Hulu revenues to hit $1bn – CEO

US-based streaming service Hulu will break the US$1 billion revenue mark for the first time this year, its CEO said.

This figure is up US$305 million on the broadcaster-backed service’s sales for 2012, and will cap an eventful year in which a sales process was scrapped and US$750 million of capital invested instead.

Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins, who took the job after Disney, 21^st Century Fox and Comcast had decided to hold on to Hulu, said in a blog post that the revenue growth was “quite an impressive feat to scale the business from zero to US$1 billion over the course of just six years”.

Furthermore, Hopkins revealed the company has hit five million subscribers for its Hulu Plus premium service. “Roughly 50 per cent of those subscribers are now streaming exclusively on devices, with living room viewing accounting for over half of all content consumption on the service,” he added.

Overall, the US service currently offers more than 86,000 television episodes, 2,900 series and 68,000 hours of programming. Among these figures were 20 original productions, including BBC coproduction The Wrong Mans (pictured).

In Japan, the only other territory Hulu has launched in, Hopkins said it was “on track to end 2013 having more than doubled the number of subscribers from the beginning of this year”. Hulu Japan has around 50 content partners and 12,000 hours of programming.

“As we scale the business in 2014, we will continue to invest in content, technology and people. 2014 will bring even more opportunity as we find new ways to grow the business from the strong foundation we have built,” said Hopkins.