Fox Entertainment Chief May Resign

John A. Matoian, the president of Fox Entertainment Group, is expected to resign today, according to television sources, leaving the fourth-ranked network without a programming chief just as the new fall season opens.

While Fox had a meteoric rise, it stalled last season after trying to broaden its viewership beyond a young audience. The network’s executives, including Matoian, have been under increasing pressure from News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch to put the network on par with the three major networks.

Matoian, who has held his position just shy of two years, has been rumored to be leaving for months. Though Fox Broadcasting Co. would not comment Thursday, sources said the executive’s decision was prompted largely by a management shift in late July.

Fox recently promoted David Hill, formerly president of its sports division, to oversee the entertainment arm and other Fox TV operations. While Matoian does not report to Hill, but rather to Chairman and Chief Executive Chase Carey, sources said Hill’s appointment raised questions about Matoian’s authority. Fox sources said Murdoch wanted Hill to improve the network’s performance.

Sources say that Fox wanted Matoian to stay on and was pressuring him to sign a new long-term contract with the network, but that Matoian was unwilling to do so John A. Matoian

because of the uncertainty over how the new management lineup would work.

“They do not want him to leave,” said one senior TV executive. “This is John’s own thing.”

Although Fox has strengthened its distribution with the addition over the last year of several former CBS affiliates and paid a high price to beat CBS in a bid for the rights to air National Football League games, hoping to bring in more viewers, the network’s ratings have failed to show much lift.

It is unclear whether Fox has a replacement for Matoian, although sources say the network has held discussions with Chris Albrecht, who oversees a production unit at Home Box Office. Albrecht could not be reached for comment, but sources say he is currently under contract with the premium cable network. Albrecht’s name also surfaced two years ago, before Matoian got the job.

Matoian’s chief lieutenant, Bob Greenblatt, executive vice president of prime-time development, has been with the network since July 1989--through the tenure of four entertainment heads.

Even though Matoian’s departure has been rumored for months, high-level Fox executives were surprised by the timing. Matoian seemed relaxed and engaged at the regularly scheduled Thursday morning staff meeting with Carey, Hill and other department heads. Sources say he talked with enthusiasm about the latest ratings.

Matoian has joked before about the periodic rumors regarding his exit, telling TV critics in July, “So far, none of them is true, [but] I promise you if anything happens, I’m sure you’ll know about it before I do.”

The executive acknowledged that he had been absent from his job a good deal during the summer because of a family illness, which fueled the rumors that he would be leaving.

Matoian’s departure would be ill-timed for the network, happening less than two weeks before the official start of the new television season. The same was true two years ago, however, when Fox opted to replace then-entertainment chief Sandy Grushow with Matoian a week into the fall campaign.

Matoian oversaw the production of movies and miniseries at CBS before becoming the head of Fox’s family movie unit in March 1994. He was then drafted, somewhat reluctantly, to head the network’s entertainment division.

Fox didn’t have a particularly good season last year, though that appraisal applied to all the networks except front-runner NBC. The first of Fox’s new shows for the fall, the comedies “Party Girl” and “Lush Life,” will premiere next week.