Viacom Acquires Video-Streaming Service Pluto TV -- Update
January 22 2019 - 7:07PM
Dow Jones News
By Benjamin Mullin
Viacom Inc. said it bought the ad-supported video-streaming
service Pluto TV for $340 million in cash, a move that gives the
pay-television giant another entrée to the realm of online
video.
Acquiring Pluto TV will allow Viacom to increase the digital
audience for its programming, while giving the owner of networks
such as Nickelodeon and MTV instant scale for its online
advertising business.
Pluto TV, which was founded in 2013, streams thousands of hours
of content, including movies, news broadcasts and cartoons, Viacom
said. The service has more than 12 million monthly users, according
to Viacom, 7.5 million of whom are on connected TVs.
Pluto TV's revenue is projected to rise to $150 million in 2019,
mostly from digital advertising, according to a person familiar
with the matter. The company competes with Tubi TV, among other
video-content aggregators.
Viacom's purchase of Pluto TV follows another acquisition aimed
at bolstering the company's digital-video capacity. In 2018, Viacom
bought AwesomenessTV, a digital-video production company, for about
$25 million.
The acquisition of Awesomeness has already helped propel
Viacom's strategy of producing programming that it licenses to
major over-the-top streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video
and Netflix Inc.
The Information, a technology website, earlier reported Viacom
was in talks to acquire Pluto TV.
Pluto TV Chief Executive and co-founder Tom Ryan will continue
to serve as CEO of the service, which will operate as an
independent unit of Viacom. The deal is expected to close in the
first quarter of 2019, Viacom said.
Write to Benjamin Mullin at Benjamin.Mullin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 22, 2019 18:52 ET (23:52 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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