CBS/Viacom merger

[jwyblejr]

Wondering what this will do to Pluto TV. Will Viacom drop it or will they start charging for it?

[Wee67]

Whatever happens, it will not likely happen soon. The merger will likely be approved by the end of the year. Many of these streaming services have been consolidating properties to offer the m under their own banner (note Friends ending its time on Netflix, Disney pulling its material from Netflix). The balance of building your own service versus the money you'd get licensing content to another service is leaning towards building your own these days. Pluto's offerings may ultimately be placed within CBS All Access's offerings. OR it could be used as a free service, offering some stuff for free while promoting material offered at All Access. OR they may simply decide the content does not ad enough value to move over and leave it alone. Given the breadth of offerings of Disney, Warner and Netflix, I don't see the last one as likely.

[Wee67]

I'm not sure what to read from this in Variety-
"During a call with investors, Bakish and Ianniello sketched a vision that includes generating new money from direct-to-consumer venues like the ad-supported streaming outlet PlutoTV and the CBS subscription-based CBS All Access product".

[thunderbolt]

Pluto may end up like a Hulu like secondary streaming service where older last season shows will be reshown with commercials to generate some more income and also plug the first run All Access stuff.