CULVER CITY, CA Sony Pictures Entertainment is launching a new division that will expand the mandate of three-year-old Columbia TriStar Television Children’s Programming to include feature film and direct-to-video properties.
The unit will look to develop franchise properties that will work in multiple media formats, says Sander Schwartz, founding head of the TV programming group and now named president of the new division. Films produced by the unit will be incremental to the family titles already being produced by Sony’s Columbia Pictures, he says.
Schwartz told promo he envisions a marketing department in which “brand managers” will steer properties through various media. “If you’re building franchises, it doesn’t make sense to segment.” The new structure should expand the duties of current employees, but will require additional staffing as well, he says.
The division should have one film property green-lighted by the end of ’99, and will eventually look to produce two to four films per year, Schwartz says.
Network
