Pluto: How to Grow Streaming With No Original Content

 Of the FAST TV services out there, Pluto has managed a very interesting growth pattern for a company that has no juicy exclusive original series or films to bring to the table. Now averaging 72M active users, and eyeing a target of 120M by 2025, it’s an interestingly different approach to the streaming wars. Blake & Wang P.A entertainment lawyer, Brandon Blake, takes a closer look.

Brandon Blake


A Nielsen First

As of September 2022, Pluto managed an interesting record as it became the first FAST platform to feature in Nielsen’s Gauge, taking 1% of the total TV viewership it measures. Powered mostly by CBS’ legacy content library, it was quite a coup for them. It also suggests they have real potential to become a cornerstone of the FAST market. In 2021 they managed about $1B in revenue, only slightly less than Paramount’s paid streaming option, with 4.8B viewing hours logged. 

An Early Start

Founded in 2013, Pluto is one of the first true FAST services on the market, with older CBS offerings and new primetime offerings their key content. The growing interest in free and low-cost streaming services has helped, too. As with Netflix, they allow for a binge-watching model that appeals, too, and have some solid platform-specific channels on offer. As even Roku moves into the original content market, however, its aversion to producing its own original content is interesting. And it is a stance they’ve now reiterated, claiming that the FAST market can’t support original programming particularly successfully due to the expenses involved in production and marketing.  

 

For now, they continue to view Pluto TV as a complementary offering alongside Paramount+. With a logical feed of Paramount’s content to the service, it does give them some market leverage, of course. All the same, it is an interesting deviation from current streaming norms, and one has to wonder if it will continue to pay off for them in the long run. For now, however, it's an unusual success story in a crowded streaming landscape.

 

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