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Hulu is forecasting sales of close to half a billion dollars and more than a million Hulu Plus subscribers this year.

In a blog posted yesterday, CEO Jason Kilar marked the end of the first quarter with some notable figures and projections about the company's recent past and upcoming future.

The forecast of almost $500 million in sales for the year follows the first quarter in which revenue shot up around 90 percent compared with last year's initial quarter, according to Kilar. For 2010 as a whole, Hulu took in sales of $263 million.

Touting the expected rise … Read more

Toast.

That's what Jason Kilar's career at Hulu is supposed to be soon if all the media speculation is correct.

Hulu is controlled by broadcast networks, NBC, ABC, and Fox, but that didn't stop Kilar, Hulu's CEO, from writing in a blog post Wednesday that TV is cluttered with too many ads and he predicted that prices and profit margins for the TV sector would decline. He even lamented the tendency of "incumbents" (read: TV execs) to fight change. Much of his post was about what Hulu needed to offer consumers if it is … Read more

For weeks, news outlets have speculated about the tension that appears to be growing between Hulu's management and the major media companies that back the Web video portal.

The rift is at least big enough to prompt Hulu CEO Jason Kilar to write a blog post that appears to takes his argument with his bosses at NBC Universal, Disney, and News Corp., to the public. In his note, Kilar said things that he must have known would anger many at the three media companies who each own a minority stake in Hulu.

Kilar, a former Amazon exec, was critical … Read more

Hulu, the online TV and film portal, has finally rolled out a subscription service, according to a note posted to the site on Tuesday.

For $9.99 a month, subscribers of Hulu Plus get access to a full season's worth of their favorite TV shows--and even past seasons in some cases--and "not just a handful of trailing episodes" that the free-version of Hulu offers, according to CEO Jason Kilar, who wrote the note.

Hulu Plus marks the first time the service has charged for content and it's arrival has been long anticipated. Supported by Disney, NBC … Read more

Woo wee, did Hulu's fortunes flip-flop fast.

The Web's deepest stockpile of full-length TV shows and feature films is seeing some very public infighting over its future. The disagreements are over how Hulu should generate revenue and even how to sell ads, according to a report in Mediaweek.

Things were going so well. Since Hulu's October 2007 launch, the Web video site founded by NBC Universal and News Corp., has grown its audience, generated big ad revenue, and been bathed in positive press.

Hulu has mounted the only serious challenge to YouTube. The site also enables its … Read more

Rupert Murdoch said in July he wanted to reshape MySpace into an entertainment hub, and sources say the site now plans to launch a new video service sometime in the next several months with the help of sister site Hulu, CNET News has learned.

The big question is whether MySpace's service will offer downloads or a subscription service.

Murdoch, the chairman of media conglomerate News Corp., intends to overhaul MySpace Video by bringing in a larger number of feature films, TV shows, and music videos. The social network's new video area will be given a major face lift, … Read more

The Walt Disney Company is discussing a deal to take an equity stake in Hulu in exchange for providing the video portal with ABC programming, according to a published report.

Citing unnamed sources, news blog PaidContent says that it's not clear how much of ABC's content would be involved, but a final deal could include ESPN, the sports cable behemoth that has been a goldmine for Disney.

Representatives from Disney and Hulu were not immediately available.

The talks between the two companies reportedly are "serious," but a final deal has not been reached, according to two … Read more