Amazon Vet to Head NBCU, News Corp. Online Video Joint Venture

By Jon Lafayette

News Corp. and NBC Universal named a veteran of Amazon.com to head their online video joint venture.

Jason Kilar was named CEO of the unnamed venture, which will distribute content from NBC, Fox and other sources via sites including AOL, Comcast, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo. He starts July 9.

Mr. Kilar, 36, most recently senior VP, worldwide application software at Amazon, wrote the business plan for Amazon’s entry into the video and DVD business, which eventually generated several hundreds of millions in revenue. He began his career at Disney.

"Jason's product and consumer expertise in the world of e-commerce is arguably unrivaled in this business and gives him a great insight into what it takes to create a superior user interface," said Peter Chernin, News Corp. chief operating officer. "We already have access to world-class content and near ubiquitous distribution, and the next step is marrying it with the features and tools that will help define the ideal user experience for video content on the web. We think Jason is the ideal person to lead that effort."

(Editor: Romanelli)