Longtime senior television exec Ed Wilson, who recently left his position as president of NBC Enterprises, has joined the FOX Broadcasting Co. as president of the FOX Television Network. Wilson will be responsible for supervising all affiliate relations, advertising sales, legal, broadcast standards and Fox Ent. Group (FEG) integrated marketing operations for the network. He will also work closely with FEG on business development opportunities for the network.
Gail Berman, Fox Broadcasting's entertainment president, continues to report to Peter Chernin, News Corp. president/coo and Fox Ent. Group chairman.
Ed Wilson is one of the most gifted operational executives in the television business, said Tony Vinciquerra, president/ceo of the FOX Networks Group, to whom he will report. His extensive sales, marketing and administrative background, as well as his close relationships with station groups, will serve him well as he helps to lead what I believe is the most impressive management team in the broadcast industry. Were lucky to have him join us.
For the last four years, Wilson served as president of NBC Enterprises, where he was responsible for the global distribution and exploitation of product, including foreign and domestic syndication, marketing ancillary product (home video), merchandising, licensing, music and publishing, as well as domestic and international co-productions and co-ventures. HE unexpectedly stepped down on the eve of NBCs merger with Universal Studios.
He partnered NBCE with the Hearst-Argyle and Gannett station groups, as well as the NBC owned & operated stations in a first-ever station/network joint venture to create first-run syndicated programming.
He also supervised or launched the first-run syndication of such series as Access Hollywood, The Jane Pauley Show and The Chris Matthews Show, as well as the off-network sales of FEAR FACTOR, PROVIDENCE, CROSSING JORDAN, BOOMTOWN and ED.
Before NBC, Wilson was president/ceo of CBS Enterprises. He joined CBS in 1996 after it acquired MaXaM Ent., a distribution entity he launched in 1994. Previously, Wilson was a senior exec with Columbia TriStar Television Distribution and held increasingly responsible positions with Paramount and Viacom. He also served as sales manager with KATV, The ABC affiliate in Little Rock, Arkansas. He began his television career in 1980 as a sales trainee for Viacom in New York.
Wilson has served on the board of directors of the National Assoc. of Television Programming Executives (NATPE), as well as on the board's executive committee. He is a board member of the Hollywood Radio and Television Society (HRTS), The University of Texas Communications Panel, the NATPE Educational Foundation and the Spine in Sports Foundation.
