It announced 20 million paying subscribers in May but nevertheless plans to offer advertising in its live TV offering this quarter. Hulu is on a growth curve.

But is the joint venture building its subscriber base, and what role does advertising play in a subscription-driven company?

In this video interview with Beet.TV, Hulu subscriber growth head Patrizio Spagnoletto opens up on his strategy. Part of the marketing mix is with Oath, he explains.  We spoke with him at the Oath NewFront event.

“Bringing subscribers in for any service is challenging in our world because there’s a lot of competition, and it’s a market that’s changing a lot,” he says.

“We look at our subscribers and who are the healthiest subscribers. Then … we’ll work with partners to do look-alike modelling to see where are those subscribers out in the wild. We also work very closely with our agency at UM to build what we call high-value audiences so we can know not only who they are but what they look like, what do they like, and what is their media consumption.”

At the NewFronts, where premium publishers like Hulu touted their upcoming content roster to advertisers, Hulu announced series orders for a Four Weddings and a Funeral TV series and Ramy would join upcoming Hulu Originals Castle RockCatch-22, The First and Little Fires Everywhere.

It is a year since Hulu launched its live TV offering, on top of its VOD service, with one of the newest and freshest user experiences in the market. Now advertising is coming to the live service, making Hulu look a lot more like traditional TV – but with all the extra smarts afforded by targeted addressability.

Its product announcements didn’t stop there. The company also announced advertisers would be able to embed their messages in the shows viewers download for offline viewing, and it revealed that Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) for OTT is its currency of business across the platform.

This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the Digital Content NewFronts 2018. The series a co-presentation of Beet.TV and the IAB. Please see additional videos from the series on this page.