The company, a joint venture between NBCUniversal, Fox Entertainment and Disney, scaled investments in exclusive content and original series in 2011. With competition heating up with other providers of premium online video content -- think Amazon Lovefilm, Netflix and, more recently, YouTube -- one wonders how Hulu will differentiate itself going forward.
Kilar acknowledged that while it is important for Hulu to build up a healthy offering of original and exclusive programming, that isn't the company's primary focus.
"It's important for us to differentiate the service and create content not out there right now, [to tell] stories that aren't being told right now," he said. "Consumers are asking for it … [and] it does build up heavy differentiation. But it's not 'the thing' on our agenda; it's part of it."
As such, Hulu will continue to invest in partnerships that will allow it to serve programming consumers can't get anywhere else. However, the company has no plans to become the next Lifetime or HBO, providing primarily original programming,.
"What we want to do is create a service that distributes content to customers," Kilar said. "That's the primary goal."
For now, that's about developing a solution that serves both content consumers and creators, one that makes premium video content available to consumers on as many connected devices and platforms as possible, and compensates content providers generously.