Pluto TV recently celebrated its one-year anniversary in Canada by doubling the number of hours of free programming it offers domestic viewers.Paramount
If the streaming wars are indeed over, then there are two winners to be declared.
The first crown goes to Netflix, which added 13 million subscribers in its final quarter of 2023, an end-of-year high for the company, and is currently worth more than its three major streaming video-on-demand (SVOD) competitors Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery combined. But the second, more surprising victory might go to all things FAST: “free ad-supported television,” a kind of old-is-new-again sector of the streaming age that is appealing to audiences’ 2024-era twin desires for comfort and thriftiness.
And the major FAST player is Pluto TV, which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary in Canada by doubling the number of hours of free programming (now at 40,000 hours) it offers domestic viewers since launching here in December, 2022. How does it work? Well, to start, the term “subscribers” is anathema to FAST, with audiences simply selecting TV series and movies on-demand or on the service’s 160 thematic channels, ranging from the Income Property Channel (Moving the McGillivrays, Buyers Bootcamp) to the Western Channel (Gunsmoke, Cisco Kid, The Rifleman) and the South Park Channel.
Lee Sears, Executive Vice President, Head of International Advertising Sales And Integrated Marketing at Paramount.Paramount
Ads aren’t offered via preroll, but are instead peppered throughout the programs. There are no credit cards or memberships required. Just the willingness to participate in what Pluto calls “lean-back” viewing, flipping through stations and programs until you land on something of interest. And if that sounds like traditional television, well, you’re exactly right.
“When FAST was launched as a concept, there was skepticism – it was going in the opposite direction of everything else. But we started to grow the service, and we had all the measurements and accountability of streaming but with advertising – it was a marriage between the best of digital and the best of traditional linear television,” says Lee Sears, Pluto’s executive vice-president, head of international advertising and integrated marketing. “Because Pluto was one of the first FAST players, our expertise and scale is helping lead the conversation.”
That, and Pluto can lean on the catalogue titles of its parent company, Paramount, not to mention the libraries of local partners. (In Canada, Pluto has partnerships with Blue Ant Media, OUTtv, the National Film Board, Corus Entertainment and others.) Another, perhaps more quaint, bonus: There are no mysterious and all-powerful algorithms at work here. Instead, Pluto, in its own words, “prioritizes people,” with programming curated by teams local to each market.
“We have humans curating content for humans, with our team members tapped into the cultural zeitgeist, monitoring audience behaviour and data. It’s not machine-learning, but actually people looking at what we watch,” says Katrina Kowalski, senior vice-president, international content programming and acquisitions for Pluto, who notes that Canada’s programming team numbers around six for now. “When we came into the market, we were bullish on projects, but our engagement has surpassed expectations.”
One thing you won’t see on Pluto TV, or other FAST players such as Tubi, is original programming – series or movies especially commissioned by the company’s to draw in eyeballs. At least, not for now.
“Pluto is focused right now on our library content, and while we would never say never to commissioning originals, it’s a beautiful craft but really expensive,” adds Kowalski. “Also the truth is that there’s so much content produced over the past 10 years, even, that people are still discovering shows for the very first time with us.”
Katrina Kowalski at the Pluto TV Canada launch news conference.Ryan Emberley/Courtesy of Pluto TV Canada
But if Pluto feels a bit like the ghost of TV past, then the traditional streaming landscape is starting to feel a little nostalgic, too. Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ are now also wading into the advertising game. Will advertisers start to flee from FAST providers for the perhaps more shiny promises of, say, a Netflix subscriber base?
“I don’t think so, because it’s all complementary in the space,” adds Sears. “One thing I think we’ll see over the next few years is the demand from advertisers for more quality and brand safety. And the best campaigns have SVOD and FAST together.”
Barry Hertz