Pluto TV Adding Over 6,000 Episodes of Paramount Shows including ‘Star Trek,’ ‘Frasier,’ ‘90210’
Dust off your tricorders, your tossed salads, and scrambled eggs. The free ad-supported TV (FAST) service Pluto TV will be adding over 6,300 episodes of classic TV over the next two months including dozens — and in some cases hundreds — of episodes.
Some of the series set to appear on Pluto are the original “Star Trek,” “Cheers,” “Taxi,” “Frasier,” “Matlock,” “Touched by an Angel,” “Beverly Hills 90210,” and more. Though not all of the series originally aired on CBS, they were all produced by Paramount Network Television and/or distributed by CBS Television Distribution.
The move signifies a further cementing of the relationship between two arms of Paramount Global: its FAST service Pluto TV and its legacy linear network CBS. The additions mean that Pluto is set to triple the amount of CBS content that it is currently offering.
“Pluto TV and CBS are both proven leaders delivering world-class entertainment to global audiences,” Paramount Streaming president and CEO Tom Ryan said according to Deadline. “With unrivaled access to the coveted CBS library, Pluto TV is able to deliver the best of both worlds to our viewers — world-class, evergreen programming with flexible viewing options, all for free.”
Pluto will now offer over 40 channels of CBS content. Last year, Pluto began offering the four most recent episodes of CBS prime-time shows for free on Pluto to help raise the profile of both the shows and the service. The full archive of most ongoing CBS series is available on the company’s subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service, Paramount+.
The strategy of bringing library titles to the free service helped Pluto surpass 70 million active users in the second quarter of 2022. Much of the growth that Pluto has seen is also due to the company’s strategy of dedicating whole channels to a single show, with 27.5% of the platform's channels assigned to just one series.
Most recently, Pluto added such channels for two other CBS properties: “CSI: Miami” and “CSI: New York.” The platform also added a channel dedicated to past episodes of CBS’s news staple “60 Minutes” earlier this fall.
“Both of our teams are continually benefitting from insights and learnings around FAST programming performance to help define future strategies that benefit each of our businesses,” CBS president and CEO George Cheeks said. “The overwhelming success of the “CSI” and “48 Hours” channels on Pluto TV are just two recent examples of how our broadcast franchises are connecting with a growing and often unduplicated streaming audience.”
Pluto is gearing up for its Canadian rollout in December, and its library will now include thousands of hours of CBS programming for those north (and south) of the border to enjoy.
