Sky is investing in Pluto.TV, a US-based start up that curates and streams web content, including cat videos, 4K content – and all of R.Kelly’s Trapped In The Closet.
Yes you read that right, Sky has invested in a company that streams R. Kelly’s ‘hip-hopera’ non-stop, for the benefit of those who slept through 2005.
Pluto.TV lets viewers tune into over 100 channels which hosts a wide range of content from around the web. Video channels are presented in an EPG-type format and registered users can save content to watch later.
CEO of Pluto.TV Tom Ryan said: “We’re excited to have one of the world’s leading entertainment and communications companies as an investor in Pluto.TV. Sky’s considerable strengths in TV content and distribution and their leading position in Europe will be invaluable to us as we scale our business.
“We look forward to collaborating broadly with Sky to rapidly grow and deliver our online video platform globally across web, mobile and connected TVs.”
You can watch online at Pluto.TV or through the iOS and Android apps, both of which are Chromecast-compatible. Pluto.TV is also available on Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Amazon’s Fire TV streaming box. It’s not yet known if this means Pluto.TV apps will be winging their way to the Roku Channel Store (Sky invested in Roku in 2012) or the Now TV Box anytime soon.
Emma Lloyd, Director, Corporate Business Development, Sky, added: “This partnership enables Sky to draw on the ground-breaking work Pluto.TV are doing to help viewers discover and enjoy the best of online TV through an intuitive and editorially rich TV platform.
“As we learn about new trends in the way people watch TV, we look forward to sharing our own expertise in content creation, packaging and promotion.”
It’s not clear if this deal means that Sky content will appear on Pluto.TV. There are channels for well-known brands including Vice, Funny or Die, The Young Turks and Screw Attack, so there’s scope for more content owners to get on board.
Head over to Pluto.TV to see the service in action and download the iOS, Android and Amazon apps now.
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