Thomas Ryan on business strategy
From ViacomCBS VetNet VIP Meet & Greet Web Series Episode 3: Tom Ryan and Mike Pannacciulli · · Paramount Veterans Network
“TV has given us a great place to go — people generally like channel‑surfing and they're willing to watch advertisements in exchange for a free service, even though they'll also pay for subscription services. So we said there's a lane here, and as an entrepreneur you need to look for that white space because if there's a bunch of competition already in a category with no resources and a small team you're very unlikely to be successful.”
On , Thomas Ryan, President & Chief Executive Officer of Streaming at Paramount Global, spoke about business strategy during ViacomCBS VetNet VIP Meet & Greet Web Series Episode 3: Tom Ryan and Mike Pannacciulli on Paramount Veterans Network.
About Thomas Ryan
In a 2022 ViacomCBS Veterans Network event, Ryan described cord-cutting and the migration to streaming as "a massive new opportunity" for the company, noting that Pluto TV is "the number‑one player in the free, ad‑supported streaming TV space" and is "soon going to be on a billion‑dollar annual run rate." He stated that consumers generally like channel-surfing and are willing to watch advertisements in exchange for a free service, and that as an entrepreneur one should look for "white space" where there is little competition. During a 2019 interview, Ryan said the future of OTT is "exciting" but that the space is becoming "confusing" for customers, and that there is a limit to the number of subscriptions people will pay for. He argued that the free ad-supported opportunity has been "overlooked for a very long period of time" and will be a big part of how people consume content, adding that customers will gravitate toward a handful of "biggest one-stop-shop aggregators."