Mike Hopkins, the former 21st Century Fox executive who has been running Hulu since 2013, is leaving and is replaced by Randy Freer.
Hopkins (pictured above) is leaving to become chairman of Sony Pictures Television, which has been restructuring its leadership over the last year; he’ll report to new Sony Pictures Entertainment boss Tony Vinciquerr.
“We want to thank Mike for his leadership in steering Hulu to its current era of growth and success,” the Hulu board said in a statement.
“Randy has a unique knowledge of Hulu and expertise building consensus among its owners, and an excellent track record leading a complex organization at the nexus of the television business. There’s no better candidate to lead Hulu as it embarks on its next chapter.”
Randy Freer (pictured left) said: “Hulu is at the center of transformation in entertainment. Hulu’s management team and employees have positioned Hulu to be a leader in defining the future of content creation, distribution and monetisation – all while putting the viewer first. I’d like to thank Hulu’s Board for this exciting opportunity.”
“Leading Hulu for the past four years has been the single most meaningful experience of my career. It has been an enormous privilege to work with this vibrant, creative and fearless team to build Hulu into the success it is today,” said Hopkins.
Hulu said it saw a bump in subscribers after winning multiple Emmy awards in September, it hasn’t announced subscriber numbers in more than a year.
This year, Hulu also launched its OTT pay TV service, which offers live and recorded TV for $40-a-month, and reportedly has 300,000 subscribers.
Hulu is jointly owned by Fox, Disney and Comcast, which have traditionally used the service as a place to show their reruns. Hopkins has build up original programmes to rival Netflix. Last year, Time Warner bought a 10 percent stake in Hulu, valuing it at $5.8 billion.
