Pluto TV Lands $30M Financing From Scripps Networks And ProSiebenSat.1

Pluto TV, a free online television startup based in Los Angeles, has landed $30 million in Series B financing round led by German media company ProSiebenSat.1, with participation from Scripps Network Interactive.

Launched in March 2014, Pluto TV has amassed more than five million monthly viewers who tune into its 100-plus live TV channels that feature a mix of serious news, mainstream entertainment and light Internet fare. The latest round brings Pluto TV's total venture haul to $43 million and gives the fledgling company a $140 million valuation.

Pluto TV carries content from 75 media partners, including NBC, CBSi, Bloomberg, Sky News, A&E Networks and Paramount Pictures. But unlike many online video platforms, Pluto's programming is strictly linear, meaning that its channels are pre-programmed and viewers can't choose what they want to watch on those channels.

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The popularity of Pluto TV, Twitch, Vevo TV and others is proof that not all online video needs to be on-demand, that linear programming also has a place on the Internet. This is especially true as news, sports and entertainment content have an increasingly easier time finding their way to living room TVs, thanks to the spread of plug-and-play devices such as Google's Chromecast, Amazon's FireTV, Roku and Apple TV.

As a result, the line between broadcast TV and online video has blurred, opening the door for upstarts like Pluto TV to grab a piece of the $175.4 billion global television ad market, which is forecast to rise to $210.3 billion by 2020, according to Statista.

Tom Ryan, Pluto TV's Founder and Chief Executive, said his company plans to use its latest round of financing to expand into Europe and eventually become a "global destination for free television." In ProSiebenSat.1, Pluto TV has a strategic partner in Europe that has a line into 45 million TV homes in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Last year, ProSiebenSat.1 posted 3.2 billion Euros in revenue.