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Just one day before April Fools’, Hulu has decided that if if it can’t beat its audience’s rapidly declining attention span, it will encourage it.
The streaming TV platform is launching Hu, which compresses episodes of TV shows into eight seconds or less and entire seasons into less than five minutes. A quick look at the site proves that Hu does in fact exist, but also proves that it’s nearly impossible to understand what’s going on about anything in just eight seconds.
Series getting the Hu treatment include Seinfeld, Empire, The Mindy Project, Shut Eye, The Path and Casual. Hu is available to Hulu subscribers, who can get the service for a monthly fee of $7.99 a month with ads or $11.99 a month without.
Hulu also is getting ready to launch several original series, including The Handmaid’s Tale, Future Man and The Looming Tower.
RELATED: Hulu’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Offers a Dystopian Tale of Women in an Oppressive Regime
News also broke exclusively in Variety Friday morning that Hulu’s head of marketing, Jenny Wall, is departing the company in May. The decision to leave was hers, the magazine reported. Wall is a member of PromaxBDA’s board of directors.
“Since she first joined Hulu, Jenny has played an integral role in developing our brand, growing our audience and building us into the company we are today. She will always be part of the Hulu family,” said Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins in a statement. “While we will miss her leadership and creative sensibilities, we support Jenny’s decision, and are fortunate she has built a strong team of marketing leads who will help see us into Hulu’s next stage.”
Wall’s position will be filled by a chief marketing officer, who will lead the company through its next evolution when it launches a live over-the-top TV service later this year. Hulu also is actively looking for a chief content officer.
Wall came to Hulu in 2014 from Netflix where she worked on the launches of such shows as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. Prior to that, she was CMO of entertainment agency BLT Communications. She also worked in marketing at HBO from 1995 to 2002, and was part of the team that created the premium network’s campaign: “It’s not TV. It’s HBO.”
“It’s been an incredible three years at Hulu. I’ve had the opportunity to help elevate the brand, launch the company’s slate of originals and build a world-class marketing organization,” said Wall, also in a statement. “I am so thankful to Mike for his guidance and leadership, and am indescribably proud of my team and everything we’ve accomplished together.”
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