NEW YORK: Peter Liguori, long-time Fox executive and chairman of the group’s entertainment division, is being cut in a company restructure.
Liguori, who started in the cable division at FX, will step down as chairmen of entertainment at Fox Broadcasting. He’ll be replaced by Fox Searchlight chief Peter Rice who will report to network group chief Tony Vinciquerra. Rice is riding a wave of success on Searchlight’s blockbuster Oscar sweep with “Slumdog Millionaire.” Other Searchlight films developed on his watch includes “The Wrestler,” “Juno,” “Sideways,” and “Little Miss Sunshine.”
Rice and Vinciquerra together will program the Fox Network.
The moves come a couple of weeks after News Corp. No. 2, Peter Chernin, announced his pending departure in June.
News Corp. is also combining the Fox creative production divisions in a single unit reporting to Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman, co-chairmen of Fox Filmed Entertainment. It will also encompass Fox TV Studios and Twentieth Century Fox.
