Ah, so this is how Pluto makes its money. I hadn't watched it long enough to take notice of that, but it makes sense. It may be possible that the commercials are targeted to the specific viewer, also.
Dynamically inserting commercials this way may explain some of the delays in Buzzr being released at different times on different platforms. Samsung TVs might not have the technology to allow Pluto to insert commercials during the local breaks, which would affect the revenue model. This also means that Buzzr is sharing its rundown with Pluto.
Pluto does use targeted advertising. I’ve noticed different spotloads running during breaks on the same Pluto channel on different devices. I also get localized ads sometimes for local car dealers, furniture stores, political candidates, etc.
I’m pretty sure they use an ad engine, similar to YouTube. (It may even be YT’s engine.) I believe they have a sales team, so some of the ads are probably sold directly, but I doubt they’re directly selling to every local furniture store & political candidate whose ads run.
Sometimes their ad engine is funky, though. Probably the most common viewer complaint on their Facebook page is about the same ads sometimes playing back-to-back-to-back. They’ve said they’re working on fixing it, though I haven’t seen a timeframe. (Personally it’s not that big a deal to me, but it seems to be to some people.)
Also, about a year ago, I was seeing a LOT of local ads for things several states away. This seemed to be especially an issue on Roku. And it wasn’t that they just had me in the wrong ZIP code—these were ads from all over the country. Being a media geek, I found it pretty interesting, though I doubt most of the advertisers who saw it were amused. It seems they’ve gotten this issue mostly fixed, although even now an out-of-market ad occasionally slips through.
About the Pluto ad breaks not exactly always being in sync with the show’s breaks, yeah, that’s always been a problem since I’ve been watching it. (I’m not sure how that’s working for the live channels like BUZZR, but it’s very noticeable on the Pluto-run channels.) I feel like it’s a small price for all you get with Pluto, but it is something I hope they fix going forward.
One other ad-related issue is the content at times. I have seen a few somewhat racy ads, even on the cartoon channels. It’s not
as big a deal to me since I don’t have kids in the home, but I’d be squirming at times if my kids were watching an age-appropriate show and certain ads came on. Again, I hope they fix that issue going forward.
