Pluto TV is an Internet TV platform that emulates the broadcast programming experience. While access to the platform is free of charge, it is supported by ads. In other words, it’s an advertiser-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) service, which means it’s generating its revenue from video advertisements shown on ad breaks, similar to regular TV.
It already has more than 250 channels and 64 million monthly active users. Its popularity is growing by the minute, so we decided to gather the most interesting Pluto TV stats and get you familiar with the service. Let’s see what makes it so great:
Entertaining Pluto TV Facts (Editor’s Choice):
- Pluto TV ad revenue will surpass $1 billion by the end of 2022.
- The Internet TV platform launched in 2014; less than 8 years later, it has more than 250 channels and 100,000 hours of programming.
- Pluto TV was founded by Tom Ryan, Ilya Pozin, and Nick Grouf, and was later acquired by ViacomCBS for $340 million.
- The platform has over 170 content partners and more than 64 million viewers.
- Pluto TV is a global service available in 26 markets.
- It receives traffic on its website mostly through direct marketing (63.31%).
Facts About Pluto TV
1. Pluto TV launched in 2014 as an aggregator of short Youtube content, later shifting to streaming curated channels.
(Source: Gazette)
Throughout its humble beginnings, Pluto TV has turned from short Youtube content to long-form premium content. It’s now structured similarly to the traditional cable TV model—its 250+ channels are divided into categories based on its content offering. The service was acquired by one of the largest entertainment conglomerates in 2019. Pluto TV’s parent company rebranded in February 2022, changing its name from ViacomCBS Streaming to Paramount Streaming (all part of the Paramount Global, formerly known as ViacomCBS).
2. Tom Ryan sold Pluto TV to Paramount Streaming for $340 million.
(Source: USA Today)
Pluto TV’s CEO, Tom Ryan, didn’t expect his platform to make a boom only a few years after its launch. Things really turned around in early 2019 when he sold the platform to the entertainment media powerhouse Paramount Global.
Fast forward to now, when we can honestly say that within just three years, Pluto TV’s popularity has reached an incredible breakthrough. The COVID-19 pandemic sure did help—people were stuck at home, so they could explore more internet services and enjoy the benefits this one has been offering for free. However, it all comes down to Pluto TV's parent’s resources, business, and marketing decisions.
3. Pluto TV xInternational is now available in 26 markets all over the world.
(Source: Light Treading)
Pluto TV is currently available in the US, Canada, parts of the Americas and Europe. Recently, the company announced it would add Sweden, Norway, and Denmark to its list of countries by the end of 2022. However, you can watch Pluto TV from anywhere in the world.
Its long list of channels, movies, and TV shows is available for entertainment even if you’re not currently in any of the countries it’s officially offered. All you need is a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to be a part of Pluto TV’s users. The leading VPN solutions conceal your IP address and re-route your connection through different online servers, helping you bypass geographical restrictions set by websites, services, or streaming platforms.
4. Pluto TV offers 250 channels from 170 different content providers.
(Source: CordCutting)
Due to the fact it’s now owned by one of the biggest media corporations in the world, Pluto TV can provide some quite amazing and exclusive content. All it offers, including on-demand content, live streaming, and curated channels, is free.
Its massive collection contains hundreds of movies and TV shows, curated channels delivering sports, kids entertainment, news, gaming, reality, and much more diverse content. It’s all available to access through basically every device there is—PCs, Android and Apple devices, tablets, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, consoles, even Chromecast.
5. About 13% of US Gen X have used Pluto TV in 2020.
(Source: Statista)
The service is most popular among Generation X viewers, though Millennials are right behind with 11% share. Then come the baby boomers with an 8% share. It’s least popular among the youngest and oldest generations—Gen Z and the Silent Generation both amass 2% share each.
Pluto TV Revenue
6. Pluto TV’s number of monthly active users (MAUs) reached 64 million.
(Source: Cord Cutters News)
Paramount Streaming’s free platform has added 10 million users in less than a quarter and reached 64 million in Q4 2021. The overall rise in users over just one year has been immense. It’s expected that the Pluto TV annual number of users will keep on growing—company projects reaching 100 million MAUs by 2024.
It’s all part of the huge efforts and hard work the entertainment giant is putting on streaming content. They’re certainly betting on a streaming future and a greater Pluto TV market share—the company’s plans include market expansion and more global content and distribution.
7. Pluto TV’s website ads traffic is mostly generated through direct marketing (63.31%).
(Source: Similar Web)
Other digital marketing methods Pluto TV uses to get ads are: search marketing (26.58%), display (4.58%), referrals (3.86%), social (1.51%), and mail (0.17%).
In fact, Pluto TV website traffic is mostly organic (73.14%); paid traffic makes up only 28.86%.
Pluto TV’s marketing strategy is pretty interesting and complex. Did you know that there are 5.9K keywords bringing company traffic? The top among them are: “pluto tv,” “pluto,” “pluto tv free,” etc.
8. Facebook is the top social network directing traffic to Pluto TV.
(Source: Similar Web)
According to Pluto TV’s marketing stats, Facebook is the best social network for directing traffic to the platform (61.86%). It’s followed by: Youtube (27.44%), Reddit (4.93%), Twitter (4.44%), and Instagram (0.42%).
Some of the top interests of Pluto TV’s users are TV movies and streaming, news and media, video games, and computers.
9. Pluto TV’s US advertising revenue is on the track of surpassing $1 billion in 2022.
(Source: Fierce Video)
Pluto TV stats point to major growth in 2022. The platform’s 2021 revenue was $786.7 million, with a growth amounting to 77.7% year over year. This goes hand in hand with funneling more money toward streaming video. Therefore, Pluto TV’s revenue is expected to surpass $1.14 billion by the end of 2022.
10. In 2019, Pluto TV has generated ads revenue of about $210 million.
(Source: Statista)
Considering 2019 data and consequent growth—Pluto TV’s 2020 ad revenue was $440 million, its 2021—$790 million—Pluto TV stats for 2022 state a certain surpassing the billions of dollars mark.
Pluto TV Demographics
11. The US is responsible for over half of all Pluto TV’s traffic (54.73%).
(Source: Similar Web)
According to Pluto TV audience demographics, the majority of the visitors come from geographically close areas. While the US comfortably holds first place, the platform’s other traffic comes from Brazil (8.82%), Mexico (5.28%), Argentina (4.35%), Germany (4.22%), and other countries (22.60%).
12. The top three Pluto TV competitors are: Philo, Crackle, and Tubi TV.
(Source: Comparably)
It seems that Pluto TV’s target audience is also a tempting target to its biggest competitors—Philo, Crackle, Tubi TV. However, Pluto TV managed to rank first in Overall Culture Score and second in Employee Net Promoter Score.
Wrap Up
Our collection of Pluto TV facts must have convinced you of its bright future.
Pluto TV has had immense growth since its humble beginnings in 2014. The ball started rolling with its 2019 sale for $340 million and was followed by the increasing popularity of streaming services because of the worldwide pandemic and the massive efforts and investments of Pluto TV’s parent company—Paramount Global.
The company’s revenue is gathered through ads, which is why there are no actual Pluto TV subscribers—the service is absolutely free and available to anyone. Its international expansion has already commenced as the company’s breaking record after record in its path to becoming one of the largest internet TV services.
Pluto TV user count is growing by the minute, which led to an increased interest to invest in ads on the platform and subsequently, increasing revenue as well. There has been an immense overall growth of Pluto TV throughout the years; the same also expected for the future. And for those of you asking whether Pluto TV is profitable, the answer is a definite yes!
The major (some would argue it’s the only) downside is you have to watch ads to use the service. We already told you why is that—Pluto TV’s is an ad-supported platform, which means advertisement is the only means of income for the company. Instead of charging its users a monthly subscription fee, it’s getting all its revenue from ads. This makes it completely free for you, though you’d need to sit through a certain amount of ads when watching anything on the platform.
Pluto TV stats show the platform is the most successful free alternative to cable TV. The easy to access diverse content Pluto TV offers makes it one of the most popular services out there.
Pluto TV has plenty of curated channels that you can choose from. It already has a massive collection of 250+ channels and thousands of movies and shows for you to watch. All that’s left to do is tune in.
Sources
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