TelevisionAcademy.com 33Simultaneously, advertising-based video on
demand (AVOD) services like Pluto TV, Tubi, Roku
Channel, Walmart’s Movies on Us and Amazon’s
IMDB Freedive are flourishing. They all offer
robust libraries of several-year-old movies —
think semi-recent theatrical favorites you’d get
stuck on while channel-surfing basic cable. They
also offer plenty of TV shows — usually reality
and scripted repeats that would fit nicely into
TV Land’s schedule — and it’s all free to anyone
willing to sit through an average of four to six
minutes of pre-roll and mid-roll commercials.
“It’s a topic I’ve been preaching for four or
five years,” says Farhad Massoudi, CEO of AVOD
startup Tubi. “It’s just common sense. No matter
what your income is, the idea of the average
household subscribing to Netflix and Hulu and
Disney+ and ESPN+ — all at the same time — is
just ludicrous.”
AVOD platforms are attracting a lot of
attention — from viewers hoping to save money,
from big TV companies looking for a toehold
in a digital future and from advertisers seeking
internet-driven efficiencies when pitching, say,
diapers only to consumers who actually have
babies.
“And viewers without babies shouldn’t
have to sit through those commercials — this is
better for both viewers and advertisers,” explains
Massoudi, whose company saw a 180 percent
uptick in revenue in 2018.
Tubi offers a smorgasbord of 12,000 movies
and TV shows for free over the internet, or in apps
on devices such as iPhones, Roku, Amazon Fire-
connected TV boxes and smart TVs. The Tubi app
is also native to cable TV platforms offered by
Comcast and Cox Communications.
Earlier this year, Tubi secured a $25 million
loan to bolster its content library. Its shopping
spree included deals with NBCUniversal and
Warner Bros. TV. Tubi has also invested heavily
in the data technology needed to create rich,
personalized experiences for users as well
as Google-like “programmatic” purchasing
efficiencies for advertisers.
With many big media companies, including
Sinclair Broadcast Group, looking for ready-
made streaming platforms, Tubi has been the
subject of numerous mergers-and-acquisitions
rumors of late.
Meanwhile, Viacom paid $340 million in
January for another AVOD start-up, Pluto TV.
Like Tubi, Pluto TV is viewable in apps and on
the major web browsers. It gives viewers two
options — a live-stream of channels that looks
like your traditional cable TV program guide and
a thumbnail-laden mix of 5,000 hours of on-
demand choices, similar to Netflix.
The hundreds of older movie titles available
on Pluto TV include Steven Spielberg’s 1997 slave-
ship drama Amistad, the 2011 Johnny Depp-voiced
animated feature Rango and the 2005 pimp-with-
a-heart-of-gold Sundance darling Hustle & Flow.
Its TV show choices are heavy on cable reality
fare, including Discovery Networks shows like
Survivorman and Misfit Garage.Pluto TV attracts an audience of 12
million monthly viewers with this
selection; it’s heavy in entertainment
programming but lacks live sports
and news. That’s a great match for
Viacom, which was caught flat-foot-
ed about seven years ago when its
younger audience suddenly stopped
watching shows on linear cable and
started streaming them on Netflix.
Now Viacom has a better way to reach and
monetize its audience, and it doesn’t involve
Netflix. Pluto TV provides a ready-built streaming
platform, with 50 percent of its audience between
the ages of eighteen and thirty-four. With
Viacom making major investments in targeted
advertising tech recently, it’s found a great way to
transition network brands like MTV, BET, Comedy
Central and Nickelodeon into the digital present.“Viacom sells billions of dollars in advertising,
and they have advanced advertising capabilities,”
says Pluto TV CEO Tom Ryan, talking up the
merger synergies. Going forward, he adds, “You
can expect to see a lot of Viacom brands added
to Pluto TV in an aggregate way.”
Just a few years ago, we were talking about
the end of the TV commercial. As linear TV’s
audience continued to age and shrink, advertisers
were fleeing to advanced digital platforms offered
by companies like Google and Facebook. With
traditional broadcast and cable channels packing
in even more commercials to try to make up for
the revenue loss, many younger viewers fled to
ad-free platforms like the major SVOD services.
But advertisers, Massoudi says, still prefer to
reach consumers on a big TV screen as opposed
to a Google banner ad. Count Roku, which now
makes more money selling advertising than
it does peddling OTT gadgets, as another
beneficiary.
Last year, Roku saw advertising revenue grow
85 percent to $419.9 million, thanks primarily
to the Roku Channel. That’s the free-to-viewer
programming smorgasbord that’s available as
an app within the ecosystem of Roku devices
and enabled smart TVs. That ecosystem reaches
27 million regular users. Roku Channel is also on
the open internet. Like Tubi and Pluto TV, Roku
Channel has gobs of somewhat recent theatrical
movies available in a Netflix-like menu, but it also
has on-demand programming from ABC News,
Tastemade and Yahoo News and Finance.
Users can also sign up through the Roku
Channel for premium channels like HBO and