CHANNEL 5 TO COMBINE MY5 AND PLUTO TV STREAMING SERVICES IN 2024

Paramount have announced it is to combine Channel 5 on-demand service My5 and FAST channel service Pluto TV next year.

The advertising-supported service will be free for customers and will give viewers in the UK access to live, new, exclusive and archived content from Channel 5 as well as the collection of FAST channels from Pluto TV.

Paramount's Maria Kyriacou said: "We’re proud of the huge success and growth in viewing that we have seen on our BVOD service, My5.  As we look ahead to an IP-delivered future, this is the right time for us to fully leverage the Paramount ecosystem and combine the reach and scale of our free-to-air network in the UK with the global success of our FAST service, Pluto TV...

"We’re well underway with work on this product, and I’m incredibly excited about the content and user experience we’ll be able to offer our audiences and our advertising partners when we launch next year."

General Manager Pluto TV, Olivier Jollet said: "As an early pioneer of FAST globally, we’ve seen incredible growth and excitement for Pluto TV in markets around the world. By joining forces with our leading BVOD platform in the UK, we are offering audiences, partners, and clients a supersized free streaming destination that we know they’ll love...

"This is a significant evolution for our free streaming business in this important market and a testament to how we strategically approach our platforms and the future of streaming.”

The new service is expect to launch later next year, with more announcements in due course.