NBC, Fox Hire CEO for Net-Video Venture

Former Amazon.com Executive Kilar Joins Still-Unnamed JV

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 6/28/2007 2:30:00 PM

News Corp. and NBC Universal Thursday named former Amazon.com executive Jason Kilar CEO of their still-unnamed Internet-video joint venture.

The duo announced the JV, which will be based in Los Angeles, in March. The site is expected to debut as early as September, featuring “thousands of hours” of video from about 20 networks and film studios, including full-length TV programming supported by advertising.

News Corp. chief operating officer Peter Chernin said on a conference call with reporters that Kilar’s experience at Amazon.com creating a high-quality “user experience” online was the primary skill he brings to the venture.

“What we felt Jason represented more than anything was building a site completely based on a great user experience,” he added. “We don’t want this to be Big Media’s attempt to build a digital business.”

Kilar, 36, spent almost 10 years at Amazon.com. Most recently, he was senior vice president of worldwide application software, reporting directly to CEO Jeff Bezos. Prior to that, he was VP and general manager of Amazon's North American media businesses, which include books, music, video and DVD. Kilar wrote the business plan for the online retailer’s entry into the video and DVD businesses.

As head of Amazon.com’s media business, Kilar “convinced all of the [movie] studios to distribute through Amazon, which -- trust me -- is no easy task,” Chernin said.

Kilar’s first job out of college was with Disney, where he spent two years with the company’s land-development division. He has a master’s of business administration from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Both Chernin and NBC U CEO Jeff Zucker denied that there had been difficulty in finding a CEO for the venture. “To the contrary,” he said. “We took our time in making our decision because we saw so many strong candidates … and so many people raised their hands for this.”

Kilar will join the JV July 9, reporting to its board of directors, which includes Chernin and Zucker. NBC U chief digital officer George Kliavkoff has been heading the venture as interim CEO.

The JV lined up several major distribution partners, include Comcast, Time Warner's AOL, CNET Networks, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo.

Content partners include Comcast -- providing content from E! Entertainment Television, Style, G4, Versus and The Golf Channel -- as well as Oxygen, Fox Cable Networks' Fuel TV and Speed Channel, CNET, Sundance Channel and Gemstar-TV Guide International's TV Guide Network.