Time Warner CEO believes Hulu’s rumored authentication plans ‘make sense’

Time Warner announced its Q1 earnings this morning, and on a conference call with investors , CEO Jeff Bewkes addressed recent rumors that Hulu was looking to require users to authenticate themselves by showing they were subscribers to a paid-TV service. Perhaps not surprisingly, Bewkes is a fan of this rumored change — on the call, he said that “we think Hulu authenticating makes sense. We think Hulu is heading in the right direction now and it might continue to be viable.” Even though Time Warner is no longer associated with the cable company of the same name, it doesn’t surprise us to hear its CEO speaking out in favor of a change that would encourage consumers to continue buying cable subscriptions — anything to help support the many cable channels that Time Warner owns and operates.