Pluto operates a model called FAST (free ad supported television). Because the content is still aired in a linear fashion (as opposed to on demand) the licensing costs are lower than it would be for VOD and there’s no infrastructure costs to support like traditional cable tv, they can support it with ads easily enough.

They don’t have regular channels and instead do all their own programming. You get things like “The Bob Vila Channel” and other channels that focus on library/long tail content.