Vizio launches streaming service powered by Pluto TV

[Shawn Knight]

Why it matters: Vizio's streaming TV service is yet another way the TV maker can differentiate itself from the growing number of manufacturers catering to budget buyers. It's probably not going to sway most purchasing decisions either way but if you're already planning on picking up a Vizio set (or currently own one), there's no harm in checking it out.

Consumer electronics maker Vizio on Wednesday launched WatchFree, a new streaming service designed with cord-cutters in mind.

Available now on nearly all Vizio SmartCast TVs, the new service, in partnership with Pluto TV, offers streaming access to more than 100 live and linear channels featuring news, movies, sports, TV shows, viral videos, concerts and more – all for free.

According to Vizio, it has all of the attributes associated with traditional cable TV without the antennas, cable boxes, cords and cost. Of course, the big difference between a traditional cable package, a paid over-the-top streaming service or even free over-the-air networks is the quality of channel selection.

Vizio’s new service offers access to channels like Pluto TV Movies, Black Cinema, News 24/7, Action Movies, NBC News / MSNBC, Frontdoor, Fox Sports, Cats 24/7, MST3K, Crime Network and The Surf Channel, just to name a few.

Needless to say, it’s not the same caliber of content you’d get from a paid service like Sling TV. Then again, it's free, so there's that.

Pluto TV is also available for free on the web and on more than a dozen platforms including Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/75771-vizio-launches-streaming-service-powered-pluto-tv.html

 

[wiyosaya]

@Shawn Knight - thanks for the Pluto.tv link. That's an interesting site. No account to sign up for, just browse the site, click on the expanding guide, select something currently playing, and watch to your heart's content. The quality does not look that great, but its free, and it looks like they carry some things I might watch from time-to-time.

EDIT: No cookies required and does not reject uBlock origin, either. IMO, that is amazing for such a web site these days.

 

[gusticles41]

Thanks, Shawn! I have a Vizio display and will give this a try. Doesn't hurt to add another streaming option to my arsenal.

 

[Uncle Al]

I love Pluto but I was hoping that THEY would break the cycle of the paid services and carry Public Television ..... but my cat LOVES the Cat Channel ......

 

[wiyosaya]

I love Pluto but I was hoping that THEY would break the cycle of the paid services and carry Public Television ..... but my cat LOVES the Cat Channel ......

The combination of streaming and OTA is hard to beat, IMO. Spring for that antenna if you have not already. From what I saw, Pluto does not carry many things that are available OTA.

 

[wiyosaya]

My wife was watching a live, talk news show this morning and found out that the commercials do not occur at the same time as the commercials in the show. What happens is that the conversations are interrupted for a commercial, and then at the end of the commercial, the conversation is at a different point or another, perhaps completely different, conversation is taking place.

And this makes this particular show difficult to watch. If this happens on all news channels with all news shows, I cannot imagine that news would be easy to watch on Pluto.