Viacom CEO Robert Bakish has talked a bit about the future of Pluto TV, which they agreed to acquire for 340 million last month, as reported by TechCrunch. The company plans to use the service to offer content from their vast library for free with ads, as well as offer paid subscriptions for premium content, which would be a first for Pluto TV. Read more ›
Pluto TV, the free streaming service available on multiple platforms, including the Fire TV, has been acquired by Viacom for $340 million in cash. Pluto TV will remain as an independent subsidiary of Viacom, and its CEO, Tom Ryan, will stay on to run the service. Pluto TV offers around 100 free streaming channels through its app to over 12 million users, of which over 60% watch through connected TVs. Most recently, they became the first free service made available through the Fire TV’s built-in live channel interface and program guide. Viacom plans to keep Pluto TV free and use it to monetize its library of content through ads.
Amazon added a live channel interface, which includes a traditional grid-style program guide and an “On Now” row on the home screen, to all Fire TV devices at the start of the year. At the time, it was so subscribers of Prime Video Channels could easily find and watch content that was airing live. More recently, Amazon partnered with PlayStation Vue to add the service’s channel catalog to the same live channel interface, giving subscribers a single place to find both Prime Video Channels and PlayStation Vue channels. Now Amazon has worked with Pluto TV to add 12 free news channels to the Fire TV’s live channel interface. Read more ›
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