AT&T Names Founding Hulu Chief Jason Kilar as WarnerMedia CEO
01 Abril 2020 - 11:37AM
Noticias Dow Jones
By Joe Flint and Drew FitzGerald
AT&T Inc. tapped former Hulu boss Jason Kilar as chief
executive of its WarnerMedia unit, which houses HBO, CNN and the
soon-to-launch streaming service HBO Max.
Mr. Kilar succeeds John Stankey, 57 years old, who last year
gained an additional title as AT&T's chief operating officer,
putting him in line to succeed company Chief Executive Randall
Stephenson. Mr. Kilar will report to Mr. Stankey.
The hiring of Mr. Kilar, 48, indicates how important the
streaming-video business will be for WarnerMedia in the months
ahead. Mr. Kilar was the founding chief executive of Hulu, the
streaming service that is now controlled by Walt Disney Co.
"Jason is a dynamic executive with the right skill set to lead
WarnerMedia into the future. His experience in media and
entertainment, direct-to-consumer video streaming and advertising
is the perfect fit for WarnerMedia," Mr. Stankey said in a
statement.
WarnerMedia plans to launch HBO Max late next month after more
than a year of development. The effort faces a host of challenges,
from persuading cable-TV partners to promote the new application to
attracting customers in a market crowded with competing services
from Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Comcast Corp. and Disney, among
others.
HBO Max will offer the premium cable channel's existing library
of movies and TV series combined with a new set of original
programming as well as popular older shows such as "Friends" and
"South Park."
The company decided to charge $15 a month for the new product --
the same as basic HBO today -- to lure more viewers to an app that
will form the foundation of WarnerMedia's subscription and
advertising strategy. It is free for current HBO subscribers,
though existing customers must proactively log into a new app.
A new challenge may be persuading budget-conscious consumers to
splurge on a new service at a time of economic uncertainty because
of the effect of the novel coronavirus.
The virus has also ground production of movies and television
shows to a halt, meaning that the pipeline of original content for
HBO Max will be slowed as it will for other entertainment
platforms.
While Mr. Kilar is experienced in the streaming world, there may
be a learning curve for other parts of the company reporting to him
including the all-news channel CNN and WarnerMedia Sports, both of
which are headed by Jeff Zucker. The Warner Bros. movie and
television production studios as well as HBO and HBO Max will also
report to him.
Mr. Kilar was CEO of Hulu from its formation in 2007 until 2013.
Prior to that he held senior roles at Amazon including senior vice
president of world-wide application software. He also co-founded
the streaming service Vessel and was on the board of DreamWorks
Animation.
.
Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com and Drew FitzGerald at
andrew.fitzgerald@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 01, 2020 13:22 ET (17:22 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
AT&T (NYSE:T)
Gráfica de Acción Histórica
De Mar 2024 a Abr 2024
AT&T (NYSE:T)
Gráfica de Acción Histórica
De Abr 2023 a Abr 2024