ViacomCBS launches Pluto TV, ad-based streaming in Italy.

27 Oct ViacomCBS launches Pluto TV, ad-based streaming in Italy.

Pluto TV makes its debut in Italy. The service, a new linear streaming TV platform based on FAST (“Free Ad-Supported Television”), aims to bridge the gap between a great demand for content and an advertising level by inserting 8 minutes of advertising per hour divided into multiple and non-skiable slots. The US entertainment giant ViacomCBS, which owns Pluto TV, allows the project to leverage an extensive catalogue of contents and 300 global partners. The company sees itself as a pioneer of a new way of understanding streaming for launching the service in the US in 2014 when advertising and TV were given up for lost (for the benefit of paid on-demand). The company, therefore, intends to confirm in our country the success achieved: more than 52 million monthly active users, the presence of the service among the top ten downloaded apps in the countries where it is present and 1 billion dollars of advertising revenues estimated in 2021. Pluto TV debuts in Italy with 40 niche and highly segmented channels, making it possible to offer advertising slots that are already precise and contextualised for the content and the medium through analysis and surveys on viewers. Users can access the service without a login. Still, the company is considering adding it optionally to become a leading data manager and profile the customer with greater accuracy. Operating in an increasingly free world of cookies, Pluto TV manages user data through a multi-step path to offer advertisers an excellent customer profile.