Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Friday, May 29, 2009 at 7:14 AM PT

Zucker: Hulu Will Break Even “Soon”

Want to generate coverage of your industry conference? Book NBC CEO Jeff Zucker. Whether it’s digital pennies, digital dimes, or the bottled excitement of a tape-delayed Olympics, Zucker gives good sound bite. And yesterday was no different when he took the stage at the D7 Conference and talked about Hulu and online video. Here are some key highlights from his talk:

On Hulu’s road to profitability: Hulu is “ahead of plan” and will be cash-flow positive “soon.”

How Hulu will make money: It would consider a subscription service. And there’s a need for better ads online — Hulu could become an ad agency (an idea they’ve talked about).

On YouTube: The video-sharing giant was built (and sold for $1.6 billion) on the back of NBC’s equity in the form of Saturday Night Live’s “Lazy Sunday.”

On Facebook: NBC won’t rule out putting its content on the social network; the peacock will put its shows anywhere as long as it gets paid for it.

On Boxee/watching Hulu on TV screens: Right now NBC is committed to Hulu being an online experience, and that’s where it will continue. (As Om wrote, shyeah right, Hulu released its desktop application yesterday, sneakily boxing Boxee out.)

So Mr. Zucker… want to speak at NewTeeVee Live this November?

Here’s the highlight reel from Zucker’s D7 appearance:

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Topic: Networks & Studios

Comments (3)

This is really interesting, especially since there are so many conflicting views on what exactly is going on with online video. There is an interesting article on current online video trends here: http://www.atelier-us.com/facts-and-figures/article/trends-in-online-videoonline-video-trends-see-more-older-viewers

Sarah — 10:50 AM on May 29, 2009 Reply
re the comment on youtube — to go the other way, isn’t the recent resurgence of SNL built on the back of the buzz caused by youtube?

ok, from the CEO perspective, you can expect zucker to say things in absolutes, but its not really accurate. youtube built itself on TONS of copyrighted content. lazy sunday being a prominent one, but only one of many. but lazy sunday got a lot of press for NBC letting it get famous on youtube and only THEN pulling it.

milowent — 2:04 PM on May 29, 2009 Reply
So Mr. Zucker… want to speak at NewTeeVee Live this November?

He should Newteevee is on the tip!

Neno Brown — 6:54 PM on May 29, 2009 Reply

Linkbacks (5)

[...] its One to One sub program (TheAppleBlog) Windows Home Server nirvana: one step closer (jkOnTheRun) NBC’s Zucker: Hulu will break even “soon” (NewTeeVee) [...]

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[...] its One to One sub program (TheAppleBlog) Windows Home Server nirvana: one step closer (jkOnTheRun) NBC’s Zucker: Hulu will break even “soon” [...]

Technical blogs with pictures and videos… — 6:01 PM on May 29, 2009
[...] its One to One sub program (TheAppleBlog) Windows Home Server nirvana: one step closer (jkOnTheRun) NBC’s Zucker: Hulu will break even “soon” [...]

Technical blogs with pictures and videos… — 6:01 PM on May 29, 2009
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