Pokémon TV announces return

After The Pokémon Company announced the sunsetting of the Pokémon TV app in its initial form earlier this year, the service is imminently returning in a new form for Pokémon fans to enjoy. Pokémon fansite Serebii is now reporting via X (formerly Twitter) that the Pokémon TV service is now slated for a return on December 6:

Additionally, while there is currently no content posted to the page, the official Pokémon TV Youtube page is displaying a banner announcing that full episodes are coming December 6. The specifics of what this new YouTube-based version of Pokémon TV will look like is currently unknown, including the specific slate of available episodes and schedule for their airing. The Anime Away team will have more information for you as it becomes available.

The second Pokémon streaming service to launch this year

This past summer, it was announced that The Pokémon Company and Canadian media company Wildbrain would be collaborating to launch a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel devoted exclusively to the Pokémon anime series. This channel went live on Pluto TV October 22 in the United States, with launches in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand following. The Pokémon FAST channel on Pluto has licensed the first 22 seasons of the anime — from the very first episode of the anime, which debuted in English in 1998, through to Sun & Moon – Ultra Legends, which debuted in English in 2019.

The return of the Pokémon TV and the launch of the Pluto channel with Wildbrain are the culmination of the current Pokémon media strategy. In recent years, the Pokémon anime series has made major shifts towards global distribution through streaming. Although there are several international regions where it is primarily available through traditional TV networks, in most of the world, the latest Pokémon anime, Pokémon Horizons is streaming on Netflix. Netflix is also where fans can fill in the gaps between the bulk of the series available on the Pluto FAST channel and Horizons, since Netflix has acquired the English-language rights to the seasons of the series after Sun & Moon – Ultra Legends.

Also available on Netflix is the stop-motion anime series Pokémon Concierge, which debuted in December 2023 and will be producing a second season at some point in the future.

Be sure to keep checking with the Anime Away. We'll be following up on the re-launch of Pokémon TV app once we get a better sense of what fans can expect from this new version of the service. In the meantime, keep following us here on Anime Away for more about all your favorite anime shows and movies.