Hulu hires Warner, Fox veteran Erwich to lead content efforts

Hulu is turning to a broadcast programming veteran to head up its content efforts: CEO Mike Hopkins announced Monday on the company's blog that it hired Craig Erwich as senior vice president and head of content. Erwich will lead content and programming strategy for Hulu and Hulu Plus.

Erwich comes to Hulu from Warner Horizon Television. He also spent 12 years at Fox Broadcasting. His experience isn't just in content procurement but in series development--at Fox, he developed television series like "24," "Prison Break" and "House." He also helped transform Warner Horizon into a major cable programming player with top-rated series like "Pretty Little Liars," according to Deadline.com. In January, news broke that Erwich opted not to renew his contract with Warner Horizon.

It's an interesting choice for Hulu, which is better known for streaming TV series from major networks, often within a day after they air on broadcast television. But Hulu has been taking a similar tack to Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) in the original series arena, with "The Awesomes" entering its second season and new series "Deadbeat" set to premiere on April 9.

"Craig is ready to hit the ground running and lead us as we increase our overall content offerings, and continue to invest in original first-run TV programming, last night's TV, and great library TV from the U.S. and other markets," Hopkins wrote. Erwich's planned start date is April 7.

Hulu has already stepped up its content acquisition efforts as well. In February, the streaming provider inked deals with CBS and Disney for current series as well as children's programming.

For more:
- see Hulu's blog
- Deadline.com has this article

Related articles:
Hulu content acquisition spree continues
Hulu names NBC veteran Peter Naylor to top ad sales post
Hulu said to seek pay-TV partnership
Hulu hires Fox's Mike Hopkins as new CEO