New WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar is putting his stamp on the company with a big reorganization. Leaving WarnerMedia are Bob Greenblatt, chairman, WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer, and Kevin Reilly, chief content officer, HBO Max and president, TNT, TBS, and truTV, as well as Keith Cocozza, SVP communications. The move comes four months after Kilar took over the top WarnerMedia post and two months after the launch of HBO Max.
Jason Kilar takes the reins of one of Hollywood’s largest film and television factories, putting in him charge of the Warner Bros. movie and TV studio, HBO, CNN and other cable networks. The appointment comes just as WarnerMedia, which is owned by AT&T, is preparing the launch of its own streaming service, HBO Max.
Instead of free-for-all distribution supported solely by advertising, new service Vessel will charge $3 per month for exclusive early access to clips of musicians, sporting events, comedians and many other forms of entertainment not available on YouTube or any other digital video service for at least three days.
Former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar launched a new startup, Vessel. The project was formerly known as The Fremont Project. Vessel will focus on content, mainly video. It’s backed by Benchmark, Greylock and Bezos Expeditions. The last is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s personal investment arm.
Hulu CEO Jason Kilar announced in a blog post today that he will leave in the first quarter.
Big changes may be on the horizon for Hulu. According to an internal memo leaked to Variety (subscribers can read that story here), CEO Jason Kilar’s time at the online video service may be up.
Exclusives
Online video service Hulu, which has been put up for sale by its joint owners, now has more than 1 million paying subscribers, CEO Jason Kilar said on Wednesday.
Internet video company Hulu is on track to nearly double its revenue to $500 million and bring its subscriber count to more than 1 million this year, its top executive wrote in a blog post.
Two of the most influential executives in Hollywood may be stepping off the Hulu board, which would give the chief executive of the popular online video website, Jason Kilar, more latitude to run the business.
Hulu is on pace to haul in half a billion dollars in ad revenue in 2011, according to CEO Jason Kilar. That would represent nearly a 100% increase from the $263 million the company — a joint venture between NBC Universal, Disney and News Corp. — made last year.
Hulu wants to expand its online video service internationally and would be willing to take on new investors to help it do so, Jason Kilar, its chief executive, said Wednesday. Kilar said there is an “unmet need” for an online television service in markets around the world, but he declined to specify what countries Hulu is targeting or its time frame.
