Columbia TriStar TV Chief Resigns Amid Restructuring

A restructuring last week at Sony Pictures Entertainment has claimed one casualty, with Jon Feltheimer resigning Tuesday as president of Columbia TriStar Television after eight years at the company.

Feltheimer, 48, was expected to leave after Mel Harris, 57, was lured back to the company to become co-president and chief operating officer of Sony Pictures, with responsibility over worldwide television. Harris was previously the television chief at Sony until resigning in mid-1995.

Sources say Feltheimer had expected to advance up the ladder at Sony and saw the Harris appointment as a slap in the face.

Feltheimer said he would leave immediately. “There is a great group of people here and Mel deserves the opportunity to manage them,” said Feltheimer, who said he would like to do something entrepreneurial.

Feltheimer is regarded in the industry as both a talented and difficult executive. He won praise for building Sony’s television group despite continuous management turmoil at the studio during his tenure. The company also has been hindered by a lack of leverage as the entertainment business became dominated by giants controlling both distribution and programming. Foreign ownership restrictions prevent Sony from owning broadcast stations.

Feltheimer is credited with expanding Sony internationally; its 25 cable channels overseas have an estimated value of more than $1.5 billion. He resuscitated the Game Show channel and laid the groundwork for the launch of the new SoapCity channel in January, based on Sony’s top-rated shows “The Young and the Restless” and “Days of Our Lives.”

Though Sony has yet to make good on its investment in Telemundo, analysts say the value of the stations has increased because of changes in ownership rules in August.

The studio has prime-time hits in “Mad About You,” “Party of Five” and “Dawson’s Creek,” though the acquisitions of the major networks by Hollywood studios over the last three years is making it tougher for an unaffiliated studio to compete for time slots.

No replacement has been named for Feltheimer, whose contract expires in February.