Tom Ryan | |
|---|---|
 Tom Ryan at NATPE Streaming+ | |
| Born | Thomas V. Ryan March 18, 1969 |
| Education | Dartmouth College INSEAD in France |
| Occupation(s) | CEO and President |
| Employer | Paramount Streaming |
Tom Ryan is the co-founder of Pluto TV and CEO and President of Streaming at Paramount Global. [1] [2] He oversees the company's global direct-to-consumer division, [3] which includes paid and free streaming through businesses such as Paramount+ and Pluto TV. [4]
Ryan has an AB from Dartmouth College and an MBA from INSEAD in France. [5] [6] [7]
Tom Ryan's entrepreneurial career began in 1996 when he co-founded Cductive, an early digital music retail company that Ryan later sold to EMusic in 1999, [8] [9] that same year he became an advisor for EMusic. Following this, in 2002, he was a Mobile Music Consultant with Virgin Mobile USA. [10] [11] From 2004-2007, Ryan was the Senior vice-president of Digital Strategy at EMI Music. [12] [13] [14] In 2007 he held the position of "Entrepreneur-in-Residence" of Bessemer Venture Partners until 2008. From 2008-2012, Ryan was CEO of the crowdsourced design community and e-commerce company, Threadless. [15] [16]
In 2013, Ryan co-founded Pluto TV, [17] [18] making him one of the first to bring Free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) services to the market. [19] [20] It was launched in 2014. In 2019, he sold the company to Paramount (at the time ViacomCBS) for $340 million, [21] [22] and stayed on as CEO. [23] By 2021, Pluto TV had over $1 billion in annual revenue. [24]
In October 2020, Tom Ryan was named President and CEO of Streaming at Paramount Global (formerly known as ViacomCBS Streaming). [25] In 2024, under his leadership, the direct-to-consumer segment had its first profitable quarter since the launch of Paramount+ in March 2021. [26] [27]
Ryan is the current Chairman of the board of Struck Studio. [28] He has been a founding board member of Smule, a social music site, since 2008. Ryan has been a Venture Advisor on the board of Felix Capital since 2015 [29] and Fund Advisor of SignalFire since 2017. He was previously on the board of Society6, which was acquired by Leaf Group in 2013 [30] from 2010-2013 and Trunk Club [31] from 2011-2014. He was an angel investor in both Smule and Trunk Club. [32]
In 2021, he was recognized as the Fastest Growing Brand in America for Paramount. [33] In 2022, Ryan received the NATPE's inaugural "Award for Executive Leadership in Global Streaming". [34] [35] And was also a Variety500 Honoree from Variety. [36] In 2023, Stream TV awarded Ryan "CEO of the Year" & awarded Pluto TV "Streaming Platform of the Year"; [37] [38] that same year Pluto TV received a Webby Award for the "People's Voice Winner" for Best Streaming Service. [39] In 2024, the NATAS revealed that Pluto TV would receive the Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards for Pioneering Development of Manifest-based Playout for FAST. [40] That same year he was named on both the LA500 [41] and FAST30 [42] lists.
Issued on February 9, 2016 on Methods and Systems for Generating and Providing Program Guides and Content. [43]
Ryan lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and three children. [44]
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