Do You Need a TV Licence to Watch Pluto TV in the United Kingdom?

Pluto TV is a free streaming service owned by Paramount. It’s delivered entirely over the Internet and available in several countries, including the UK, US and Canada.

With viewing habits shifting — and the BBC TV licence now costing £180 — many people are looking to cut costs or only pay for the content they actually watch. For some, that means sticking to free online platforms; for others, it means subscribing to services like Amazon Prime Video or Netflix.

Pluto TV works on most modern smart TVs, Amazon Fire Sticks, Roku devices and Android TV boxes. You can also watch it through a web browser, or via Apple and Android apps.

Each regional version of Pluto TV is different. The UK and US versions offer different channels and different on‑demand libraries. Personally, I don’t rate the UK “live” section very highly. Because of Ofcom rules, anything rated 15 or 18 is blocked before the 9pm watershed. The US version has no such restrictions and offers far more content overall.

Accessing the US version from the UK is surprisingly straightforward. All you need is a VPN set to a US location. Many devices — tablets, Fire Sticks, Android TV boxes and Windows PCs — support VPN apps. Unfortunately, Roku devices and most smart TV operating systems do not. If you’re looking for a free VPN with a US server, Proton VPN is a solid choice.

But here’s the real question: does watching Pluto TV require a TV licence in the UK?

You need a TV licence if you watch or record live television — whether it’s broadcast via Freeview, satellite or streamed over the Internet. It doesn’t matter whether the channel originates in the UK or overseas. You also need a licence to watch anything on BBC iPlayer, except on‑demand S4C content. That’s the basic rule.

Pluto TV offers both “live” channels and on‑demand content. In theory, watching on‑demand content without a licence should be fine. However, Pluto TV behaves differently depending on the device you’re using.

On an Android tablet, Windows PC and similar devices, a picture‑in‑picture window showing live content appears automatically. There’s currently no way to disable it, and it continues playing even while you browse the on‑demand section. That means you’re technically watching live TV.

On my Android TV box and Amazon Fire Stick, however, when using a VPN set to the United States, Pluto TV loads directly into a menu where you choose either live channels or on‑demand content. In that scenario, selecting on‑demand content does not require a TV licence.

Even though I currently have a TV licence and can watch both live and on‑demand content legally, I contacted TV Licensing to ask whether Pluto TV requires a licence, and explained how the app behaves differently across devices.

It wasn’t easy to get a clear answer at first — I received the usual generic response about needing a licence for live TV and how to buy one. But after pushing for clarification, I eventually got the information I needed.

Strangely, their reply even included links to Reddit, which weren’t particularly helpful and only confirmed that TV Licensing themselves had never, at least before my enquiry, reviewed Pluto TV or how its behaviour varies across different devices.

Despite specifically asking whether it would be acceptable to use Pluto TV without a TV licence when the app automatically loads a so‑called live channel, or shows a mini picture‑in‑picture window while you browse on certain devices, I still couldn’t get a straight answer from TV Licensing.

So I tried again, and received the following reply:

TV Licensing recommend going into the settings and turning off the picture‑in‑picture window in the menu. Unfortunately, that option isn’t available in the Pluto TV app. I emailed Pluto TV about this recently, and they said they would pass the feedback to their development team, so hopefully it may change in a future update.

As for whether you need a TV licence to use Pluto TV, the answer isn’t completely clear. However, if you’re using an Android TV box or an Amazon Fire Stick, and the app opens to a menu where you can choose on‑demand content rather than automatically showing a live picture‑in‑picture window, then you can use it without a TV licence.

On other devices — such as an Android tablet, phone, Roku, or Windows PC — Pluto TV tends to load a live channel automatically and display a picture‑in‑picture window. In those cases, it’s either not acceptable without a TV licence or falls into a very grey area, even if you intend to switch to on‑demand content straight away.