Greg Meidel Exits Twentieth Television in Wake of Disney-Fox Merger

By
( )
published

Greg Meidel, president of Twentieth Television, is departing the company now that Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox has been completed. 

Meidel's exit had been expected since there are redundancies in the sales and distribution divisions at Disney. Janice Marinelli oversees Disney global content and distribution reporting to Kevin Mayer, chairman of Disney's direct-to-consumer and international units.

Meidel joined Fox for the second time in 2007 as president of MyNetworkTV. He then folded Twentieth into his portfolio in 2009. While there, he oversaw both first-run sales and development as well as sales of off-network comedies, such as Last Man Standing and ModernFamily. In 2012, first-run moved to the Fox Television Stations and out from under Twentieth's purview.  

Meidel had worked at Twentieth before, having been named president and chief operating officer of Twentieth Television in 1992. In 1997, he became chairman of Universal Television. He departed that company after NBC acquired it in 2004. In 2001, he was named president of programming for the domestic television division, launching Dr. Phil and TheInsider. 

Meidel got his start in the industry in 1979 as a sales representative at Paramount. He worked there until 1992, climbing the ranks to executive VP and general sales manager.

Meidel was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame in 2018.

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.