ViacomCBS just reported that digital video revenue is now pacing at an annual run rate more than of $2.5 billion and is growing over 50% year-over-year as of third quarter.
The big driver, the conglomerate said, has been Pluto TV, the free-to-consumer, ad-supported streaming platform purchased by the pre-CBS merger Viacom in January 2019 for $340 million. ViacomCBS said Pluto TV revenue doubled in the third quarter, compared to Q3 2019.
“Our job is to bring clients incremental reach,” explained Harold Morgenstern, senior VP and had of national advertising for Pluto TV, speaking on an Ad Age virtual panel event Monday. He said the integration of Pluto TV into the ViacomCBS portfolio has allowed the conglomerate to offer advertisers extended reach into cord-cutter and cord-never markets they couldn’t delve in previously.
“It’s been great for Pluto TV to be part of the ViacomCBS family,” Morgenstern said.
During ViacomCBS’ third-quarter earnings call last week, CEO Bob Bakish said that Pluto TV recently recorded a $3 million ad sales day.
“Consider this—after logging its first $1 million ad sales day in 2019, it took Pluto 10 months to log its first $2 million ad sales day,” Bakish said. “But it just took one month after that for Pluto TV to achieve its first $3 million day. While this shouldn’t be interpreted as a daily run rate, we are seeing revenue inflection at Pluto TV in a most positive way.”
