NEW YORK  - Viacom’s pint-sized ambitions may serve it well. The MTV owner is buying free-streaming upstart Pluto TV for $340 million. That’s chump change compared with the $180 billion or so that Walt Disney , AT&T and Comcast collectively shelled out on media deals to keep pace with Netflix. Low-budget Viacom is wisely choosing a less-traveled path.

Pluto offers about 100 channels and a library of on-demand movies and TV shows to consumers free of charge. It’s not unlike traditional television in that viewers can surf around though it’s not part of a larger cable package. It is available through internet-connected TVs and devices like Roku.

The other difference is that it's ad-supported. Chief Executive Bob Bakish intends to tap Pluto’s unsold inventory for its advertising business. It has a built-in audience of around 12 million monthly active users and skews young. Pluto will also serve as a marketing platform for some of Viacom’s content.

Unlike its much larger rivals, Viacom doesn’t have any delusions when it comes to direct-to-consumer services. Disney’s purchase of Twenty-First Century Fox’s entertainment assets, Comcast’s lurch for Sky and AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner serve as the backbone for larger video-streaming strategies that mostly charge people monthly bills – as Netflix already does with nearly 140 million global subscribers.

Worming into the mindset of consumers to be a second or third choice will be costly. Disney, AT&T and Comcast still need to build the technology. The earliest any of these players will launch their services will be the end of this year.

Bakish, on the other hand, is taking a different tack. He’s happy to have content from flagship brands like Paramount Pictures living in a variety of places. Viacom is zigging while wannabe Netflix peers zag.

CONTEXT NEWS

- Viacom on Jan. 22 agreed to buy Pluto TV for $340 million in cash. The company offers an advertising-supported streaming-television service in the United States that features more than 100 channels and on-demand content.

- The startup founded in 2013 has more than 12 million monthly active users.

(Editing by Tom Buerkle and Amanda Gomez)

© Reuters News 2019