When Pluto TV Born in April 2014, in many ways it was contrary to the times. Only two years before, Netflix had begun its commitment to its own fiction production and in 2013 it had released its first two great hits, the series House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, and thus hit the table that would change the audiovisual ecosystem. At the same time that the explosion of paid video-on-demand platforms began, voices arose predicting the rapid decline and progressive disappearance of traditional television. Pluto TV opposed them. Or rather, he took advantage of the best of both worlds: he was a pioneer in the sector of free, ad-supported internet television. It is now celebrating a decade with an established model and after having confirmed, say those responsible, that they were right in that intuition that led them to opt for a different system.
FAST channel platforms (free ad-supported streaming television in its acronym in English, Free Internet Television and with Ads) are gaining weight on the television board: television viewing data from streaming platforms streaming Last month in the United States they placed three of these services (Tubi, Roku and Pluto TV) among the most viewed. According to the auditor Comscore, Between 2020 and 2022 these platforms had a growth of 29%, above paid platforms.
“Pluto TV was free in the subscription era, linear in the era of on-demand content and sustained by advertising when everyone thought the ad-supported model would die,” summarizes Olivier Jollet, executive vice president and international manager of Pluto TV. , in a video call interview in early May. The platform, which was born betting on short content to be consumed especially on mobile phones and computers, soon focused its attention on television and long-form content. So much so that a study published a few days ago revealed that 43% of Pluto TV consumption in the United States is focused on channels with movies.
“When it was born, not many people believed that Pluto TV would have a future. Seven years later, in 2021, it reached 1 billion in advertising profits worldwide for the first time. [está presente en 35 países]. We practically created a new market, that of streaming free advertising supported, which is expected to be worth $12 billion (€11 billion) by 2027, according to the consulting firm Omnia“, highlights Jollet, who in 2016 took charge of the European development strategy of the platform, acquired by Paramount in 2019.
The service arrived in Spain in October 2020. Jollet highlights the Spanish market as one of those that showed immediate interest in a television proposal that was then a novelty and that now has companions such as Tivify, Runtime, Samsung tv or Rakuten. What started with 40 linear channels – designed in the style of traditional radio stations, with programming 24 hours a day – is now a service with more than 150 channels in streaming with advertising (between three and four minutes per hour, while on traditional television the average is 12 minutes per hour), that can be seen both on smart television and on any device with internet without the need to register or pay.
There are all kinds of proposals, from single-theme stations dedicated to specific series (South Park, Blue Bloods, Charmed, Doctor Who, Melrose Place, Detective Endeavour, or the Spanish The commissioner and Afterclass, thanks to an agreement with Mediaset), programs (Pawn Shop, Auction Hunter, Cops, Dog Whisperer, Top Gear) and thematic channels (cooking, history, travel, news, music or one of the latest additions, Real Madrid TV). Although the company does not provide user data in Spain, Jollet provides some consumption figures: the average duration of each viewing session in Spain on Pluto TV is more than two hours, and they are about to exceed 1,000 million minutes watched a month. He also states that, since their arrival in Spain, they have maintained annual growth of more than three digits in the advertising investment they receive.
For Jollet, the fact that payment platforms have jumped on the advertising bandwagon is confirmation that they were not wrong 10 years ago. “If you look at the market prospects for streaming, by 2027 it is expected that half of the profits will come from advertising and the other half from subscriptions. We are in a giant market that is growing at full speed,” says the executive. “That all the big platforms are in this market is very positive for me. I am not one of those who fear competitors. It will help advertisers direct larger budgets towards digital television or in streaming”, he reflects. “We know that most of our users have multiple subscriptions to paid services. The FAST channels do not replace them, they are a complement.”
By 2027, it is expected that half of streaming profits will come from advertising and the other half from subscriptions.
Offering linear channels, with 24-hour programming, is another of the distinctive signs of these platforms. At Pluto TV they were clear: “Humans are creatures of habit and don’t want to spend hours looking for what to watch next. In some ways, the algorithm on other platforms serves the same purpose, to make sure users get what they want. But we don’t trust machines, we trust humans. We have human programmers behind each channel who use tons of data to make sure they program the best way. That is probably the biggest difference compared to traditional television, that several times a day we make sure that the channels are performing at their maximum capacity,” he describes. The platform also offers on-demand content, but, according to the data they manage internally, more than 80% of consumption occurs on their linear channels.
![Some of the 150 channels available on Pluto TV.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/FLZGWREUNJCF3O6XTA3QMQKUCU.png?auth=1680157a5f81f78cbacad08ea9bb032c34e73e6a10e2eab5dda4fc647f62a21a&width=414)
Among the main handicaps that these platforms have is the lack of original content. But they make a virtue of necessity. “Sometimes people don’t feel like watching new content, which takes a lot of time. Sometimes you just want to see something you know. If you look at the most viewed content on the main payment platforms you will see series like Friends, Lost…which are 20 years old and are still among the most viewed series every year,” reflects Jollet. “From my point of view, there is an inflation of original content. There is so much to see that sometimes we forget the great content that has already been produced.”
The future looks hopeful for these platforms. “The boundaries between different types of television are blurring,” analyzes Jollet. “We need to listen to users. It is a mistake to think that linear television is dead, that is not what the evolution of the television market is teaching us. Of course, the younger generations have totally different consumption habits and there are new players in social media that they spend a lot of time on, but I think there is a bright future for traditional television and also for the streaming, whether paid or with ads. It is such a large market that there is room for many players. I foresee a future where collaboration between different players will be essential.”
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