Hulu CEO Jason Kilar said today that the company’s Hulu Plus paid subscription service is going to bring in more than half of its revenue in within the next 12 months. Kilar made this estimate in a blog post about Hulu’s Q3 performance, which also included an announcement of a major content partnership with Univision.
Hulu Plus hit a milestone of one million paying subscribers this summer. “Based on our research, we believe this represents the fastest ramp ever to 1 million paid subscribers among any video subscription service in the US,” said Kilar on Wednesday. The company just recently expanded the service to Japan, where Hulu is only available to paying subscribers. Hulu Plus has also been rolled out to more connected devices, with Kilar saying that it is now available on 120 million devices available in the market place.
The Hulu Plus revenue target comes with a caveat: Kilar didn’t actually say that more than half of the company’s revenue will be based on subscription fees, because Hulu Plus also shows ads. However, the emphasis on Hulu Plus and subscription revenue is definitely noteworthy, particularly because Kilar has in the past wasted no opportunity to talk about the importance of advertising revenue for his company.
Hulu’s partnership with Univision will bring hundreds of hours of programming from the Spanish-language broadcaster to the site, including “telenovelas, variety shows, comedies, and reality series from the Univision family of networks,” according to Kilar. Hulu’s free site will offer next-day access to some current programming, and Hulu Plus subscribers will be able to watch catalog titles.
Much of the content hasn’t been available to online viewers before this agreement, and Hulu definitely seems to bet big on the 50 plus million Latino community in the U.S. The company has in recent weeks been hiring customer service representatives fluent in Spanish to prepare for the Univision pact.
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