Hulu.com CEO Jason Kilar made a stop at MipTV on Tuesday to talk up his company's ambition to bring global content to America and the rest of the world.

Hulu is a joint-venture between News Corp and NBC Universal which allows users to watch full-length episodes of TV series and full-length feature films as well as clips. The content is free with revenue coming from advertisements.

After a Beta demo period, the site went live on March 12 and has also signed content deals with other outlets such as Warner Bros, Lionsgate, and the National Hockey and Basketball Leagues.

In total, there are currently 250 TV series and over 100 feature length films available. But, that availability for the moment is only in the United States.

Certainly, getting through the rights quagmire is a big hurdle before being able to bring the service to other parts of the world. When asked when he thought Hulu would do so, Kilar joked, 'Oh, Wednesday.'

That comment drew a big laugh in the crowded auditorium, but Kilar indeed spoke of bringing global content to US users and local content to foreign users.

'We have an ambition to be global and bring the world's content into local markets. We'll have to assemble the rights on a market by market basis and that takes time but we're hard at work on that,' he said.

Hulu's strategy involves being on the offensive and not the defensive, said Kilar. 'Unauthorized versions of content are generating zero dollars,' he warned the audience. 'People will find it with or without you and you can get a fine return that can even be better than prime time.'

Kilar also spoke of providing a strong user experience, 'People don't need media to survive; it's an impulse buy and we need to make it easy for them.'

Regarding the potential difficulty in working for two such notoriously strong-willed bosses as NBC Universal's Jeffrey Zucker and News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch, Kilar said they had been very supportive and remained involved more so at the board level. If one were to visit Hulu's offices in California, they would think they were at a Silicon Valley start up, he noted.

Topics