Today during the Stream TV Show, Amy Kuessner, who is Executive Vice President, Content Strategy & Global Partnerships at Paramount Streaming opened up about Paramount’s streaming plans in the world of cord cutting. During the panel on the Future of Content Partnerships, when talking about Pluto TV’s future said that a new Pluto TV user interface will start rolling out in July 2023.
Update: A Paramount Spokesperson has sent Cord Cutters News this statement about what was said during the Stream TV Show panel:
In response to an audience question at yesterday’s StreamTV conference around content discovery, examples were cited illustrating some product features and updates being implemented to improve the overall Pluto TV experience. This was not intended to be a formal announcement of any one initiative, new product or launch, but simply demonstrating how our Product and Engineering teams work continuously, year-round to improve and enhance the user experience for all.
Details are still very thin, but Amy Kuessner said that Pluto TV will mix together its live and on-demand content on the home screen. Pluto TV will even use algorithms to better help you find the shows and movies you want, regardless if they are on-demand or live.
Currently, Pluto TV defaults to a long live TV guide but offers options to sort it by topic, or on-demand. This system works well but can make it hard to find all of the hundreds of channels and thousands of on-demand programs Pluto TV has to offer.
Now this new user interface sounds a lot more like what many streaming services where the home screen will now recommend more programs to you. From there, you will likely still be able to find the live guide and on-demand areas.
Amy Kuessner said that this new app will start rolling out in July of 2023 on select devices. From there more devices will get the new Pluto TV app as the year goes on. We do not know what devices will get the new user interface first.
This new user interface comes as free ad-supported streaming services has become the fastest growing area in cord cutting. Paramount also uses Pluto TV to help them promote new Parmount+ programs by offering for example full seasons of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds before the new season drops. The hope is to help drive Paramount+ subscriptions.
It is very likely a home screen that recommends content it belives you will want to see will help Paramount promote Parmount+ programing on Pluto TV. Amy Kuessner did say during the talk that Pluto TV already puts its more valuable content at the top of its guide likely a insight at the future of Pluto TV’s new home screen. She went on to say that the new home screen will bring content to you that will help resonate to you individually.