Hulu chief Kilar bites hand that feeds him

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar's attempts to build a viable business--no matter how owners Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS), News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA) and NBCUniversal feel--is leading to some bad blood between two sides already at loggerheads over proposed changes to the Hulu model. To compound matters Kilar broke the cable industry's cardinal rule: He criticized the bosses.

In a blog, Kilar, who has been pushing to change Hulu's model to more closely reflective a pay TV service provider, said traditional TV--which fuels his service--has "too many ads" and Hulu's advertising was twice as effective as traditional methods.

Disney said that Kilar's views were "personal and clearly not shared by anyone at Walt Disney." NBCUniversal, now part of Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), naturally declined to comment as did News Corp., although COO Chase Carey said during an analysts' call that "we're going to continue to deal with Hulu consistent with the way we have."

Off-the-record, of course, observers close to the situation said that the company's owners were not happy in the least--to put it mildly.

For more:
- Business Insider has this story
- Financial Times has this story (reg. req.)
- and Forbes.com this story

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