TV Planet

TV Planet

voices in the wilderness

TOM RYAN ’91

TIRED OF EXORBITANT CABLE BILLS? LOOK NO further than Ryan, CEO and cofounder of Pluto TV, which has been hailed as the world’s first free Internet television service. Since Ryan pulled the plug on cable in 2013, Los Angeles-based Pluto has attracted 5 million users—a 10-fold increase in the past 18 months. Many of its users are so-called cord cutters, media consumers chagrined about rising monthly cable bills. “Household incomes have remained flat over the last seven years, and the average pay-TV subscription has doubled in cost,” says Ryan, noting that the average household watches 15 channels, not the 200 options offered on many cable plans. “I think there’s a perceived lack of value for the money spent.”

Enter Pluto, which offers 85 “curated” channels such as News 24/7, Xtreme Sports and Classic Movies. On a basic level, using Pluto TV is as simple as launching the app or heading to the website. The last channel you visited starts playing automatically, with a scrollable channel guide on the bottom of the screen. Pluto’s website and mobile apps let users bookmark channels, to view favorites without sifting through the full guide.

“Humans as a species want to be programmed to, they want to be given great curated programming that allows someone else to do the work, and then they can tune in and be entertained by a range of free content,” Ryan says. “How do you find what’s good in a particular category and not have to search for it, not have to hunt and peck your way around the services? Our thesis is sometimes viewed as contrarian, but we think the data support that this is how people want to watch TV.”

Pluto wasn’t designed as a replacement for on-demand viewing experiences offered on platforms such as Netflix and Hulu. “It’s just a different side of the coin,” Ryan says. “People want to push a button and be entertained. That’s what we’re trying to deliver.”

Tech Hive calls Pluto TV the best cord-cutting app out there.