Tom Ryan talks to The Hollywood Reporter about licensing shows for a competitive platform and why it’s smart to be a controversial company.
At first glance, there seems to be little connection between Tom Ryan’s current role overseeing ViacomCBS’s streaming strategy and his past as chief music officer at CD startup Cductive or CEO of graphic T-shirt retailer Threadless. But the New York resident says that each job gave him an opportunity to put together a personalized experience for his clients. “I’m very interested, borderline, with this concept of programming to people to make it easier to find the things they want,” Ryan says. “The internet is such a powerful medium, but it is paralyzing for many people because they do not know where to look.”
Ryan (51) and his team let their work cut out, helping viewers search for the massive programming catalog on Paramount +, the subscription service for that that ViacomCBS launched on March 4 with more than 30,000 television episodes. The company is also compiling 2,500 library films and plans to include an extensive list of original articles. Frasier revival and a Yellowstone prequel. (Disney + was launched with 7,500 episodes and 500 movies.) Ryan oversaw the venture in October – a revamped and super-powered version of 6-year-old CBS All Access – after launching his previous startup, ad-supported streamer Pluto TV, sold to Viacom. for $ 340 million in 2019. He says managing both Pluto TV, which offers streaming channels that mimic the live TV experience, and Paramount + could help make ‘the one-plus-one of free and paid streaming equal to to make three. ‘
A few days before the launch of Paramount +, the married father of three took a break to “choreograph” the run-up from his home in the Hollywood Hills for a virtual check-in at THR about ViacomCBS’s streaming ambitions.
What experiences with managing Pluto TV have you applied to your new role at ViacomCBS?
The power of conflicting insights also applies to businesses launched by larger companies. With Pluto, we were linear at the time of the demand, free at the age of paid subscription and supported by ads when people said ads were disappearing. There is a lot we can do with Paramount + that was born out of some of these insights and also born out of philosophy. There are some great streamers out there, but we need to think about what we can do that has not been done yet – even if it may seem contradictory – that will enable us to be winners.
Why did it make sense for Bob Bakish, CEO of ViacomCBS, to put you in control of both the subscription and free streaming businesses supported by advertising?
As Bob said, we have a unique streaming strategy in the market by seeing the streaming world evolve in a way that goes back to how traditional TV has been built over the years, where you have free, paid and premium. Pluto is our main player in the free space, Paramount + in the wide pay space, and on the premium side we have Showtime, BET +, and so on. We work very hard on all the different ways we can utilize the services we have to create a funnel to sell from fee to payment, and to keep for those who pay in our free ecosystem. [with Pluto TV].
How does the launch at the back of the legendary streamer CBS All Access Paramount + help?
The team I inherited is extremely talented. We have support from all divisions of the company, so this is a top priority. Everyone is focused on making it a success, and we’re getting started. We’ve announced 30 million worldwide subscribers to our paid streaming services, so we’re not starting from scratch. I feel it is very powerful. CBS All Access was very much a CBS product, so the opportunity for us now is to go much, much bigger than we could historically do.
How will you introduce existing CBS All Access customers to a new brand?
It’s going to take some time and effort for consumers to digest the evolution. But I do not think it’s that hard to do between what we can do in terms of instant messaging and messages via our partners and in the broad messages like you saw from the Super Bowl and everything we do on digital and TV and social. Consumers will get it, but there is a bit of an education process.
Paramount + will not have Yellowstone, which streams on NBCUniversal’s Peacock, but it will prequel and spin-off. What challenge does it pose?
Even if it’s true that we do not have Yellowstone, we have Taylor Sheridan, and I’m confident that all the new programs we bring to Paramount + will be extremely popular. Some of these decisions were made before Viacom and CBS merged, so these are historical artifacts. We will continue to strive to license content to certain other streamers where we believe it makes sense, and this is not always the case for financial reasons. If you look at iCarly right now it’s one of the top shows on Netflix. The promotion it gets through Netflix basically trains a whole new group iCarly fans, including my three children. We bring the new iCarly and Paramount +. So there are benefits to licensing, but it has to be done in a thoughtful way. In the future, we’ll focus more on posting our best content on Paramount +.
Is it safe to assume that you will take back some of the shows you licensed elsewhere?
Yes, retrieving certain content and placing it on Paramount + is at the heart of the strategy, but it’s case by case.
Which Paramount + reboot or spin-off do you look most like?
The new Taylor Sheridan stuff is probably the most exciting to me. He’s just an amazing artist.
How will you implement board of directors within Paramount + to help subscribers go through all the original and back catalog?
We have machine learning profiles to get to know you better and give you personalized recommendations. There are our brands – from Nickelodeon to Comedy Central to MTV – that really stand for something in each of their respective genres. We bring linear, interest-based channels – Pluto-like channels – that allow you to jump to content. And there are a whole host of other things that we have not yet announced what we are working on.
Now that every major media conglomerate has made an effort to streamline, how do you think the next few years will shake for ViacomCBS?
There are going to be a handful of winners. There is a rising tide that will lift the best boats – not all boats – and I am confident that today we have the absolute best boat for free and that we have everything in our pocket for one of the best boats to be paid.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
This story first appeared in the March 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to sign up.