Hulu Shows Growth In 2012, But Is It Enough To Save The Company?

In a blog post, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, announced a very big 2012 for Hulu with $695 million in revenue, which is a 65% increase in growth from 2011 (see charts below). The post also outlined that Hulu now has more than 3 million paying Hulu Plus subscribers. A number which is more than double that of the 2011’s paying subscriber base (see charts below).

Hulu also spent big on content acquisitions in 2012, they invested more than $500 million in content. That investment gave Hulu more than 430 content partners, which offer over 60,000 TV episodes, 2,300 TV series, and 50,000 hours of video on Hulu and Hulu Plus. Kilar went onto say that since the launch of Hulu in October 2007, the company has generated over $1 billion for its content partners, but is this growth really all that impressive?

The problem with these numbers is that with the huge content acquisition costs, Hulu is really only looking at $200 million in revenue. Factor in costs such as the $3.5 million for the Will Arnett Super Bowl commercial and all other company expenses, those numbers begin looking less and less impressive. And with the rumor-mill spinning that Kilar is on his way out in 2013 and a new business model on its way in — it’s not looking good.