Tom Freston

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Tom Freston (born 1946) is an American television executive currently serving as President and Chief Executive Officer of the newly-split Viacom.

Freston began his career in the field of advertising, but later moved to New Delhi, where he ran a textile and clothing business for eight years. After returning to the United States, where he worked for Benton & Bowles advertising agency (which later merged with D'Arcy) on the Charmain Toilet Paper account.

Later on, choosing to change directions with his life, Freston saw an ad in a newspaper that a music channel was being developed and joined Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment (WASEC) in 1980, which later became MTV Networks. In 1981, he was one of the founding members of MTV: Music Television, and as the head of marketing, created the "I want my MTV" ad campaign. In 1987 he became the CEO of MTV Networks.

As CEO, Freston used his position to advance his networks' positions in new markets, both domestic and overseas, receiving increasing ratings every year, and launching several ancillary product lines featuring various segments and characters from popular series within his networks, including previous and current tie-ins, with Double Dare, Beavis and Butt-head, Dora the Explorer, Blue's Clues, Rugrats, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly Oddparents, South Park, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Behind the Music, The Real World, and Total Request Live.

In 2004, after Viacom President & COO Mel Karmazin stepped down (he later went on to become Chairman & CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio), Freston was named Co-President & Co-COO of Viacom (along with Leslie Moonves). This dual appointment led to confusion as to who was going to take over Viacom when Chairman & CEO Sumner Redstone retires. However, Moonves became head of the other component of the split, CBS Corporation.

In Freston's new role as Co-President & Co-COO, he oversees all cable network properties (MTV Networks and Showtime Networks), the motion picture businesses of Paramount Pictures, and the publishing operations of Simon & Schuster.

The uncertainty regarding succession was resolved in June 2005 when the Viacom board of directors agreed to split the corporation into two separate companies. One, which will be called CBS Corporation, will be headed by Moonves. The other, which will include the Paramount Pictures film studio and the MTV and BET television networks, will keep the Viacom name and will be headed by Freston. Redstone will, however, remain the majority shareholder and chairman of both successor companies.

Educated at Saint Michael's College and New York University, he is currently on the Board of Trustees for Emerson College in Boston.

External links

Viacom Inc.

Annual Revenue: .3 billion USD (

10% 3Q 2005) | Employees: 38,350 | Stock Symbol: NYSE: [VIAB] | Website: [www.viacom.com]

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