The as yet unnamed online video venture by News Corp. (NWS-A) and NBC Universal (GE) has hired former Amazon.com executive Jason Kilar to head the upcoming Website. Kilar will start his tenure on July 9.
NBCU CEO and president Jeff Zucker said about the appointment of Kilar that "Jason is a proven leader and innovator with a wealth of experience on both the 
technology and content sides of the equation. He is the right person to make sure our new initiative offers a consumer experience worthy of remark."
This should be a good hire for the initiative, as Kilar helped guide Amazon through its time of transformation from a book seller to offering DVDs and video. He wrote up the original plan that provided the framework for going forward.
It is interesting how some in the press continually call the new company a "YouTube (GOOG) killer," or a company made to compete against them, when the media companies have consistently said it isn't their purpose. I think that is an accurate statement. The new initiative is being built to offer professional content, not to be a user-generated site; although I wouldn't be surprised to see something like that become part of it as a secondary purpose.
This site will be more in competition with new companies like Joost and others emerging to serve up consumers with professional content.
What I don't understand is why they don't start to come up with a name for the website. It can't be that hard to do.
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