You may have just noticed the Pluto TV app popping up on your smart TV or games console, but this FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming TV) service is actually an industry veteran, having served cord-cutting binge-watchers for over a decade already.
Here’s the bottom line: Pluto TV is free, and it’s packed with TV shows and movies to watch. That being said, we understand that there are a lot of similar services vying for your eyeballs these days (Tubi, Freely and ITVX to name just three), so you’ll probably want to know more before you dive in and commit your precious evening or weekend downtime to an unfamiliar alternative.
With that in mind, we’ve put together this guide to tell you everything you need to know about Pluto TV. Read on to become an instant Pluto TV expert.
What is Pluto TV?
Pluto TV is a video streaming service that launched in 2014, original specialising in short-form content. It was acquired by Viacom (now Paramount) in 2019 and transformed into a free television streaming experience, with its availability gradually rolling out to four continents and over 35 countries.
Pluto TV offers both on-demand content (over 20,000 hours of it at the time of writing) and live channels, all of which are free but require the viewer to watch ads periodically. There over 150 live channels to browse through, many of them themed around genre or dedicated to a specific franchise.
For example, the Hunger Games channel runs from 4pm daily, showing every movie in the series (all of which are also available on-demand for viewers who crave a specific film). There are also channels dedicated to CSI, The A-Team, South Park, Judge Judy and, over the festive period, solely to broadcasting It’s a Wonderful Life.
The content, as you’d expect from a free service, is generally older and less ‘premium’ than the movies and shows you’d see on Paramount’s paid-for Paramount+ service. And there’s a lot of what might be considered filler content such as reality shows, classic TV series and low-budget films, mostly drawn from the extensive archives of Paramount Media Networks, which includes MTV Entertainment Group, Nickelodeon Group, Comedy Central and Showtime Networks.
While we won’t call it the most inspiring collection of shows and films, at the time of writing there are some genuinely great things to watch here. Here are some of our current picks:
Halloween (1978)
Detroiters
Nathan for You
Jackie Brown
A Bronx Tale
Magic Mike
Frances Ha
La Dolce Vita
It’s a Wonderful Life
Where is Pluto TV available?
As with most streaming services, you can watch Pluto TV in a variety of ways. It’s available now through web browsers at pluto.tv, via a mobile app for smartphones and tablets, via an app for PlayStation and Xbox games consoles and on various smart TV platforms: Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Tizen & TV+, LG, Sony, Hisense, Philips, Tivo. Plus it’s available through Apple TV, Android TV, Chromecast, Virgin Media and Portal from Facebook.
