Tom Freston | |
|---|---|
 Tom Freston at the 2011 Time 100 gala. | |
| Born | November 22, 1945 New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Saint Michael's College (BA) New York University (MBA) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Known for | CEO of Viacom's MTV Networks (1987–2004) |
| Board member of | One Campaign Firefly3 Moby Group |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
Thomas E. Freston (born November 22, 1945) is an American media proprietor, businessman, and financier.
Freston grew up in Rowayton, Connecticut. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Saint Michael's College and an MBA from New York University.[ citation needed ] Freston began his career advertising at Benton & Bowles, which later merged with D'Arcy. In 1972, after a year of traveling, he moved to South Asia to start a textile and clothing business, Hindu Kush, and worked and lived in New Delhi, India and Kabul, Afghanistan. [1]
Returning to the United States in 1979, he joined the Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment Company (WASEC), a pioneer in the new field of cable television programming. He was one of the founding members of the team that created a music video channel MTV in 1981. [2] As head of marketing, he worked on the "I Want My MTV" ad campaign that helped make the new network a cultural phenomenon. In 1987, he became the President and CEO of MTV Networks, a job he held for 17 years. [3] MTV Networks launched and operated networks including: Nickelodeon, VH1, Comedy Central, TV Land, Spike, CMT, Logo TV, Noggin, and others.
As CEO of MTV Networks, Freston expanded the company's reach, built an animation studio, produced feature films, and developed large consumer product and digital businesses. Popular brands and shows included: Blue's Clues , Beavis and Butthead , The Adventures of Pete & Pete , SpongeBob SquarePants , Daria , The Daily Show , Jackass , South Park , Drawn Together , Crank Yankers , The Fairly OddParents , Aeon Flux , Chappelle's Show , I Love the... , Behind the Music , Avatar: The Last Airbender , The Colbert Report , Wonder Showzen , The Ren & Stimpy Show , The Real World , Dora the Explorer , Rugrats , and Star Trek series (from Generation to Deep Space Nine ).
In 2004, after Viacom President & COO Mel Karmazin stepped down, Freston was named Co-President & Co-COO of Viacom (along with Leslie Moonves). [4] Freston oversaw MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Famous Music Publishing, and Simon & Schuster. [5]
On December 31, 2005, Viacom was split into two separate companies – the second Viacom led by Freston, and CBS Corporation headed by Moonves; both CBS Corporation and the second Viacom were under National Amusements administration until 2019. [6]
In September 2006, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone stunned the entertainment industry when he fired Freston from the position of CEO. One of the chief reasons for the move was that Freston hadn’t moved decisively enough to buy MySpace, which was then the most popular social networking site; instead Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation purchased the site for $580 million. Redstone believed that the failure to acquire MySpace contributed to the 20% drop in Viacom’s stock price in 2006 up to the date of Freston’s ouster. Freston's successor as CEO, Philippe Dauman, was quoted as saying “never, ever let another competitor beat us to the trophy”. Redstone told interviewer Charlie Rose that losing MySpace had been “humiliating,” adding, “MySpace was sitting there for the taking for $500 million.” Murdoch's company ended up selling Myspace, which had largely declined along with the rise of rival social networking website Facebook, in 2012; News Corp's sale price at the time was $35 million. [7]
Freston is currently the principal of Firefly3 LLC, a consulting and investment company. In January 2015, he became a senior advisor to The Raine Group, a boutique merchant bank. [8]
In 1980, Freston married Margaret Ellen Badali. [9] They had two children [10] and later divorced.
In 1998, Freston married Kathy Freston, a former model, self-help author, and health and wellness expert. [11] They divorced in 2014.
The second incarnation of Viacom Inc., was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate with interests primarily in film and television. It was established on December 31, 2005, as one of two companies which succeeded the original Viacom, alongside the second CBS Corporation. The controlling shareholder of both companies was National Amusements, a theater company headed by businessman Sumner Redstone. The split was structured so that the original Viacom changed its name to CBS Corporation and spun out its cable and film interests as a new Viacom.
Sumner Murray Redstone was an American billionaire businessman and media magnate. He was the founder and chairman of the second incarnation of Viacom, chairman of CBS Corporation, and the majority owner and chairman of the National Amusements theater chain.
National Amusements, Inc. is an American privately owned movie theater operator and mass media holding company incorporated in Maryland and based in Norwood, Massachusetts.
Leslie Roy Moonves is an American media executive who was the chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation from 2003 until his resignation in September 2018 following numerous allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault and abuse. He has been married to TV personality Julie Chen since 2004.
Frederick G. Seibert is an American television producer and media proprietor. He was the first employee and creative director of MTV in 1980, and later founded Frederator Studios in 1998, as well as its spin-off companies Frederator Networks, Channel Frederator Network, and Cartoon Hangover. Having held numerous executive positions for Viacom Media Networks, he was the final president of animation studio Hanna-Barbera from 1992 to 1996. He has since co-founded Next New Networks, Bolder Media, and the production company FredFilms by 2020.
The second incarnation of CBS Corporation was an American multinational media company with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing, and television production. It was formed on January 1, 2006, as the legal successor of the original Viacom, following the spin-off of the second incarnation of Viacom; both CBS Corporation and the second Viacom were controlled by National Amusements, a theater company owned by billionaire Sumner Redstone.
Thomas Berard McGrath is an American media executive. He is the chairman of Crossroads Media, a company which invests in live and location-based entertainment on a global scale. He was formerly the Chairman of Crossroads Live, a global distributor of theatrical entertainment. Previously, the president and COO of STX Entertainment; executive chairman of Key Brand Entertainment, a producer and distributor of live theatre in the United States and parent company of Broadway.com; president and COO of Act III Communications; and executive vice president and COO of Viacom Entertainment Group. He is a nine-time Tony Award-winning producer, member of the National Recording Academy, and board member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He also serves as trustee of New England Conservatory of Music and American Repertory Theater at Harvard.
Infinity Broadcasting Corporation was a radio company that existed from 1972 until 2005. It was founded by Michael A. Wiener and Gerald Carrus. It became associated with popular radio personalities like Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, Don Imus and Mike Francesa. Infinity merged with CBS Corporation in 1997 and later became part of Viacom in 2000, when CBS and Viacom merged, serving as the radio division of CBS. After the Viacom split in 2005, Infinity changed its name to CBS Radio.
Philippe Pierre Dauman is an American businessman who served as president, CEO and chairman of Viacom from September 2006 until May 20, 2016. Dauman was a longtime associate of the company's chairman Sumner Redstone. Dauman served from 1994 to 2000 as a member of Viacom's executive committee and as executive vice president in charge of strategic transactions, legal and government affairs, human resources and administration, supervising Paramount Pictures Entertainment, Showtime Networks and Simon & Schuster. Dauman was also a director at Redstone-owned CBS Corporation until September 2006.
Shari Ellin Redstone is an American media executive. She is the non-executive chairwoman of Paramount Global and president of National Amusements, and a former vice chair of CBS Corporation and Viacom. Through National Amusements, Redstone and her family are majority owners of CBS, Comedy Central, BET, Showtime Networks, Nickelodeon, MTV and the film studio Paramount Pictures.
Mika Salmi is a Finnish-American entrepreneur in technology and media.
The original incarnation of Viacom Inc. was an American mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in New York City. It began as CBS Television Film Sales, the broadcast syndication division of the CBS television network in 1952; it was renamed CBS Films in 1958, renamed CBS Enterprises in 1968, renamed Viacom in 1970, and spun off into its own company in 1971. Viacom was a distributor of CBS television series throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and also distributed syndicated television programs. The company went under Sumner Redstone's control in 1987 through his cinema chain company National Amusements.
The Electric Barbarellas were an American all-female electropop group whose career with producer Midi Mafia was depicted in a short-lived, critically panned, eponymous reality show that ran for one season on MTV.
Paramount Global is an American multinational entertainment conglomerate that was the subject of criticisms and controversies about its products and services. Criticism of Paramount Global has included the former Viacom Inc.'s announced plans of looking into splitting the company into two publicly traded companies. The company was not only dealing with a stagnating stock price, but also the rivalry between Leslie Moonves and Tom Freston, longtime heads of MTV Networks. In addition, the company was facing issues after MTV was banned from producing any more Super Bowl halftime shows after the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy in 2004.
Robert Marc Bakish is an American business executive. He became the president and CEO of Paramount Global on December 4, 2019, formerly holding the same position at Viacom before the merger with CBS Corporation. He stepped down on April 29, 2024.
Joseph R. Ianniello is CEO and Chairman of Argus Capital Corp., a special purpose acquisition company. He has previously been the Chairman of CBS Entertainment Group unit of ViacomCBS from December 4, 2019 until March 23, 2020 and President and acting CEO of CBS Corporation in September 2018.
Paramount Global is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate controlled by National Amusements and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The company was formed on December 4, 2019, as ViacomCBS through the merger of the second incarnations of CBS Corporation and Viacom. The company took its current name on February 16, 2022.
The 2019 merger of CBS Corporation and Viacom was announced on August 13, 2019, and was completed on December 4, 2019. The merger of equals reunited CBS Corporation and Viacom into a single company known as ViacomCBS after their separation from the first incarnation of Viacom on December 31, 2005. Both companies were owned by the theater company National Amusements, which remains the owner of the merged entity.
HaHa Nick was a television programming block co-produced by Nickelodeon and Shanghai Media Group (SMG). It consisted of original live-action host programs and several of Nickelodeon's flagship American shows, dubbed in Mandarin. It aired on multiple SMG channels, mainly their children's network, Oriental.
On December 31, 2005, American mass media company Viacom split into two companies: the second CBS Corporation, its successor which holds the namesake flagship channel Columbia Broadcasting System, CBS News, CBS Sports, Showtime Networks, UPN, Smithsonian Channel, Channel 10, PopTV, Simon and Schuster, Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, Viacom Outdoor, Showtime Networks, and Paramount Television, and an entirely new Viacom which holds Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Noggin, Nicktoons, TEENick, Music Television, Black Entertainment Television, Video Hits One, Country Music Television, and later DreamWorks, respectively. It was first announced in March 2005. The companies are controlled under National Amusements' control because of a stagnating stock price.