Under CEO Mike Hopkins’ guidance, Hulu has grown from an online side project of 21st Century Fox, NBC Universal and Disney to a legitimate subscription video on demand (SVOD) service, giving Netflix and Amazon a run for their money. While Netflix remains the streaming leader by a long shot, both Amazon and Hulu are coming on strong, making pricey acquisitions and taking risks on original programming.

In a Q&A in The Hollywood Reporter, Hopkins discusses the service’s new big-spending ways, and where that’s gotten it. In 2013, Hulu earned $1 billion in revenue and had a subscription base of nearly 9 million. That sounds small compared to Netflix’s 43 million US subscribers and a rapidly expanding international base, but Hulu is pushing hard to catch up.

Earlier this year, it rolled out a new pricing plan, with subscribers getting the option of paying $11.99 for an ad-free service or $7.99 to watch with ads. And while Hulu isn’t currently focused on expanding internationally, it’s not out of the question in the future.

For now though, the emphasis is on the programming. In April, Hulu grabbed the exclusive streaming rights to Sony Pictures Television’s Seinfeld in a deal reported to be worth $126 million or $700,000 an episode for the show’s 180 episode, although Hopkins disputes that number in the interview.

“I don’t think the numbers are reported accurately. Well, I know they’re not,” he told the Reporter. “Despite that, it’s performed better than we ever expected. Subscribers have flocked to that show in ways that we haven’t seen with any other show.”

It also picked up The Mindy Project after Fox cancelled it, with Hopkins saying that the sitcom is a top-five performer on the service. It’s also rolling out its share of originals, with Jason Reitman’s Casual making its debut on Oct. 7, and J.J. Abrams’ 11/22/63 starring James Franco and Jason Katims’ The Way starring Aaron Paul both coming out soon.

“We’re probably spending 10 times in our budget for next year what we were spending three years ago on originals,” Hopkins said. “…Since we hired Craig Erwich and [head of originals] Beatrice Springborn, we’ve taken our investments in original programming and the associated budgets to a whole new level — budgets that are on par with any streaming business or network. We couldn’t be in business with creators like J.J. Abrams, Jason Reitman, Jason Katims, Mindy Kaling and Amy Poehler unless that were the case.”

Read more: The Hollywood Reporter

Brief Take: Hopkins, Erwich and the Hulu team have taken the third-place streaming service that mostly existed to air the programs produced by its corporate production companies, and turned it into strong stand-alone contender for subscriber dollars.

Image courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter

Tags:


  Save as PDF