Hulu CEO - "We're Not Giving It Away For Free"

Earlier this week Hulu CEO Jason Kilar responded to critics who complain that Hulu is undermining the current business models. Kilar stressed that Hulu is currently ad-supported and is focusing on "having a long term business that serves the needs of consumers and advertisers on terms that work for them". But over the past week news has been surfacing that Hulu is transitioning toward a subscription model rather than a free model supported by ads. Following this news there was a relatively large negative reaction from Hulu users, who simply stated that they would return to piracy rather than pay for a service they can get for free.

While this reasonable reaction and it's likely that a subscription model will lose a few million users, if the company can keep even half of its users then it will be financially successful. Recently, one of Hulu's owners, News Corp., has come forward pushing Hulu toward a subscription model. News Corp. chief operating officer, Chase Carey, stated that "we need to...deliver content to consumers in a way where they appreciate the value. Hulu concurs with that; it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as a part of its business". Personally, it's much easier for me to go watch a show on Hulu than it is for me to put the effort in to searching for illegally. I would be willing to pay a monthly subscription fee (similar to Netflix), assuming they nix the advertising, because Hulu provides me with a service I consider essential.