INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
On the heels of Hulu news of its growing live TV business, which has now reached 800,000 subscribers, the streaming service today announced
a major re-organization of it business focused on four strategic priorities, effective immediately
These include &the subscriber journey, technology products, content and advertising,& says Hulu
The changes see three major execs departing: Chief Content Officer Joel Stillerman, Senior Vice President of Partnerships Distribution Tim
Connolly and SVP Experience, Ben Smith.
In addition, Hulu has hired two new executives to help it with its goals: CTO Dan Phillips,
previously of TiVo, and Jaya Kolhatkar of Walmart Labs, who will claim the newly-created Chief Data Officer role.
Phillips had previously
led TiVo&sengineering, product and professional services workforce of more than 1,000 members, and helped TiVo shift its business from being
known only as a DVR maker, to a cloud services provider as well
He also previously worked at Uniscape, Crossworlds Software, and co-founded enterprise software company Metasystems, Inc.
At Hulu, Phillips
will oversee a now unified Technology Product organization, which includes engineering, Hulu data center operations, its network and
broadcast operations center, I.T
and program management, plus product management, user experience, and product development.
Hulu&sSanta Monica, Seattle, Marin, and Beijing
teams will report to Phillips, who based in Santa Monica, on his first day, June 4.
Meanwhile,Jaya Kolhatkar, previously Senior Vice
President, Global Data and Analytics Platform for Walmart Inc., is being appointed to the newly created executive management role of Chief
Data Officer, which reports directly toCEO Randy Freer
She will also be based in Santa Monica as of July 2.
At Walmart,Kolhatkaroversaw a large global team responsible for its enterprise data
warehouse, big data environment, real-time predictive analytics platform and business intelligence tools, Hulu says
She also previously held senior roles at PayPal, eBay and Amazon.
At Hulu, Kolhatkar will now be responsible for all Hulu data decisions,
including customer intelligence and data governance, and will help Hulu make data-driven business decisions.
The &Subscriber Journey&
priority & meaning everything from user acquisition to viewer experience and research & will be a focus for an expanded marketing
organization, led by CMO Kelly Campbell, a Google marketing vet who joined Hulu last year.
Meanwhile, Hulu current SVP Experience, Ben
Smith, will retire in July.
Smith had led the somewhat controversial revamp of the Hulu app, which saw the company retroactively responding
to consumer complaints about the layout and organization of items in its user interface
It later rolled out updates to address some of these concerns, like a grid guide for live TV, for example.
The Content organization is
also being re-organized into two groups, one focused on acquired on-demand and live content partners and another on Hulu Originals
Senior Vice President of Content, Craig Erwich, who will report to Freer, will run the Originals side.
Senior Vice President of Partnerships
Distribution Tim Connolly and Chief Content Officer Joel Stillerman are leaving Hulu as result of these changes, and Hulu is now searching
for a newhead of its Content Partnerships group
TheChief Content Officer role is being dropped.
&Ben, Tim and Joel have all played a significant role in getting Hulu to the strong position
They will forever be a part of Hulu success story, and we wish them the very best in their next endeavors,& said Freer.
The combination of
live TV and subscription video on demand (SVOD) content licensing, acquisition and business functions, into a single organization reflects
Hulu interest in making more unified deals with content providers, instead of addressing all live TV and SVOD content separately.
Hulu says
it will also bring more premium add-ons to its service as a result
(It currently carries HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime.)
Hulu ad sales group will continue reporting toSenior Vice President of Ad Sales Peter
Naylor, and Hulu shared services functions & Finance, Legal, Corporate Communications and Talent Organization & will continue as
usual.
This is the first major change to Hulu operations since Freer joined as CEO in October, replacing Mike Hopkins
It indicates a desire at Hulu to grow its business into even more of a major player, beyond the 20 million total subscribers it has
today.
The company has benefitted from the increased exposure provided by its Emmy winning The Handmaid Tale, but has largely failed to
establish itself as a truly viable competitor to Netflix, in terms of originals.Stillerman, who was president of originals at AMC and
Sundance TV, had helped developed The Walking Dead, and its spinoff, and the Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul
But Hulu hasn&t had a series of its own hits of that scale.
The changes also come as the future of Hulu seems uncertain
With Disney proposal to acquire Fox TV and movie business, it would also gain its 30 percent stake in Hulu
Combined with its own existing stake, Disney would become a majority owner & that could be a concern for Hulu other shareholders NBCU and
And Disney is launching a Hulu / Netflix rival of its own in 2019, muddying the waters even further.
&As one of today top direct-to-consumer
entertainment brands, led by technology, innovation and data, Hulu has an enormous opportunity to lead the media and advertising industries
into the future,& said Freer, in a statement
&By adding new expertise and capabilities to our executive ranks and creating greater alignment around our customers, we are positioning
Hulu to grow more rapidly, innovate more quickly and connect consumers even more deeply with the content they love.&
