Free, ad-supported streaming service Pluto TV today officially launched Pluto TV Latino, a category on its platform featuring a suite of linear Spanish and Portuguese-language channels.
Pluto TV Latino has 11 curated channels covering categories including movies, comedy, music, true crime, reality, sports and telenovelas. The new optionss include movie channel Pluto TV Cine Estelar, Pluto TV Películas and Pluto TV Cine Latino; true crime channel Pluto TV Investiga; MTV Latino and Comedy Central Latino; and Pluto TV Brasil, which includes original series from Viacom’s network brands in Brazil. Additional channels are expected to launch this fall, adding new genres like food, travel, competition and kids.
“We have always envisioned Pluto TV as a destination with global appeal, where diverse audiences can find and stream the entertainment they love, for free,” said Tom Ryan, CEO and co-founder of Pluto TV, in a statement. “Pluto TV Latino was designed to bring premium streaming programming to an underserved OTT audience with cross-generational appeal. To be the first ad-supported streaming platform to offer an entire category dedicated to US Hispanic audiences is something we are incredibly proud of and furthers our mission to entertain the planet.”
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Pluto TV, which is owned by Viacom, called Pluto TV Latino the “first offering of its kind” to be introduced on a major ad-supported OTT platform.
The launch makes good on the announcement the company made in June. Viacom CEO Bob Bakish, speaking Tuesday at a Credit Suisse investor conference, said that Pluto Latino will also launch in all of Latin America at the beginning of 2020.
The addition of the Pluto Latino channels comes along shortly after Viacom announced the launch of curated Pluto TV channels using intellectual property from its core brands including BET, Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon. Those channels debuted on May 1.
Viacom in January bought Pluto TV for $340 million. The service has grown to more than 16 million active users and Viacom expects Pluto TV will become a $1 billion ad revenue opportunity.