Welcome to the world of Jason Kilar, where innovation meets entertainment, and where visionary leadership reshapes the landscape of digital media. As the former CEO of WarnerMedia, Jason Kilar has left an indelible mark on the industry, pioneering bold strategies and embracing cutting-edge technologies to redefine how we consume and experience content. With a career spanning prominent roles at Hulu, Amazon, and beyond, Kilar’s insights offer invaluable wisdom for entrepreneurs, executives, and enthusiasts alike, navigating the dynamic intersection of media, technology, and business.
Throughout his career, Jason Kilar has been a driving force behind the transformation of the entertainment landscape, advocating for customer-centric approaches and pushing the boundaries of traditional models. From his groundbreaking tenure at Hulu, where he played a pivotal role in establishing the platform as a powerhouse in streaming, to his visionary leadership at WarnerMedia, where he spearheaded the launch of HBO Max, Kilar has consistently demonstrated a knack for anticipating industry trends and fostering innovation. His strategic acumen, coupled with a passion for storytelling and creativity, has cemented his reputation as a trailblazer in the digital media space.
When we launched Hulu, everybody was saying, ‘Oh, this is going to be a substitute for pay TV in the living room.’ Jason Kilar
My father was an electrical engineer who worked at Westinghouse in Pittsburgh. When I was growing up, my mother wrote humor columns for the local paper. She was the Erma Bombeck of Murrysville, Pa. Jason Kilar
I grew up hearing stories about how my maternal grandfather had put himself through engineering school in New York City. He saved money by walking down to a gas station once a week to take a shower. When I applied to college, both education and investment value were important to me. Jason Kilar
When you’re dealing with digital goods, you don’t have to be tied to one URL. Jason Kilar
Initially, the television was seen as the devil incarnate by people that worked in the content industry. Now over time it turned out that that was one of the best things that ever could have happened to a content creator. I think the Internet is no different. Jason Kilar
At a macro level, it’s balancing the needs of consumers, advertisers and content owners. And if you talk to any one of those three customer sets in isolation, often times you won’t delight the other two. So the hurdle we faced with Hulu Plus was, how can we thread this needle in a way that delights all three customer sets? Jason Kilar
History has shown that incumbents tend to fight trends that challenge established ways and, in the process, lose focus on what matters most: customers. Jason Kilar
Hulu is about the shows, not the networks. The shows are the brands that users care about. Jason Kilar
When I was 10, we drove to Disney World. When we arrived, what impressed me most was the meticulous attention to detail; there wasn’t a gum wrapper anyplace. Jason Kilar
When we blaze trails, which is what Hulu is about, it takes time. That is not for the faint of heart, and we understand that. Jason Kilar
We are fortunate to have collectively built a culture that matters, a brand that matters, a business that matters. It is impossible to state in words how much this team means to me, how much Hulu means to me. Jason Kilar
I think the relationship between cable and satellite and telco pay TV service providers and the content industry is a very, very solid one. Jason Kilar
I’m not the kind of guy who dabbles in a lot of things. Jason Kilar
The one thing that’s important to know is Hulu’s not looking for traffic to be sent to hulu.com from its relationships with Yahoo and Fancast and MSN. Jason Kilar
What I think about is what people spend their time on this planet doing. So No.1 is sleep, No.2 is work, and No.3 is sight, sound, and motion video consumption. Basically, four to five hours a day is what Americans spend consuming video. Jason Kilar
We’re simple-minded, the team at Hulu, which is, we think if we can obsess over quality and build a better mousetrap, that good things will happen. Users will adopt the service, advertisers will see great value in it, and that’s what we’re seeing. Jason Kilar
The Internet is going to have a bigger impact on content creators than the television ever had. The reason why that’s the case is that suddenly you’re able to tell stories 24/7 in the home, out of the home, in every room of the home. A television screen can be in your pocket through a smartphone. Jason Kilar
There’s nothing more intoxicating than doing big, bold things. Jason Kilar
I took a job at the Walt Disney Company and after 18 months decided to go to business school at Harvard. I was awestruck by the campus. My first reaction was ‘I don’t belong here.’ Then I said, ‘I’m here; let’s get on with it.’ Jason Kilar
Imagine you’re watching ’30 Rock’ and an ad comes on, but you don’t like it. With Hulu Ad Swap, you can actually click the button and trade out the ad. So for the first time ever, a consumer is in control of their ad experience. For us, it’s a big win because users are able to take control of what they see. Jason Kilar
