This App Is Like a Free Cable
Earlier this week, I came home from dinner with friends and later found my boyfriend, who is usually mesmerized by our new Vizio TV.
“Our TV comes with free cable!” – He said excitedly, flipping through channel after channel. He was clearly wrong, but in a way, he was right.
Our Vizio TV came with a pre-installed Pluto TV, which he discovered while tweaking it. It’s not a free cable, but it’s not that far either. Although the app was preinstalled on our TV, anyone can download it.
It was already a little bit, but much better than the last time I saw it.
Pluto TV is an Internet TV platform owned by Viacom. It works on our Vizio TV, as well as iOS and Android, and things like Roku, PlayStation consoles, and Amazon Fire TV. You can also just watch it in a browser on your computer. It’s completely free, and as I discovered when I came home with a passionate guy, there are plenty of channels to watch.
Unlike most other streaming services, Pluto TV works live as you have to tune in to a specific channel to watch the program and you cannot rewind, forward or pause that stream. You have to catch everything, as the broadcast goes, like a regular cable. Also, as is the case with conventional cable, there will be advertising.
However, this is pretty cool too. We may or may not have spent a lot of time watching the Pawshank Redemption stream on Cats 24/7 and there is a marijuana channel where a gentleman explains how to make perfect edible foods.
Since it is owned by Viacom, you also have access to more traditional programming. For example, there is MTV’s Hills and another one dedicated to Classic TV (which turned out to be broadcasting Dennis the Menace while I was writing this).
There are many options for MTV, BET, and Spike TV, as well as news channels such as NBC News, CNN, CBSN, and Bloomberg.
And if you want to be able to pause and start on your schedule, there is also a pretty decent selection of free movies and TV shows to stream on demand through the service. Obviously, these will not be new releases, but not terrible either.
The point is, whatever you do, Pluto is likely to have a free channel that you want to watch. IF you’re really into it, you can also create an account and customize your channels. However, it is definitely worth downloading to your device and scrolling when you are looking for something to watch and are short on other services you use.