Ben Smith, an exec late of Microsoft’s Xbox team and Sonos, has been named senior vice president, head of experience at Hulu.
Smith is heading up four teams spanning product, user experience, digital video production and customer support that now make up Hulu’s Experience organization, Hulu CEO Mike Tompkins announced in this blog post.
“This Experience team, working in partnership with teams across the company, will lead us on our quest to redefine TV by changing the way our viewers enjoy television,” Hopkins wrote. “They will own the mapping of the customer journey from end to end and collaborate across the business to identify, prioritize and implement innovative solutions that meet our viewers’ needs, from products to technologies to advertising, content and customer support.”
Smith most recently served as head of product management at Sonos, a maker of “smart” speaker systems. Before that he was a partner at Microsoft, leading product design for Xbox and the TV/video experience for its new Xbox One console.
Hulu, co-owned by Disney, 21st Century Fox and NBCUniversal, recently announced an app for the Samsung Gear VR headset that will become available this fall.
Earlier this month, Hulu introduced a commercial-free plan that starts at $11.99 per month. The service has about 9 million subscribers.
