The insane true story behind MTV

**Sam Parr** (0:00)
My MTV hit list. MTV.

**Tom Freston** (0:01)
MTV. MTV.

**Sam Parr** (0:03)
MTV.

**Tom Freston** (0:03)
MTV.

**Sam Parr** (0:04)
You grew the company from zero to billions in revenue.

**Tom Freston** (0:07)
Yeah, we were a high-margin money machine. It was sort of the height of the cable TV revolution, which began to deteriorate in the early 2000s with the digital revolution.

**Sam Parr** (0:16)
You helped create South Park, Chappelle Show, Stephen Colbert.

**Tom Freston** (0:19)
We had Jimmy Kimmel on. He got his start there. Bill Maher got his TV start on Comedy Central.

**Sam Parr** (0:24)
You're recruited by Steve Jobs. Same with Geffen, who is one of the most successful media business guys there ever is. You, I think, made an offer to buy Facebook. Is that right?

**Tom Freston** (0:33)
Yeah, we were the first people. We went back and forth and we put a bid on the table and they turned us down.

**Sam Parr** (0:39)
How big, what was it?

**Tom Freston** (0:40)
It was like 1.7 million, billion, excuse me.

**Sam Parr** (0:43)
When you were trying to spot winning people or creatives, was there a common theme?

**Tom Freston** (0:49)
Yeah, well.

**Sam Parr** (0:58)
I was trying to think of the way that I could introduce you. Tom helped found MTV, which was one of the most important networks when I was raised. Going home and watching TRL at 3.3 was the greatest thing ever. But then you also owned VH1, Comedy Central, which meant you helped create South Park, Chappelle Show, John Stewart's-

**Tom Freston** (1:19)
Daily Show, Stephen Colbert.

**Sam Parr** (1:21)
Stephen Colbert.

**Tom Freston** (1:22)
We had Jimmy Kimmel on. I mean, he got his start there. Bill Maher got his TV start on Comedy Central.

**Sam Parr** (1:27)
Yeah, it goes on and on and on. Then also, this is a business podcast. You grew the company from zero to billions in revenue.

**Tom Freston** (1:34)
Yeah, billions. We got up to like eight or nine billion dollars. That includes consumer products, which became a big thing for us because we would own the IP of all the Nicktoons, SpongeBob.

**Sam Parr** (1:44)
Yeah, you owned Nickelodeon. So, Rennet Stippe.

**Tom Freston** (1:46)
That was actually the biggest business. Was Nickelodeon? Yeah, by far.

**Sam Parr** (1:50)
I want to talk about that business, but I just wanted to show the traction, not only from a cultural, you had your impact on culture, but also the business side, which those two aren't always correlated.

**Tom Freston** (2:01)
Yeah, it was a wonderful business. I mean, we were a high margin money machine.
It was the height of the cable TV revolution, which began to deteriorate in the early 2000s with the digital revolution. So, yeah, we had an amazing business model. I mean, because we had three revenue streams. We had subscribers, which is like one-third to 40 percent from cable operators or satellite operators, advertising and then consumer products, movies and other things that we would do.

**Sam Parr** (2:31)
How old were you when you started it?

**Tom Freston** (2:32)
I was the oldest guy when we started MTV. The development team was seven or eight people, and I was 33, and I had run a business in India and Afghanistan. We used to design and make clothes and sell them to better stores here and in Canada and a couple of other countries. I knew nothing about that business, but I wanted to live in India.

**Sam Parr** (2:51)
Were you like a hippie and you just like went over there?

**Tom Freston** (2:54)
I wasn't a hippie.
I had been working in an ad agency in New York, and they assigned me to Charmin Toilet Paper, and that was like the last straw for me, a line I couldn't cross, and a girlfriend, ex-girlfriend, called me from Paris, said, oh man, you can't sell toilet paper. I'm going across the Sahara Desert. Why don't you, you should just come with me. Quit your job. Don't do this. I was on a plane like 10 days later.

**Sam Parr** (3:18)
Which is weird because I think I read that you graduated number one in your class from getting your MBA at NYU.

**Tom Freston** (3:24)
I did that, yes. I went to business school primarily originally to stay out of the draft because the Vietnam War was raging. Then in business school, I encountered people like Peter Drucker and professors. I was really entranced and turned on by business. Then when I got out of there, I basically decided I'd do menial jobs and bartend my way around for a year and take what people would call now a gap year. So I worked like an Aspen in the Caribbean.