Susan Aldridge - Trailblazers in Medicine

Published in 2015 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. 29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

Copyright 2015 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

La Bella, Laura.

Hulu and Jason Kilar/Laura La Bella.

pages cm.(Internet biographies)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4777-7921-7 (library bound)

1. Kilar, Jason, 1971-Juvenile literature. 2. Telecommunications engineersUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. 3. BusinesspeopleUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. 4. HuluJuvenile literature. 5. Internet televisionJuvenile literature. I. Title.

TK5102.56.K55L325 2015

384.558dc23

2014008553

Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents

H ulu is one of the most popular online streaming video websites available to consumers. Its goal to help people find and enjoy the worlds best video content whenever, wherever, and however they want it has propelled the site to become one of the most popular online content providers and among the easiest to use. While the site was started as a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp., which owns the Fox Broadcasting Company, the brains behind the site was its chief executive officer, Jason Kilar.

Kilar, who joined Hulu in 2007, just before the site launched to the public, made it his mission to build Hulu into an easy-to-navigate, online content service that people could easily access from any device. He led the innovation of Hulus larger video player, pushed content providers to supply television shows and movies in high definition, and spearheaded a new, revolutionary way to stream advertisements within show programming.

Innovation has long been a recurring theme in Kilars life. His father was an engineer who introduced his family to the personal computer and taught his son computer programming. During Kilars teen years, he grew obsessed with Walt Disney and the Disney reputation for excellence. He modeled much of his interest in innovation and the customer experience after Walt Disney, who used technology to transform animation and the film production process, and revolutionized the hospitality industry. In his college years, first at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and then at Harvard Business School, Kilar had a way of immersing himself in his studies, learning everything he could about business, communications, journalism, and mass media, and applying that knowledge in new ways.

Jason Kilar revolutionized television and movie viewing, giving audiences the ability to watch what they wanted to, when and where they chose.

After a short work experience at Disney, Kilar joined Amazon as a product manager before quickly rising in the companys ranks. He pioneered Amazons DVD business and became a senior vice president for the company. After nearly ten years, Kilar decided to move on from Amazon.

He traveled the world with his family for a year, then got a job offer from Hulu that he couldnt turn down. With a growing trend toward using computers and smart-phones for more than just games and communication, and integrating content into these devices, no one had yet developed a successful way to stream television and movie content online. While the idea for Hulu was in place when Kilar started with the company, its growth and momentum were all because of Kilar and his innovative ideas. In the six years he served as chief executive officer for the company, Hulu grew into one of the most popular online venues for television and movie content. Working with studios, television networks, and content creators such as producers and writers, Kilar added to Hulus library of television shows and movies, and the site began to offer original programming by top directors and producers who were well known in the industry, giving Hulu a level of credibility it didnt have before. Under Kilars management, Hulu generated nearly $700 million in revenue and generated more than $1 billion in profits for its content providers by 2012.

In 2013, Kilar moved on from Hulu. The company was changing direction, and Kilar decided it was time to explore his own interests. He announced the launch of the Freemont Project, an online content service targeting magazine and newspaper content. The model for this project is similar to his work at Hulu, which transformed the delivery of video content. In Kilars next venture, he will bring his experiences as an innovative entrepreneur. Its likely that his knowledge of blending traditional and emerging technologies to create new experiences for consumers will transform the print industry next.

Jason Kilar: An Internet Media Visionary

J ason Kilar was born on April 26, 1971, in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, a suburb located about 20 miles (32 kilometers) outside of Pittsburgh. He is one of six children born to Lance and Maureen Kilar. His father was an engineer for Westinghouse Electric Company, a corporation that provides fuel, services, technology, plant design, and equipment for the commercial nuclear electric power industry. His mother worked for the Penn-Franklin News, a local newspaper, where she wrote a weekly humor column. Kilar has three brothers, James, Jeffrey, and Kenneth, and two sisters, Katie and Kerry.

Technology was always a part of Kilars childhood. He told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a 2012 interview that his family was among the first in their neighborhood to have an Apple IIe computer. My dad was an early adopter of computers. Youd do connections over phone lines and take the phone off the hook and put it in these little black cups. We were all set up with technology at home in ways most of my friends scratched their heads at. That had a heavy influence on me and gave me a real appreciation for how technology can be used to change things and improve peoples lives, he said.

Kilar is shown here with his mother, Maureen, as they attend an awards ceremony.

OBSESSED WITH WALT DISNEY

At nine years old, Kilar and his family drove from Pittsburgh to Orlando, Florida, to visit the Walt Disney World theme park for summer vacation. The trip inspired Kilar. I had never seen something so high-quality, he said during a February 2013 appearance at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Kilar later told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he grew up going to Kennywood, an amusement park in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. I thought thats what an amusement park was, he said of Kennywood. But when he walked onto Main Street at Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom Park, he was awestruck. In a keynote address at the NewTeeVee Live Conference in 2008, Kilar told the audience that Disneys obsession with quality was what he found so fascinating about Disney World. He was impressed with its spotlessness, with not one gum wrapper anywhere on the ground, to the parks attention to detail, from the look of the rides and storefronts, as all part of the overall Disney experience. From that moment on I had to find out more: How was it created? How did it come to be?