Pluto TV
FAST service · paramount global
Pluto TV is one of the largest free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services globally, originally launched in 2014 and acquired by Viacom in 2019 for $340 million. It is now a Paramount Skydance Corporation (NASDAQ: PSKY) subsidiary and reaches roughly 68.6 million US viewers across more than 425 channels, with a backend integration onto a unified Paramount+ technology stack scheduled for mid-2026.
Pluto TV is the FAST service that effectively defined the category. Founded in August 2013 by Tom Ryan, Ilya Pozin and Nick Grouf and launched in beta on March 31, 2014, it pioneered the model of bundling thousands of cataloged hours into linear, scheduled channels delivered free over the internet. Viacom acquired it in March 2019 for $340 million; six years and one Paramount-Skydance merger later, it sits inside the Paramount Skydance Direct-to-Consumer division alongside Paramount+ and BET+.
The tension on the page today is that engagement is rising while revenue is not. Paramount’s Q4 2025 results disclosed a 16% year-over-year revenue decline in the non-Paramount+ DTC bucket — primarily Pluto — even as CEO David Ellison called Pluto “a profitable platform” that had been “under-invested in by the previous owners.” Chief Revenue Officer Jay Askinasi has framed the response as a “complete evolution,” and Paramount has committed to merging Paramount+, Pluto TV and BET+ onto a single unified tech stack by mid-2026, with a new performance-advertising product called Precision+ riding on top of the consolidated identity layer.
For ad buyers, the read is that Pluto’s reach (roughly 68.6 million US viewers in 2026, ~425 US channels, more than 30 country footprint) is no longer the question; whether the unified Paramount stack can lift Pluto’s CPMs and fill rates back in line with its audience scale is.