Sony names trio of TV chiefs

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) has set a new management team following the departures of Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg for Apple.

Jeff Frost is rising from executive VP of business affairs to president of Sony Pictures Television Studios (SPTS), a new division that separates business from creative.

Jason Clodfelter and Chris Parnell are also upped from their roles as EVP of drama development and programming to co-presidents of SPTS.

They will take on creative oversight of the Culver City-based studio, reporting to Frost, who in turn reports to new Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra.

This comes after Erlicht and Van Amburg surprised the TV industry by resigning from their roles to become programming chiefs at tech giant Apple, which is pushing into original content.

Collectively, the new Sony trio will lead what has been dubbed the ‘office of the president’.

Within this Clodfelter and Parnell will oversee drama, comedy, reality, syndication, current programming, casting and talent, telemovies and miniseries, and TriStar Television.

Wayne Garvie will remain in charge of SPT’s international productions as chief creative officer. He will now report to Vinciquerra, the former Fox channels chief who replaced Michael Lynton as SPE chief earlier this year.

Sony’s television division, which is behind series such as The Shield, Preacher and Breaking Bad, has been a consistent performer for the studio, which is owned by Japan’s Sony Corp and has struggled in other areas such as film in recent years.

“Over the last several weeks, I have been able to see first-hand the strong leadership qualities possessed by Jeff, Chris and Jason, the high energy and vitality of everyone in their groups and throughout SPT and the outstanding collaboration that exists between them all,” said Vinciquerra.

“I am confident they will not only grow our robust television business, but also strengthen the integration between SPT and SPE’s other lines of business and with the other Sony Group companies.”

Frost joined Sony in 2008 from ABC Studios, where he was senior VP of business affairs.

Parnell joined SPT in 2003, while Clodfelter was hired in 2006. They have jointly developed series such as Breaking Bad, The Blacklist and Bloodline since then.

“The landscape of our business continues to rapidly evolve, and SPT is in an ideal position to take advantage of industry shifts due to our diversity of programming and ability to air across a broad array of broadcast, cable and digital platforms,” said Frost.

“We have had great success over the past ten years and I look forward to working with the team to capitalise on the opportunities that lie ahead.”