Hulu’s Kilar: We’re Sick of the Same Ads Ad Nauseam, Too

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, in an interview with readers of The New York Times’ Freakonomics blog, said the company is “strongly counseling brands” not to run the same ads more than once during TV episodes aired on the site. Repetitive advertising on the site is something we’ve whined about in the past, and we’re sure you other regular Hulu users have, too. (But the site is not the only offender; other TV streaming providers have the same affliction.)

On that note, I did like Hulu’s “roadblock” takeover in primetime last Friday night, sponsored by McDonald’s. In exchange for no advertising during the latest episode of The Office, I watched the program in a McDonald’s-branded frame. OK by me!

Kilar also told a Freakonomics questioner that the company is concerned about cutting into pay TV revenue. So for now, Hulu doesn’t want to compete head-on with the cable TV living room experience.

[A] non-trivial portion of a consumer’s monthly payment for cable TV ends up going to the content owner. These pay TV revenues can at times account for 50 percent of a channel’s revenue (the balance being traditional advertising). It turns out that those pay-TV dollars help support production of some fantastic programs.

Kilar was a bit less careful in response to a question about extending the site to BlackBerrys, giving the impression that Hulu for mobiles is a nearer-term possibility. “Suffice it to say that BlackBerrys and many other mobile devices are well represented amongst the Hulu team,” he said.