Tom McGrath (media executive)

Tom McGrath

Tom McGrath (also known as Thomas B. McGrath, born 1956, married), though little known outside of Hollywood, has been an important, behind-the-scenes player in re-shaping the modern media landscape throughout his entertainment career. McGrath received his AB at 19 from Harvard and earned his MBA there as well.

After writing a thesis on the topic brought him to the attention of Columbia's then CEO, Fay Vincent (who was later the commissioner of Major League Baseball), McGrath was hired by Columbia Pictures in 1980 to start a home video distribution company at a time when few had even heard of videocassettes. McGrath had written an econometric paper on theater and video competition that contributed to the US Justice Department lifting a 30-year old prohibition on film companies owning movie theaters. McGrath also lead the formation of TriStar Pictures, a partnership of Columbia, HBO and CBS - the first new movie studio in fifty years - which survives to this day as part of Sony Entertainment. With Warner Brothers, Fox, Goldcrest Films and Thorn/EMI, McGrath formed Premiere International, Europe's first Pay TV service.

After Columbia McGrath started up Act III Communications in partnership with famed TV writer Norman Lear, Bert Ellis, Scott Wallace and Paul Schaeffer. Act III was the first non-industry player to acquire movie theaters in a move that subsequently led to virtually all the major movie theater chains being acquired by financial players. Act III also owned TV stations and trade magazines. McGrath moved on in 1990 to become President of Time Warner International Broadcasting where he worked with the legendary Steve Ross and HBO's Jeff Bewkes to take advantage of the de-regulation of media internationally by launching radio and TV channels such as Classic FM in the UK, Channel Five (UK), VIVA-TV (Germany), the first major competitor to MTV and the only one to beat them in local ratings, N-TV, a German language 24-hour news network in partnership with CNN,VOX (TV) a national German TV network with Bertelsmann, and others.

After Time Warner International McGrath became chief operating officer of the Viacom Entertainment Group following Viacom's acquisition of Paramount Pictures in 1994. At Viacom McGrath headed up Famous Players [1] Theaters which eventually obtained a 50% share of theCanadian market, and United Cinemas International which lead the effort to modernize international movie theaters by building almost 1,000 movie theater screens in 13 countries including Brazil, China, Italy, Japan, Germany and others. McGrath also lead up the build-up of the Paramount TV station group from 14 local independents to 27 stations for the launch of the UPN network, America's fifth major broadcast network. In new technology, Tom McGrath proposed the formation of Digital Cinema Initiatives, an all-movie studio effort to define standards for digital cinema projection, served on the committee for advanced DVD standards, formed the studio joint venture "Movielink" to offer internet downloading of major feature films, and lead industry efforts to both combat internet film piracy and create viable online alternatives.

McGrath began his career as a musician, performing in the orchestra at the "Wolftrap" Center outside Washington, DC, while in college. Following college he was a Broadway press agent at the Kennedy center, work that included the original production of Annie and the first national tour of A Chorus Line. Other production credits for McGrath (principally as an executive) include Fried Green Tomatoes, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride and the major theater productions of Arsenic and Old Lace, Vacanza Romana (Roman Holiday), Irving Berlin's White Christmas, Footloose, Saturday Night Fever and the stage production of Happy Days with Gary Marshall. At Harvard he was music director of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals and conductor of both the Harvard Marching Band and the Gilbert and Sullivan Society.

References

• Variety (various articles)
• Vanity Fair "Springtime of the Moguls"
• World Economic Forum biographies of attendees and presenters, Digital Hollywood.

External Links

Famous Players Theaters

Crossroads Media (McGrath)

United Cinemas International

VIVA TV (Deutsch und English)

N-TV Nachrichten Fernsehen (auf Deutsch)

Paramount Pictures

Norman Lear, Act III Communications