Hulu expected to grow by a 'multiple' in 2012

Hulu, which currently has 1.2 million subscribers to its Hulu Plus service, "will have a multiple of that this year," said Jonathan Miller, chairman and CEO of News Digital Media and chief digital officer of News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA), during a discussion at CES.

The 1.2 million subscribers actually exceeded the expectations of Hulu's owners, News Corp., Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) subsidiary NBCUniversal, Miller said.

Miller also clarified why Hulu's owners, who put the content aggregation site up for sale last year, decided to withdraw it from the market, even though it had elicited bids in the billions of dollars range.

"People realized a couple of things: It's still very early days. We were moving too fast to say we did not need to own an asset like this," he said.

The dual revenue stream from Hulu and its premium service, Hulu Plus, is generating enough cash to make holding onto the site worthwhile. "There's no need to rush the exit," Miller said.

For more:
- see this Variety article

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