumphant last night, having just won the right to start airing top properties like The Daily Show and Colbert Report again.
In a lengthy blog post, Kilar laid out the future of web TV as Hulu sees it, and didn’t mince words when describing the traditional TV networks, Hulu’s parent companies.
“History has shown that incumbents tend to fight trends that challenge established ways and, in the process, lose focus on what matters most: customers. Hulu is not burdened by that legacy.”
Kilar says Hulu is on track to reach a half billion dollars in revenue this year, a number that includes advertising and subscription fees, and points out that his company is already earning very attractive rates on ads when compared to the industry as a whole.
Often Hulu is referred to as the corporate teacher’s pet in the landscape of web TV, but it’s clear Kilar has a different identity in mind.
“A number of you that are reading this might be thinking that we’d have to be crazy to think that our small team can actually re-invent television and compete effectively against a landscape of distribution giants like cable companies, satellite companies, and huge online companies,” he wrote. “We are crazy. All entrepreneurs need to be.”
bpopper [at] observer.com | @benpopper
