Tom Ryan, president and CEO of Paramount Streaming, is stepping down.
Ryan notified Paramount staffers of his departure in an internal note, which Variety has obtained and can be read in full below.
“I leave with deep gratitude and pride for a team I love and admire, and for Pluto TV and Paramount+, streaming services that started as bold ideas and have since grown into global powerhouses,” Ryan wrote.
“It has been the honor and privilege of my career to lead and work alongside this exceptional team. Thank you for the laughs, the late nights, the karaoke sessions, the bold ideas, and the unwavering belief in what we could do together,” he continued.
Upon his departure, Ryan will continue to serve in an advisory role to Cindy Holland and the incoming streaming leadership team established in the wake of the Skydance-Paramount merger.
Ryan has been president and CEO of Paramount Streaming since October 2020. Under his leadership, the division grew from $1.8 billion in 2020 to $7.6 billion in 2024, achieving its first globally profitable quarters that same year. Ryan was the co-founder and CEO of Pluto TV, helping to launch the service in April 2014. By 2021, it surpassed $1 billion in annual revenue and helped pioneer and popularize FAST (free ad-supported streaming television). Pluto TV was acquired by Viacom in January 2019 for $340 million.
Ryan also serves as chairman of Struck Studio, a startup venture studio he helped launch in 2022. In addition to his work at Struck Studio, Ryan serves on the boards of Telly and Smule, and advising venture capital firms such as SignalFire and Felix Capital.
Love Film & TV?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.
Ryan is the latest Paramount exec to exit the company as Skydance takes the reins of the legacy Hollywood studio. As previously announced, Dan Cohen, Paramount Global chief licensing officer, is also stepping down. Likewise, co-CEOs Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins are both expected to leave the company in the not too distant future.
Note from Tom Ryan
Team,
After twelve phenomenal years entertaining the planet together, the time has come for me to say goodbye. I leave with deep gratitude and pride for a team I love and admire, and for Pluto TV and Paramount+, streaming services that started as bold ideas and have since grown into global powerhouses.
This has been the journey of a lifetime. From the early days of Pluto TV — born out of a tiny West Hollywood warehouse (that is now, in true LA fashion, a cannabis dispensary) — to the incredible launch and scale of Paramount+, this ride has been nothing short of extraordinary.
When we introduced Pluto TV, we were criticized for betting on a free, linear, ad-supported streaming model, when the world was focused only on paid, on-demand, ad-free services. Launching on April Fool’s Day admittedly didn’t help. But we embraced an underdog spirit, remained steadfast and proved the skeptics wrong when the service was acquired by Viacom just five years later and became sustainably profitable the year following.
Together, we helped pioneer FAST before it had a name. We transformed Pluto TV into a billion-dollar business with over 80 million users. We came together to launch Paramount+ into a crowded market and, against all odds, made it the fastest-growing SVOD in the U.S and one of the top four SVOD platforms worldwide. We scaled to 78 million subscribers, hit profitability milestones ahead of schedule and faster than our peers, and just drove Paramount Streaming to a $2.2 billion quarter. This is remarkable growth compared to $1.8 billion for the entire year when we launched the division less than 5 years ago. Even more impressively, our division also generated $157 million in quarterly profit and achieved global profitability for the first half of 2025. But more than the numbers, we built something that mattered—with heart, hustle, and a whole lot of grit.
What I’ll miss most, though, is you — the people, the team, and the culture we created. Through every challenge, especially the more recent ones, you showed up with courage, creativity, and an unshakable sense of purpose. You’ve inspired me every single day and I’m a better leader for it.
It has been the honor and privilege of my career to lead and work alongside this exceptional team. Thank you for the laughs, the late nights, the karaoke sessions, the bold ideas, and the unwavering belief in what we could do together. While I’ll be stepping away from my day-to-day role following the close of the deal, I’ll be staying on in an advisory capacity to Cindy Holland and the Streaming leadership team to help ensure a smooth and successful transition. I have no doubt that you’ll continue to achieve spectacular things, and I’ll be cheering you on every step of the way.
Tom
From Variety US