ABC Television President Quits

The revolving door at the Walt Disney Co.’s troubled ABC network continues to turn, as the studio announced Tuesday that ABC Television President Steven M. Bornstein is quitting after nearly a year in that position.

Disney executives announced the change in a brief statement and declined to elaborate on the reasons or timing behind Bornstein’s exit. The company said only that Bornstein, 50, who spent most of the last two decades helping mold ESPN into a cable TV sports powerhouse, was leaving “to pursue other interests.”

Bornstein’s responsibilities had included oversight of ABC’s television stations, the revamping of the cable channel ABC Family--which Disney acquired and renamed last year--and the ABC TV network. But ABC has struggled through a dismal season and is in fourth place in prime-time ratings.

The network’s performance resulted in the ouster of ABC Entertainment Television Group Co-Chairman Stu Bloomberg in January.

Bornstein’s resignation follows statements by Disney President Robert Iger that he intends to become more involved in ABC’s operations.

Iger, a former president of ABC who also has been head of the network’s entertainment division, told The Times last month that neither he nor Disney Chairman Michael Eisner was sleeping well in light of ABC’s subpar results.

Television industry sources and media analysts have long said that ABC is top-heavy in management and that the responsibilities of senior management are ill-defined.

“Bornstein’s role was really unclear,” said Jordan Rohan, media analyst with SoundView Technologies Group. Another analyst, David Miller of Sanders Morris Harris in Los Angeles, said, “There are too many people at the top of ABC.”

Bornstein’s position will not immediately be filled.

Some industry sources speculated that Carole Black, president of Lifetime Television, a channel part-owned by Disney, might replace him, but representatives for Disney and Black dismissed the idea.

A network source said the ABC position probably would be restructured. In the near term, Angela Shapiro, who was named president of ABC Family in March, and ABC Television Network President Alex Wallau will report directly to Iger.

The shift comes at a critical time for the network. ABC executives are busy selecting next season’s pilots in an attempt to reverse a 20% slide in audience in the last year.

In two weeks, ABC and the other networks will present their fall lineups to advertisers in New York and begin selling the bulk of their commercial time in what is known as the “advertising up-fronts.”

Sources said Iger and Bornstein sometimes clashed, but sources close to Bornstein rejected the notion, saying the two men worked well together for more than a decade. One source said Bornstein’s departure was “a mutual decision” that had been in the works for several months.

Bornstein “played key roles in the enormous success of ESPN and the successful launch of the ABC Family Channel,” Iger said in a statement. “We appreciate all that he had done for ESPN, ABC Family and ABC and wish him well.”

Neither Iger nor Bornstein would comment beyond the statement.

Bornstein Called ‘a Great Salesman’

Industry insiders described Bornstein as a capable and decisive manager. “He was a great salesman for ABC and ESPN,” Rohan said.

However, some said Bornstein had the nearly impossible task of working magic at some of Disney’s most problematic divisions, including running ABC and Disney’s Go.com, the Internet site that Disney shut down a year ago after it lost nearly $1 billion.

A Disney source said Bornstein waited to leave until after overseeing the launch of ABC Family cable channel and installing Susan Lyne as president of ABC Entertainment after Bloomberg’s departure and Shapiro as head of ABC Family. Disney bought the ABC Family Channel last year from News Corp. for $5.2 billion.

Bornstein’s tenure as network chairman was hobbled by the advertising recession, which saw overall spending in network advertising decline sharply and Wall Street pressuring Disney to boost its sagging stock price.

Disney shares closed Tuesday at $23.18 a share, up 16 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange. In the last year, Disney’s stock has fallen 23% in value.

“It’s been a rotten, tough year,” said Alan Bell, president of Irvine-based Freedom Broadcasting Inc., which owns three ABC-affiliated stations.

The combination of an advertising recession, decline in audience levels and stock price slump has created considerable turbulence for the network, Bell said, calling it “the ingredients for a perfect storm. Boats get capsized and executives are swept out to sea.”

In a statement, Bornstein said: “I have had the good fortune of having some very challenging and rewarding positions with ESPN, ABC and the Walt Disney Co. There are other interests I wish to pursue and now is an appropriate time to do this.”