Hulu Ad Chief JP Colaco Is Latest to Depart Video Service

Questions around Hulu's ownership may have quieted after this summer's non-sale, but new ones surrounding its leadership have surfaced as another key executive departs the digital video service. Hulu's SVP-advertising Jean-Paul "JP" Colaco will be leaving the company later this month, a Hulu spokesperson confirmed. Hulu's acting CEO and SVP-content Andy Forssell announced Mr. Colaco's impending departure in a blog post on Monday and noted that the sales exec nicknamed "JP" plans to join a startup but did not offer details. The spokesperson declined to comment on the company's plans to replace Mr. Colaco. "As one of the original team members from the Fall of 2007, JP helped lay the foundation upon which everything since then has been built. He drove much of the innovation in advertising that Hulu has become known for – including Ad Swap, Ad Selector, and 100% Completion Rate. Most importantly, JP has hired and mentored one of the most talented ad sales teams in the business," Mr. Forssell wrote. Hulu is "on track for revenue in the neighborhood of a billion dollars this year.," Mr. Forssell wrote. The companyst closed last year with $695 million in revenue. Hulu averages 30 million unique viewers per month, including four million subscribers of its paid service. Mr. Colaco isn't the only key executive Hulu has lost in the last month. In September audio recognition app Shazam announced that it had hired Hulu SVP-sales Kevin McGurn as its chief revenue officer. The Hulu spokesperson wouldn't comment on plans to fill Mr. McGurn's position. Two vacancies atop the advertising side of Hulu's organization risks media buyers perceiving the company's ad business to be in a holding pattern, though Mr. Forssell talked up the service's introduction of 7-second video ads during his appearance last week at the IAB MIXX conference in New York. Mssrs. Colaco and McGurn may not be the only Hulu execs to leave by year's end. Mr. Forssell took over as acting CEO in March after Jason Kilar -- Hulu's CEO since its 2007 launch -- stepped down from the post. Despite Mr. Forssell's more than six-month-long tenure at the helm, he has yet to shake the interim status of his position -- giving rise to rumors of a permanent replacement. On Tuesday the New York Post reported that Intel Media VP Erik Huggers has lobbied to take the permanent reins at Hulu. Mr. Huggers has been overseeing Intel's efforts to create an Internet-delivered TV service. That service's launch was originally pegged for this year -- Intel had a release date set internally -- but has been reportedly delayed until 2014. Intel's recently appointed CEO Brian Krzanich is said to be taking a timid approach to the streaming video service.

Hulu Ad Chief JP Colaco Is Latest to Depart Video Service

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