Live TV video streaming services aren't typically cheap, which makes the completely-free Pluto TV notable.
The Viacom-owned live TV service doesn't have nearly as many of the cable mainstays as other dedicated services, but it offers enough supplemental programming across the news, sports, and entertainment genres to warrant giving it a look.
You won't get any of the creature comforts of a paid live TV services either, such as DVR features, top-notch apps, or huge libraries of on-demand content.
Still Pluto TV is a potentially viable solution for people who don't want to completely close the door on cable, but more importantly, don't want to pay for the privilege.
What Channels Do I Get With Pluto TV?
As mentioned, Pluto TV is not a complete replacement for your cable subscription.
It is better thought of as a live TV supplement to your on-demand video streaming services, especially since it offers few popular cable channels.
Pluto's generic channels do a decent job of covering the gaps, though; many of these channels show a diverse mix of programming, some of which is from top-notch cable channels.
However, you don't get local affiliate channels from corporate broadcast networks on Pluto TV.
Anyone looking for a viable replacement to cable with an internet-based live TV service may be underwhelmed by Pluto TV.
In total, Pluto TV lets you watch around 190 different live TV streams, but many are not channels in the traditional sense.
Some channels, such as Wipeout and Dr.
Who Classic, only show content related to those shows.
Others, such as Cats 24/7 and Slow TV (this channel features livestream marathons of Norwegian train rides, wood-chopping, knitting, and similar low-intensity content) incorporate several sources, but may be too unconventional to offer long-term value.
A representative from the company noted that "the overwhelming majority of our channels are fixed.
From time to time, we launch Pop-Up channels which are limited in their engagement and typically themed around calendar events like holidays or limited engagements with specific content."
Entertainment content is where Pluto TV shines the brightest, specifically with its Comedy, Entertainment, and Movies subcategories.
For instance, you get BET Pluto TV, Buzzr, Comedy Central, Fuse, MTV Pluto TV, Paramount Movie Channel, and The Onion.
Pluto TV has several of its own movie channels for popular genres, too.
There are also other, more eclectic categories such as Binge Watch, Comedy, Life + Style, and Tech + Geek.
Among these channels are Food TV, IGN, NASA TV, MST3K, Pluto TV Cars, Pluto TV Travel, The Addams Family, This Old House, and World Poker Tour.
Dedicated kids channels include Anime All Ages, After School Cartoons, Dora TV, Nick Pluto TV, Nick Jr.
Pluto TV Kids, and Totally Turtles (plays a continuous stream of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episodes from various years).
Philo, another Viacom-owned video streaming service, offers more traditional entertainment channels, but it is not free.
For news, Pluto TV offers Bloomberg Television, CBSN, Cheddar News, CNN, NBC News, and Sky News.
You also get a few Pluto TV-specific channels, such as Today's Top Story and Pluto TV News, which run through the latest headlines of the days with coverage from top outlets.
The WeatherNation channel provides national weather updates for the US.
Although Pluto TV covers the basics well, other streaming services offer BBC, Cheddar, CNBC, Fox Business, and MSNBC.
Sports fans should visit our roundup of the best sports streaming services, since Pluto TV does not offer a significant amount of live sports broadcasts.
Interestingly, one of Dazn's fight nights was available to stream on Pluto TV's Fight channel during our testing, so there are some live broadcasts.
Pluto TV does include a decent number of sports channels from big names, such as the Fox Sports, MLS, and NFL Channel, though none allow you to stream live games.
Other sports channels on Pluto TV include Big Sky Conference, Glory Kickboxing, Stadium, and The Surf Channel.
If you want to watch NFL games, check out our roundup of the best NFL Streaming services.
Rounding out the Pluto TV's channel list, you also get about 40 dedicated music channels, spanning tons of different genres, from 90's music to soul music to indie.
Audio playback sounds decent and each channel shows track information and a basic waveform visualization.
It won't compete with the free version of Spotify or other music streaming services, but some may find it suitable for a bit of background noise.
Outside of live TV programming, Pluto TV offers a small, changing collection of on-demand movies and TV shows.
At the time of my review, I saw a bunch of the older James Bond films, as well as movies such as Charlotte's Web, Dances with Wolves, Dinner for Schmucks, Hugo, Rain Man, and Spotlight.
There's also a trending section that shows currently popular videos from around the internet, though I'm not sure who would use this rather than going to YouTube directly.
Free and Widely Available
As mentioned, Pluto TV is free, a distinction it shares with Locast.
That service streams local channels in major markets such as Boston, Chicago, New York, and Washington DC.
However, Locast is currently involved in a legal dispute with major broadcast corporations, so I don't know how long it will be viable.
Since Pluto TV is free, you may wonder how the service makes money.
A Pluto TV contact explained, "As an ad-supported service, we earn revenue from advertisers who advertise across our [platform]." The representative also said that there are currently not any plans for a premium version.
The entertainment-focused Philo, one of the cheapest live TV services with traditional channels, costs $20 per month.
Sling TV's Orange and Blue plans each cost $25 per month.
Full-featured cable-replacement type services such as Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV cost significantly more at $44.99 ($54.99 as of Dec.
18) and $49.99 per month respectively.
Other services such as fuboTV ($54.95) and higher-tier plans from AT&T TV Now can cost even more.
Granted, all these platforms offer far more mainstream channels, better technical capabilities, and more complete apps.
Pluto TV is available on mobile Android and iOS devices, as well as media streaming devices such as Android TVs, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, and Roku.
The Xbox One is notably missing from this list.
Web Interface
The best way to describe Pluto TV's web interface is as a web-based TV guide.
There's no home page with featured content, as you might find with any other live TV Service.
You don't even need to sign up for an account unless you want to customize the channels in your view.
Given the dizzying number of categories and channels, I recommend signing up for an account and hiding all the channels you don't care about.
Pluto TV's interface is easy to understand but cumbersome to navigate.
For example, you can't sort channels by category or search for a particular channel.
The channel guide only extends a few hours into the future too, so you can't see future programming schedules.
I would also prefer it if Pluto TV provided descriptions for each channel it offers, as I often didn't know what to expect from each one.
Launching a channel though; just click on any the entry in the guide to watch it.
Pluto TV behaves similarly to YouTube TV's in that the channel guide is always available underneath the streaming video if you scroll down a bit.
A clearer separation of content would improve the design.
Pluto TV on Mobile
Pluto TV offers mobile apps for both Android and iOS.
As with the web interface, you don't need to sign in to an account to stream live TV.
You navigate the app using three menu icons at the bottom of the screen: Live TV; Movies and Shows; and My Profile.
The splash screen before the app loads is creepy (it's a bunch of eyeballs encircling the Pluto TV logo), but Shudder's horror-tinged effects win as far as charming horribleness goes.
The Live TV interface looks exactly like the one on the web, with channels listed down the left side and the video playback frame on the top of the screen.
Unfortunately, the same limitation with the schedule persists from the web interface; you can only view a few hours' worth of upcoming programming.
One advantage of the mobile app is that you can actually jump to specific categories in the guide, which is much easier than having to scroll to select them.
The mobile apps also support PIP mode.
In the Movies and Shows section, you can view all of Pluto TV's on-demand content.
Click on an entry to view a description and then the Watch Now button to start streaming.
In testing, I noticed a few seconds' worth of buffering before playback began.
The My Profile section gives you the same options as the website.
You can edit the channel list, set up your phone as a remote for Roku devices, and update your account information.
Playback Experience
Pluto TV's web player features all the standard playback tools.
You get 10-second forward and rewind buttons, a progress bar (you can drag it to seek through on-demand content), and closed captioning options in the upper right part of the screen.
There are no options here for adjusting the playback quality.
A company representative stated that the "resolution varies between VOD and Live, but generally, we stream at sub-HD resolution and 30fps across all devices." Pluto TV recommends download speeds of 4Mbps.
I tested the web streaming from my Ethernet-connected desktop which reaches 200Mbps (download).
I didn't encounter many streaming stutters, but sometimes the stream took several seconds to ramp up to full quality.
I didn't encounter any audio lag.
Unfortunately, you will see Pluto TV-managed ads frequently when you launch a stream and when programming cuts to commercials.
Ads are an unavoidable annoyance in live TV services and Pluto TV's are no better; several ads played multiple times, too.
For instance, I saw an ad for a mattress pillow and an online college twice each in the span of about half an hour.
The repetitive ad-experience is similar to Hulu's ad-supported on-demand tier.
Other ads advertise different channels on Pluto TV.
If you never want to see an ad again while watching TV, you need to subscribe to an on-demand video streaming plan that offers this perk.
The mobile app does give you the option to adjust your streaming quality for each cellular and Wi-Fi connections, but the options (Low, Medium, and High) are vague and don't show a corresponding streaming resolution.
I streamed both live and on-demand content without issue over Daxdi's Wi-Fi (15Mbps download).
Features and Accessibility
Pluto TV offers closed captioning options on all the platforms I tried, and you can customize them on the web directly from the playback screen.
For example, you can change the font size, font family, color, and opacity.
Some paid services don't offer even this level of customization.
What many live TV services provide that Pluto TV does not is a DVR capability, which is useful for when you want to save a recording of an event that is scheduled at an inconvenient time or if you come up against a simultaneous stream limit.
Pluto has one advantage in that there are no limits on how many people can stream the same content; since you don't need to sign in to Pluto TV, you can launch as many instances as you desire.
Pluto TV's on-demand content is not downloadable for offline viewing on mobile, but no other live TV service offers this either, so I don't count that against its score.
Parental controls are also missing.
Pluto TV offers several kid-friendly channels, so presumably, a parent might want to restrict their kids to only watch these channels.
The challenge here, given Pluto TV's free model, is that a kid could just open a new instance of Pluto TV and not sign in to the account with those limitations.
Sling TV is one of the few live TV services that offers parental control tools, but this feature is far more common on on-demand services, such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and HBO Now.
You also don't get as much on-demand content compared to other live TV services.
Those services often bundle in on-demand shows and movies from channels in their lineup that are available to watch for a set amount of time.
With Pluto TV, you usually must watch a show live.
Pluto TV and VPN
A virtual private network (VPN) can help you protect your web traffic from the eyes of your ISP as well as any malicious actors on a network.
Many video streaming services, however, do not work with VPNs, as a VPN can also get you access to shows that are not intended to be viewable in your location.
Pluto TV is available in other countries than the US, including the United Kingdom and Germany, but other countries face some programming restrictions.
In any case, I was able to stream content from Pluto TV on my desktop and phone with both devices connected to a US-based Mullvad VPN server.
However, even if a video streaming service works with your VPN today, that doesn't guarantee that it will tomorrow.
Some video streaming services work continuously to block VPN traffic.
We recommend choosing a VPN based on other merits, such as value, security, and performance instead.
Free to Stream
Pluto TV stands pretty much on its own in terms of a free (and legal) ways to stream live TV.
It offers a ton of channels (albeit very few traditional cable ones) and good performance too.
However, Pluto TV needs to polish its interfaces and channel guides.
The omission of DVR features is notable too, but not surprising given that it is free.
Pluto TV could still likely undercut other popular live TV services even if it charged for premium features though.
Our Editors' Choice picks for watching live TV are Hulu and YouTube TV, respectively for their value and channel lineups.
Netflix is still our Editors' Choice winner for on-demand services, with its excellent original shows and high-quality library of movies.
The Bottom Line
Pluto TV, a free live TV service, offers enough programming to be useful in a pinch, but you won't get many premium entertainment, news, and sports channels, let alone extra capabilities.
