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Hulu Reorganises with Shake-up at Content, more Focus on Data

Hulu has announced a company-wide reorganisation focused on pushing consumer experiences and data, with new people appointed and a new role created with the departure of SVP of Partnerships & Distribution Tim Connolly and chief content officer Joel Stillerman. The new structure, effective immediately, will be centres around four new strategic priorities: technology & products, content, the subscriber journey, and advertising.

Technology & products, plus data and analytics 
To help push the process along, Hulu has appointed a new CTO and chief data officer. Dan Phillips, former COO at TiVo, will be the CTO, responsible for aligning the company’s technical and product strategy with its core business strategy, looking at consumer and partner needs. Phillips will be in charge of a newly-unified Technology & Product organisation spanning engineering, data centre operations, network and broadcast operations centre, IT and programme management, as well as product management, user experience and product development. All of Hulu’s technology and product teams across Santa Monica, Seattle, Marin, and Beijing will report to Phillips when he begins on 4 June.

Jaya Kolhatkar, the former SVP for Walmart’s Global Data and Analytics Platform, has been appointed to a newly-created executive management role, that of chief data officer, reporting to Freer. Kolhatkar will be responsible for boosting Hulu’s customer intelligence, implementing strong data governance and driving a culture of objective, data-driven decision making across the company. She will officially join Hulu at its Santa Monica headquarters on July 2. The idea behind the new focus here is to offer more services to brands, while creating meaningful experiences for customers.

Content 
Here, Hulu will create two groups, one in charge of acquired on-demand and live content partners, and the other focused on Hulu Originals. The Content Partnerships group will bring together the company’s live TV and subscription video on demand (SVOD) content licensing, acquisition and business functions. The new structure will allows Hulu to speak with one, unified voice to its current and potential content partners. The group will also be responsible for expanding Hulu’s content offering to include more premium add-ons and innovative new formats. Hulu Originals will still have the same team but will now operate as a dedicated business function, led by SVP of Content Craig Erwich, who will report to CEO Randy Freer.

With the changes comes the departure of Connolly and Stillerman. Hulu will search for a head of the new Content Partnerships group and will eliminate the role of chief content officer.

Subscriber journey 
Chief marketing officer Kelly Campbell will continue in her role but will also be in charge of the subscriber journey, with responsibilities going from acquisitions, engagement and retention, to view experience and research, across all of Hulu’s on-demand and Live TV plans. Campbell will in addition oversee subscriber partnerships, including its current relationships with Spotify and Sprint. His new tasks also come with the departure of Ben Smith, the company’s senior VP for Experience, who will retire in July.

Advertising 
Hulu’s Advertising Sales group will continue reporting to SVP of Ad Sales Peter Naylor. The division will ramp up new advertising products and innovative integrations, and prepare to begin selling dynamically-inserted ads in Hulu’s Live TV service. – Telecompaper

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