Ad breaks on Pluto TV are not always elegant. This screen can appear for a minute or more instead of commercials.

Viacom is not wasting any time remaking Pluto TV into a more formidable possible cable-TV replacement, after acquiring the streaming service in March for $340 million. Now the service is adding Pluto-branded versions of Viacom’s cable networks that anyone can watch for free.

Unlike Hulu, Netflix, or Amazon Prime Video, Pluto TV has no subscription fees and is entirely supported by commercial advertising.

Much like in the early days of cable television, many of the networks on the Pluto lineup still feature second-rate programming or niche interest, low-budget original programming. But Viacom obviously intends to change that perception, launching special Pluto-branded versions of name-brand cable networks like BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, and others.

In an effort to protect their contractual relationships with cable and satellite providers that pay substantial fees for Viacom’s cable networks, Pluto TV’s free versions are not exactly the same as what you’d find on your cable or satellite dial. But many of the most popular shows found on those networks also can be found on Pluto TV’s Viacom channels, some at different times or perhaps a day or two later.

Recognizing many viewers have turned away from live, linear television in favor of on-demand viewing, Pluto TV has also created binge channels that will “pop up” from time to time, allowing viewers to catch up with earlier seasons of popular shows or see a current show’s missed episodes on channels where they repeat continuously.

Because Viacom also has an extensive content library of its own, it was not difficult to assemble a range of “Signature Channels,” which group shows from multiple networks together on a series of theme-based channels. For example, CMT Westerns feature reruns of classic western TV shows seen on various networks. Several MTV networks target different audiences, like MTV Guy Code, MTV Teen, and MTV Dating. Comedy Central gets a side-network as well. Comedy Central Pluto offers many of the shows you’d find on the primary cable network, plus there is Comedy Central Stand-Up, which features continuous stand-up comedy routines.

Although Pluto TV retains the familiar concept of “channel” numbers, grouped by theme, Viacom is clearly starting to shift the viewing experience more towards individual shows instead of networks.

There are now so many individual channels on the Pluto platform, we won’t list them here. It is easier just to visit and view for yourself.

Pluto TV by Viacom is clearly a work still in progress. There are some significant issues. Commercial advertising inserts are clumsy and often cut shows off mid-sentence on some channels. Sometimes, an extended “we’ll be right back” screen appears where advertisements normally would. There is also no built-in way to record shows for time shifted viewing, and Pluto TV has so far refused to offer an online program guide beyond the next two hours of viewing, so you cannot easily know what shows will be aired when.

Other weaknesses are in sports and news. The network news channels are identical to those you can see on their respective websites by yourself, and a number of advocacy news channels including Newsmax, The Young Turks, and RT America are poor replacements for typical cable news channels. CNN’s presence on Pluto TV is limited to a curated playlist of stories airing on the network that day, and Sky News, Bloomberg, and Weathernation are not comparable to MSNBC, CNBC, or The Weather Channel.

Sports programming is mostly talk shows about sports and events larger sports networks would never cover. Pluto Sports also runs movies about sports.

Still, Pluto TV is free, and with the huge number of channels, chances are excellent you will find something to watch without much trouble.

Hulu, unlike its bigger rival Netflix, still depends on commercials for a substantial part of its income, and on Wednesday put on a presentation for advertisers hoping to maintain their interest in sponsoring the platform as it undergoes ownership and design changes.

Hulu announced it now has 26.8 million paid subscribers, and an additional 1.3 million free promotional accounts (many through a partnership with Spotify), totalling over 28 million customers overall. That is an increase of roughly three million since January.

Hulu is still a fraction of the size of its rival Netflix, which has 60.2 million U.S. subscribers and 148.8 million overall worldwide.

The past 12 months have been disruptive for Hulu because of ownership changes. Disney inherited an additional 30% ownership stake from its acquisition of Fox and bought out minority partner AT&T, which itself had acquired a 10% interest in Hulu when it merged with Time Warner (Entertainment). As of this month, Disney controls 67% of Hulu, with Comcast-NBC owning the remaining 33%. Comcast-NBC is said to be looking to sell its minority stake in Hulu, presumably to Disney, giving the owner of ABC and ESPN full ownership.

At the same time, Disney is working towards launching its own streaming platform, Disney+, this November, leading some to wonder what will become of Hulu. The answer came today — both platforms will continue, with an undisclosed price break for those agreeing to subscribe to both Disney+ and Hulu.

Originally a partnership between three of the four major American TV networks, Hulu was the original home for online streaming of current network TV shows. But as those networks drift apart to run their own ventures, Hulu appears to be investing in more original programming to hold viewer interest, but remaining open to advertising — a smaller Netflix with ads.

With so many new streaming services launching, Hulu is positioning itself to reduce customer alienation and try to increase subscriber engagement.

Subscribers will be gently introduced to a new user interface by this summer, with the option of switching back and forth during the test phase, to improve usability.

Peter Naylow, Hulu’s senior vice president and head of ad sales, also announced advertising limits and changes, including:

• No ad breaks over 90 seconds
• Viewers will not see the same ad more than twice per hour
• The same ad will not be seen by viewers more than four times per day
• Advertisers can sponsor ad-free viewing of individual episodes
• Binge viewers may see personalized special offers from sponsors
• Easter Eggs will be scattered on the platform, offering viewers obviously fake shows that, if selected, activate special offers from Hulu and “brand partners.”
• Static ads will appear when viewers pause playback.

For $11.99/month, subscribers can continue to avoid all advertising on the Hulu platform entirely.

New original shows

To maintain viewer interest, Hulu’s partnership with Marvel will give subscribers two new live-action shows: “Marvel’s Ghost Rider” and “Marvel’s Helstrom,” scheduled to debut in 2020. Other Marvel productions will be found on Disney+ (which will cost $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year).

Other productions:

• A new slate of cooking shows
• Made-for-Hulu movies based on Liane Moriarty’s “Nine Perfect Strangers” and “The Dropout” — the story of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, starring Kate McKinnon.

Charter Spectrum’s broadband-only customers run up more than double the amount of broadband usage average customers subscribing to both cable TV and broadband use, and that consumption is growing fast.

“Data usage by residential internet customers is rising rapidly and monthly median data usage is over 200 GB per customer,” Charter CEO Thomas Rutledge said on a morning quarterly results conference call. “When you look at average monthly usage for customers that don’t subscribe to our traditional video product, usage climbs to over 400 GB per month.”

Last week, Comcast reported its average broadband customer also used over 200 GB a month, but did not break out the difference between those subscribing to cable TV and those who do not. If Comcast’s broadband-only customers are consuming a comparable amount of data, they could be nearing half of their monthly usage allowance (1 TB), in markets where Comcast caps its customers’ usage. But because that is only an average, it means many more Comcast customers are likely nearing or now exceeding Comcast’s data cap, exposing them to hefty overlimit penalties.

Spectrum does not impose any data allowances on its customers — all usage is unlimited.

Charter officials also reported their average mobile customers use “well under 10 GB a month.” The fact Charter did not get more specific about mobile usage is important because the new product is getting scrutiny from some on Wall Street concerned it will have a hard time becoming profitable because of its wholesale agreement with Verizon Wireless, which provides the 4G LTE service for Spectrum Mobile.

Subscribers have been primarily drawn to the $14/GB plan, which includes unlimited talk and texting, because it offers a very low entry price for a full-function wireless plan. But a customer only needs to use more than 3 GB of service per month to find their bill higher than what they would pay subscribing to Spectrum Mobile’s $45 unlimited usage plan. If Charter executives said the average mobile user consumed 5 GB of data, analysts could deduce what the average customer bill probably looked like. To maximize profits, Charter needs customers to select an unlimited data plan and keep data usage low to assure it can cover the wholesale costs Verizon Wireless charges the cable company for wireless connectivity.

Rutledge

Rutledge stressed he expects Spectrum Mobile to be profitable with the current Verizon Wireless MVNO contract in place — the service simply needs a larger user base to overcome its current losses.

Rutledge also announced Spectrum Mobile was testing dual SIM technology, which could allow it to eventually offload more of its 4G LTE traffic to its own (cheaper) network, which could eventually include mid-band wireless spectrum and the CBRS spectrum the company is already testing for fixed wireless service for rural areas. Spectrum could also follow Comcast with its own in-home network of publicly available Wi-Fi or innovate with unlicensed wireless mobile spectrum using small cells or external antennas.

Charter executives noted that customer data demands were pushing many to upgrade to higher speed internet products.

“Over 80% of our internet customers are now in packages that deliver 100 Mbps of speed or more and 30% of our customers are getting 200 Mbps or more,” Rutledge said. “We’re also seeing strong demand for our Ultra product, which delivers 400 Mbps, and we have gigabit service available everywhere.”

The costs to continue upgrading service for broadband customers are negligible on the company’s current platform, Rutledge admits. In the future, Charter Spectrum is considering offering 10 Gbps and 25 Gbps symmetrical service to customers, and it can scale up upgrades very quickly.

“For example, in only 14 months we launched DOCSIS 3.1, which took our speeds up to 1 Gbps across our entire footprint at a cost of just $9 per passing,” Rutledge said.

The average Comcast broadband customer now consumes over 200 GB of online data per month, an increase of 34% over just one year ago, according to Dave Watson, president and CEO of Comcast Cable Communications.

The increased usage accelerated during the last quarter of 2018, Watson told investors on a quarterly conference call.

What remains unchanged is Comcast’s data cap, which remains fixed at 1 TB per month for many customers. To avoid overlimit penalty fees of $10 for each additional 50 GB block of data consumed (up to $200 per month), Comcast is still pitching its unlimited data option — insurance against Comcast’s own overlimit penalties, which costs a growing number of customers an extra $50 a month.

Watson knows data usage over Comcast’s network is about to grow exponentially, mostly thanks to streaming video.

“I think that we start with the central view that streaming is going to happen, video over the internet is more friend than foe. and we wish every bit was our bit,” Watson told investors this morning. “If people consume more bits and video clearly does that, and 4K video does even more than that, that is the sweet spot of where this company is going to grow.”

Translation: We intend to make a killing on usage growth. Comcast can market you a faster internet package at a higher price, or as your usage approaches the data cap, scare you into buying overlimit insurance.

Remember that Comcast drops usage caps for some customers willing to rent their latest network gateway (available only in some areas at this time).

Philo is the latest streaming alternative to cable television consolidating its package offerings, ditching a 45-channel skinny bundle sold for $16 in favor of a single 58 channel package Philo will continue to sell for $20 a month.

Until May 6, customers can still subscribe and keep the ultra-slim $16 package, which includes:

Philo’s Discontinued 45 Channel Package $16/mo (still available for sign-up until 5/6/2019)

• A&E
• AMC
• Animal Planet
• AXS TV
• BBC America
• BBC World News
• BET
• Cheddar
• Cheddar Big News
• Cleo
• CMT
• Comedy Central
• Discovery Channel
• DIY Network
• Food Network
• FYI
• Game Show Network
• Hallmark Channel
• Hallmark Drama
• Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
• HGTV
• History
• IFC
• Investigation Discovery
• Lifetime
• Lifetime Movies
• MotorTrend
• MTV
• MTV Classic
• MTV2
• Nick Jr.
• Nickelodeon
• Oprah Winfrey Network
• Paramount Network
• PeopleTV
• Science Channel
• Sundance TV
• Tastemade
• TeenNick
• TLC
• Travel Channel
• TV Land
• VH1
• Viceland
• WE tv

Philo’s 58 Channel Package $20/mo (only package available to new customers starting 5/6/2019)

• All networks included in the 45 channel package, plus…
• American Heroes Channel
• Aspire
• BET Her
• Cooking Channel
• Destination America
• Discovery Family
• Discovery Life
• Law & Crime Trial Network
• Logo
• MTV Live
• Nick Toons
• Revolt
• UP TV

Philo CEO Andrew McCollum explained the changes:

“Starting May 6, we will move to only offering our $20 package — the 58 channel package — to new subscribers. For those who are already subscribed and anyone who subscribes before that date, nothing will change — you’ll continue to have the same package and same price options you have today.

At Philo, we care deeply about creating the best TV experience possible at an affordable price. Since we launched 18 months ago, most of the other companies in our space have raised their prices, in some cases multiple times. We didn’t want to do that. Still, when we looked at all of the costs of operating Philo — which increase over time — consolidating into a single $20 package was the best way for us to maintain the same offering we have today without raising prices or having to cut back in places we strive to excel, like our customer support.

Again, nothing is changing for anyone who has already subscribed by May 6 — you’ll keep the package you have and will continue to be able to switch between our two existing packages.”

McCollum also shed light on why services like Philo are moving away from a-la-carte or “theme pack” business models:

“There are a bunch of complicating factors, though. It’s tricky to do with the major network groups because the deals don’t generally allow it. There’s also an issue with making things more complicated.

Canada generally has something like this model (along with a mandated a la carte channel model, but nobody does it), and it’s actually super overwhelming. Some providers have 80+ different packages, and it’s impossible to just figure how to get what you want.

In general, I think choice is good, but I also think that bundling is good when the bundles make sense and are focused. The big issue is keeping things that some people want a lot, and that cost a lot, but other people don’t care about (e.g., sports) from driving up the cost for everyone. Trust me when I say that even if we could break things up more, the economics would probably net out where most people pay about the same but get fewer channels.

We are actually looking at making more content available through add-ons. I think it makes sense in a lot of cases, especially for premium/niche content.

It’s actually super overwhelming. Some providers have 80+ different packages, and it’s impossible to just figure how to get what you want.”