Tom Ryan On The Value Of Curation And The Early Days Of Pluto TV

The next in a series of Innovator Spotlights from our Special Report, FASTs Are The New Cable

“I first started thinking about the idea of Pluto TV with my co-founder Ilya Pozinn back in 2013. There was so much great video on the internet, but it was really tough to find the good stuff,” relates Tom Ryan, currently President & CEO, Streaming at Paramount, as well as the Co-Founder of Pluto TV. “At the time, our thought process was around linear as there weren't really good recommendation engines for video, any sort of playlists or even the kind of autoplay that you now see on sites like YouTube.”

Alan Wolk (AW): What problem were you trying to solve when you launched Pluto TV?

Tom Ryan (TR):  Every time you found a good video, it would play and then you had to start searching all over again to find the next thing to watch. So we figured there's got to be a way to make this easier to allow for a more enjoyable viewing experience where you can get good recommendations that deliver a stream of videos that suit your interests. 

There are two ways to do that –there's algorithmic recommendations, which we didn't think, at least at the time, worked well for video, and then there’s curation by actual experts. We thought that we had an opportunity to try and take some of what makes TV so great, which is these curated, interest-based channels, where you've got a real expert, who knows and loves the content, picking out the best stuff, so that the user can just tune in, find a channel that they like, and let the curator do all the work. 

We launched on April Fool's Day 2014. Which was ironic because we were viewed as fools when we launched. Because the conventional wisdom at the time was that the future of streaming would be Netflix: ad free, paid, and on demand. And there we were with this linear product that was free and supported by ads. 

AW: So what happened next, why did Pluto TV finally take off?

TR: What we saw initially was that people stayed on our app longer than on similar apps that did not use a curatorial approach. That gave us confidence to say okay there’s something here, people like to be programmed to. After much experimentation we landed on connected TVs with longer form traditional TV programming, like TV shows, news and movies. That was where we started to see some real semblance of a sustainable product market fit that could actually allow us to build a business and earn enough ad revenue to actually pay content owners and distributors to partner with us.

AW: Unlike most other services, Pluto TV focused on linear from the start. What was it about linear that viewers liked?

TR: One thing that we were very determined about was this whole idea of making it feel like you're turning on the television when you turned on Pluto TV. That’s very powerful. If we're doing our jobs right then you will find a channel that aligns with your interest, whether that is a comedy channel or a movie channel or a home improvement channel, and it will just pull you in. We've invested very heavily in making sure we've got a great team of curators and editors at Pluto TV. They've been the heart and soul of Pluto TV from day one. They are programming great content that keeps viewers engaged and if you like that channel, chances are you will keep it on for two or three hours straight. You won’t have to make any decisions on what to watch next since we do that for you. It’s like taking the best of television and the best of the internet and marrying them together for the streaming era.

AW: What is the value of a curated linear channel?

TR: Whether it be in television, video or music, people like to be programmed to, and a great curated playlist or channel is a very valuable way to do that. But more than that, those channels can become brands unto themselves. Take Spotify's Rap Caviar  playlist for example. It’s where you go if you want to learn about the newest hip hop. It’s become a brand of its own and people talk about “Rap Caviar” not just Spotify, which only enhances Spotify’s reputation. That is not dissimilar to how I think about our channels, we want them to stand for something, we have curators who live and breathe the content that goes on those channels. We want our channels to have a strong editorial voice and we think that’s really what sets us apart. 

AW: What is the relationship between Paramount and Pluto TV—where does Pluto TV fit in the grand scheme of things?

TR: In February, Paramount realigned itself into three distinct segments. Those three segments are the movie segment, which is Paramount Pictures, the TV studio and network segment, and then the direct to consumer or streaming division, which I run. 

Within the streaming division the two most prominent properties are Paramount+ and Pluto TV. Even though they are separate brands, we’ve created a unified streaming executive team that works very collaboratively with our peers at the movie and TV divisions.

AW: How does Paramount use Pluto TV to promote Paramount+ and vice versa?

TR: There’s a promotional flywheel, we call it a “super funnel” and the total company streaming super funnel involves taking all of the assets of Paramount Global and promoting our streaming services wherever we can. 

Then there's a funnel between the services. So you'll see channels like Paramount+ Picks or Showtime Selects on Pluto TV and we will curate linear channels with good what we call “dial positioning” on the interface, and those channels are filled with content that's typically in front of the subscription paywall on those apps. The idea is to actively promote these shows to get people to subscribe to Paramount+, or Showtime OTT to watch more. 

We're finding that we're driving a tremendous amount of leads to Paramount+, as a result of that, so Pluto TV is clearly a very effective promotional channel. 

We also will advertise Paramount+ across Pluto TV. We have a lot of house inventory on Pluto TV and we're able to make that highly targetable. So let's say you're on the Pluto TV movies channel, you might get an ad for the new Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie that's on Paramount+, that steers you to where you can go to subscribe to see it. And then if someone does churn out of Paramount+, we're going to try to reactivate them, but we're also directing them to Pluto TV to make sure we keep them in our streaming ecosystem.