ViacomCBS (VIAC) Expands Pluto TV's Free Ad-Supported Library

ViacomCBS VIAC continues to expand content offerings of Puto TV by adding a number of CBS shows.

Markedly, Pluto TV will add 40 iconic and award-winning CBS and Comedy Central shows for viewers in the United States, starting Jul 14 and throughout the summer.

Notably, Pluto TV has more than 22 million active users, up 75% year over year at the end of 2019. ViacomCBS expects the ad-supported service to garner 30 million subscribers by December 2020 end.

ViacomCBS Inc. Price and Consensus

ViacomCBS Inc. Price and Consensus

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Expanding Content Library from CBS: A Key Catalyst

Pluto TV has more than 100 channels that showcase content across categories like movies, sports, comedy, gaming, lifestyle and TV shows, among others. Additionally, Pluto TV’s partnerships with more than 130 media houses, film and TV studios and digital content providers help put forth a variety of content.

The slate of library titles from CBS, including mainstays like Survivor, CSI: Miami, Star Trek: The Next Generation and the first 10 seasons of South Park, will give Pluto more than 100,000 unique hours of programming.

Noatbly, last month Pluto TV collaborated with other ViacomCBS divisions to stream select episodes and series including The Twilight Zone, The Thomas John Experience, and a Star Trek marathon featuring Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Growth Prospects Amid Streaming War

The solid growth prospects of the streaming market which is expected to reach $184.2 billion by 2027 per Grand View Research have attracted prominent tech and media companies like Apple, AT&T and Disney to the space. This has intensified competition the likes of Netflix NFLX Hulu, Amazon and Roku.

Pluto TV’s content expansion is the perfect opportunity for ViacomCBS to attract new users leveraging its reach in more than 180 countries. Notably, Pluto TV is already available across the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Latin America.

Meanwhile, this Zacks Rank #3 company is planning to release an updated and expanded version of CBS All Access that will include Viacom cable networks as MTV, Comedy Central and BET and Paramount content. The service is expected to be relaunched next year with an extra 15,000 hours of content. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Moreover, ViacomCBS is looking to use the free ad-supported service to attract advertisers and provide target-based ads thereby expanding its advertising revenues. Per an IHS Markit report, new advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) rollouts and improved ad-tech are expected to augment U.S. online video advertising revenues to $27 billion in 2023, at a CAGR of 11% between 2018 and 2023.

This projection indicates sturdy growth prospects not only for ViacomCBS but also for the likes of Comcast CMCSA and Fox Corporation FOXA owing to their acquisitions of Xumo and Tubi, respectively.

Fox bought Tubi for $440 million in March among other deals to attract users to ad-supported and free streaming platform against subscription-based streaming giants.

In December 2019, Comcast bought Xumo that pulls streams from partners like ABC News, Fox Sports and USA Today and comes pre-installed on smart televisions. Xumo has around 10 million monthly active users (MAUs), up from 5.5 million MAUs reported in the spring of 2019.

Ad-supported streaming will see another major entrant with Comcast’s Peacock which has reached a licensing deal with ViacomCBS to carry select CBS and Showtime series along with Paramount films set to launch across mobile, web and connected TV platforms in the United States on Jul 15. Peacock’s offering includes a free, ad-supported tier limited to a range of 7500 hours of content and a $4.99-premium, ad-supported tier with 15000 hours of content.

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