Hulu CEO Jason Kilar Abruptly Leaves as Web TV Startup Faces Impasse
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Jason Kilar, the former Amazon exec who launched Hulu in bid to re-invent TV for the web, abruptly announced Friday that he will leave the company in the first quarter of the year.
The decision came as little surprise to staff; Mr. Kilar had long had a difficult relationship with Hulu’s backers — ABC parent Walt Disney Co.,, NBC parent Comcast and Fox parent News Corp., who pushed for more revenue and increasingly pulled shows off Hulu when they could make more money elsewhere as part of their “windowing” strategy.
Competing with the likes of Netflix and Amazon is getting more expensive and Mr. Kilar was looking for increased investment to pay for programming. The WSJ reported in December Mr. Kilar asked had asked the board for an additional $200 million to acquire programming and finance expansion in 2013. An exec with knowledge of the talks told Ad Age the board has not yet made a decision on the request.
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