Former Paramount Global exec Brendon Thomas has joined Radial Entertainment as the company’s new chief revenue officer. At Radial he’ll handle revenue generation through the company’s library and acquisitions via distribution, licensing, advertising, business development and new market expansion.
Thomas will report to Radial CEO Jeff Shultz, who announced the hire on Wednesday. Shultz joined Radial last December, having previously served as chief strategy officer and chief business development officer of Paramount Streaming, where he worked with Thomas.
“Brendon and I have built together for nearly a decade,” Shultz said in a statement. “He led our most important distribution deals and strategic partnerships at Paramount and he’s the best commercial operator I know. There was no one else I wanted in this seat.”
Thomas’ executive structure include sales co-heads Julie Dansker (exec VP of global licensing and international distribution) and Daniel Gagliardi (exec VP of North American digital distribution), as well as Matt Katrosar, exec VP of global advertising and partnerships.
“Independent content libraries are entering their most valuable era – platforms need scale, advertisers want premium AVOD inventory, and global FAST is still in early innings,” Thomas said in a statement. “Radial has the catalog, the distribution leadership, and the platform relationships to win this moment. My focus is on accelerating the revenue engine the team has built to put Radial at the forefront of our industry’s transformation. Working with Jeff again, and the opportunity to build upon what Julie, Daniel, and the team have put in place, is why I’m here.”
Thomas was most recently senior VP of distribution and business development at Paramount Global. Before that, he was Pluto TV’s head of global distribution, joining at its start in 2015 through its 2019 acquisition by Viacom. Under his watch, Pluto TV hit $1 billion in annual revenue by 2021.