The comments echoed those of many at the annual conference at Cannes where the refrain has been one variation or another of the idea that with so much convergence today, the lines between online and physical media have blurred.
Hurley talked up YouTube's desire to continue fostering partnerships and told the industry gathering, 'Technology exists to give you control and unprecedented reach anywhere, anytime.'
Perhaps alluding to still elusive partners or to those non-partners that have sued the company over copyright issues, including Viacom and Mediaset, Hurley said: 'The Internet doesn't erode viewership. So, do you circle the wagons and push back change or do you embrace it''
In what has struck media watchers as curious turn of events, while Viacom is embroiled in a $1bn lawsuit against YouTube and owner Google, Viacom's sister company CBS regularly provides content to YouTube and has even this week launched a deal to create a dedicated channel on the site for long-form content.
Further, Hurley provided some eye-popping figures. Each day, there are 13 hours of content uploaded to YouTube per minute. That, he said, is the equivalent of Hollywood releasing 57,000 movies per week.
YouTube has adopted a strategy that Hurley referred to as the 'Four-Rs': Reach, Research, Revenue and Rights. Indeed, rights are a big issue - one need look no further than the phalanx of litigators filing briefs around the globe against the company for copyright infringement- and YouTube, explained Hurley, works to help the content owner via such methods as a rights ID system that informs the rights holder once their content has been uploaded to the site.
The content owner can, at that point, decide either to leave the content active, take it down or to track the usage as a means to generate revenue through identifying who is watching their product - and eventually monetise that viewership. 'Digital Internet distribution ceases to be a threat, it is a fundamental distribution solution,' said Hurley.
Although the company now has about 900 partnerships worldwide - up from just one with the BBC about two years ago - Hurley said, 'There is still a lot of work to be done,' in terms of discovering ways to continue bringing revenue to the content providers. 'Revenue is a part of fostering creativity,' he said.
Still, he noted, 'It's not about aggregating content, it's about aggregating audience with revenue solutions.' Those solutions include the pre-roll ad that runs before a video, display ads and ads that are integrated into the video player - all of which YouTube is expanding.
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