Frank Biondi Jr., the seasoned entertainment business executive who served tenures as the CEO of Viacom, HBO and Universal Studios, died Monday of cancer. The
Los Angeles Times reported he died at his home in Los Angeles. He was 74. Biondi is survived by Carol Biondi, his wife of 45 years, as well as daughters Anne Biondi Simonds and Jane Biondi Munna. R.I.P. Frank Biondi Jr. I extend my condolences to Biondi's loved ones in this difficult time.
Frank Biondi, former CEO of Viacom, smiles as he takes questions during a news conference announcing a new cable network, the Tennis Channel, in 2001. (Beth A. Keiser / Associated Press)
From The
Los Angeles Times:
Frank Biondi Jr., former head of Viacom and Universal Studios, dies at 74
Frank Biondi Jr., who became one of the leading architects of the modern-day media industry while leading companies such as Viacom, Universal Studios and HBO, died early Monday.
Biondi, who was 74, died of bladder cancer at his home in Los Angeles, his daughter Jane Biondi Munna told The Times.
A highly regarded businessman, Biondi helped build HBO and Viacom into formidable entertainment companies and oversaw some of the most important media brands during the 1980s and 1990s. He also served as chairman and chief executive of Universal Studios, and held key entertainment executive roles at Sesame Workshop and Coca-Cola, when it owned Columbia Pictures.
Biondi was a sharp and low-key business executive who understood complicated finances but was also known for his calm, pleasant and straightforward demeanor, often in sharp contrast with the sometimes difficult personalities he worked for.
Hailing from suburban New Jersey, he became a star baseball player before enrolling in Princeton University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1966.
Later, armed with an MBA from Harvard, he had a short career as a financial analyst on Wall Street.
But after the market hammered cable stocks in the early 1970s, he found refuge in a nonprofit called the Children’s Television Workshop, which produced such classics as “Sesame Street” and “Electric Company.”
In the mid-1970s, he was offered the job of head of movie acquisition for Home Box Office, a role he turned down. But the HBO executives were persistent and Biondi joined the budding cable network in 1978, a role he got with the help of longtime friend Michael Fuchs.
“I thought this was really a silly job, to be honest with you, because you paid $.30 - $.40 a movie,” Biondi said in an interview with the industry group now known as the Cable Center. “It sounded like an accountant’s job. So I turned him down. They were mystified. How could I do that?”
He became the president and chief executive of HBO in 1983 and helped establish the successful model of a premium subscription channel with boxing and blockbuster Hollywood movies.
“Frank is not a flamboyant person, as you know,” Fuchs once told the Associated Press. “He picks his spots and picks his words. He’s thoughtful. That puts him in the minority of high visibility entertainment executives.”
Biondi is best known for his lengthy tenure as president and CEO of Viacom, the parent company of MTV, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon. He joined the media giant, controlled by chairman Sumner Redstone, in 1987.
During Biondi’s run at Viacom, the firm transformed itself from a debt-heavy cable and theater company into an entertainment colossus by acquiring Paramount Communications and Blockbuster Video for a total of $18 billion.
Biondi, known for his quick mind and facility with numbers, was credited with helping Redstone quickly integrate Viacom’s divisions after the purchases of Paramount and Blockbuster, two of the biggest acquisitions in the New York company’s history. He was widely described as a calm and easygoing foil to the sharp-elbowed Redstone.
During his run, the company’s successes including the Oscar-winning film “Braveheart,” the irreverent MTV cartoon “Beavis and Butt-Head” and the TV sitcom “Fraiser.”
Redstone, however, surprised investors in 1996 when he fired Biondi, saying he wanted the company to “move faster” and that Biondi’s management approach wasn’t working. Biondi, at the time, said he disagreed with the decision but accepted it.
“Sumner came in my office about 3:30 on ... I don’t even remember what day of the week it was anymore,” Biondi recalled in the 2000 Cable Center interview. “He said, ‘I want to make a change. I always wanted to run my own company. It’s been great. I’ll be great.’”
Biondi was immediately hired by Seagram Co. scion Edgar Bronfman Jr. to lead the liquor company’s entertainment enterprise, Universal Studios, formerly known as MCA. However, the entertainment division, in which Seagram had acquired an 80% stake in 1995, was struggling with film flops and executive turmoil as the parent company tried to manage its film, TV, music and theme parks business.
Biondi was fired in 1998 amid a broader shakeup of the company by Bronfman, who was criticized for leading the entertainment division without a clear strategy. Leadership of entertainment brands, including its movie and TV studio and theme parks business, fell to Ron Meyer. Biondi, at the time, said it was clear Bronfman wanted “to run the business himself.”
Leaving Universal after just over two years in the job, Biondi exited with a hefty settlement, reportedly worth more than $25 million, from Seagram.
Since 1999, Biondi has served as senior managing director of WaterView Advisors and was on the boards of several companies, including Madison Square Garden, AMC Networks and STX Entertainment. Robert Simonds, the head of STX Entertainment, is Biondi’s son-in-law.
An avid tennis player, Biondi also helped finance the 2001 launch of the Tennis Channel, now owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Biondi is survived by Carol Biondi, his wife of 45 years, as well as daughters Anne Biondi Simonds and Jane Biondi Munna.
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From
Variety:
Frank Biondi Jr., Former Viacom and Universal Studios Head, Dies at 74
Frank Biondi, former CEO of Viacom, smiles as he takes questions during a news conference announcing a new cable network, The Tennis Channel, in New York. Biondi, a lead investor in the new channel, helped announce the summer 2002 launch of the all tennis networkTV TENNIS CHANNEL, NEW YORK, USA. CREDIT: BETH A KEISER/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK
Frank Biondi Jr., the seasoned entertainment business executive who served tenures as the CEO of HBO, Viacom and Universal Studios, died Monday of cancer. The Los Angeles Times reported he died at his home in Los Angeles. He was 74.
Biondi was the consummate example of the kind of polished, Ivy League-trained business executives who rose through the ranks in the entertainment industry in the 1980s and ‘90s. He was a respected leader known as a whiz with financial data and high-level dealmaking, but he left the creative side of network and studio operations to others.
Biondi was remembered by friends and colleagues as a key player in shaping the contemporary media and entertainment industries. Robert Simonds, chairman-CEO of STX Entertainment who is married to Biondi’s daughter Anne, considered him a mentor.
“Anne and I are devastated to lose Frank so young,” Simonds said. “He was not only an icon and mentor to me, as he was to so many in our industry, he was a noble, kind and beloved father to us and an extraordinary grandfather to our children. We cherish the life and memories we shared and we will proudly carry on his legacy.”
Highly regarded as plain-spoken and gentlemanly, he was content to stay out of the direct spotlight for a decade while working for the larger-than-life Viacom mogul Sumner Redstone. He was famously fired by Redstone in January 1996 after a nine-year run as Viacom’s CEO — a move that helped cement Redstone’s reputation as a mercurial boss.
Biondi was immediately courted by Seagrams’ Edgar Bronfman Jr., then the new owner of Universal Studios. (Redstone tried unsuccessfully to block Biondi from joining the rival studio.) But barely two years later Biondi was ousted in a restructuring amid a slump at Universal and the arrival of Barry Diller as a business partner of Bronfman. After Universal, Biondi never returned to a major executive role.
In 1999, Biondi and several partners formed WaterView Advisors, an investment firm focused on media and technology companies. WaterView had a rocky run in its first few years following the initial dot-com collapse.
In January 2006, activist investor Carl Icahn enlisted Biondi as his choice to be CEO of Time Warner as Icahn waged a proxy fight to shake up the board and management of the company that was still reeling from the AOL merger debacle. Icahn’s proxy battle was settled a few months later.
He was much in demand as a director for public media and tech firms. In recent years, Biondi served on the boards of AMC Networks, Madison Square Garden Co. and ViaSat. His past board seats included Cablevision Systems Corporation, RealD, Hasbro, Yahoo! and Harrah’s Entertainment.
Biondi grew up in New Jersey, the son of a Bell Telephone executive. After graduating from Livingston High School in 1962, he earned a BA in psychology from Princeton University in 1966 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1968.
Biondi’s early career included serving as assistant treasurer from 1974 to 1978 at “Sesame Street” producer Children’s Television Workshop. He moved on to Time Inc. as a VP from 1978 to 1984. He took on additional duties as CEO of Time Inc.’s HBO in 1982. Two years later, Biondi exited Time Inc. after he was replaced as HBO CEO by Michael Fuchs. Biondi moved on to become CEO of Coca-Cola Television from 1985 to 1987, during the period when the soft drink giant owned Columbia Pictures.
In 1987, Biondi was recruited by Redstone to run Viacom, the home of MTV, Nickelodeon and other cable channels, which Redstone acquired the same year. Biondi was a key player five years later when Redstone battled Barry Diller for ownership of Paramount Pictures.
He married ABC research executive Carol Oughton in 1974. His other survivors include a daughter, Jane.
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From
TheWrap:
Frank Biondi Jr, Former Viacom and Universal Studios CEO, Dies at 74
Executive also served as president and CEO of HBO
Former HBO, Viacom and Universal Studios chief executive Frank Biondi Jr. has died at the age of 74.
Biondi died Monday at his home in Los Angeles following a battle with bladder cancer, his daughter told the Los Angeles Times.
As an entertainment executive in the 1980s and ’90s, Biondi helped shepherd the rise of HBO and Viacom after a brief tenure at Children’s Television Workshop serving as a producer on “Sesame Street.”
Biondi first joined HBO in 1978, later rising to president and chief executive in 1983. He was tapped by Sumner Redstone to serve as CEO of Viacom four years later and would go on to oversee the company’s acquisitions of Paramount Communications and Blockbuster Video. However, Redstone fired Biondi in 1996, publicly criticizing his management style in the process.
After his exit from Viacom, Biondi was hired to lead Universal, a job he held for two years.
In the time since, Biondi helped to launch the Tennis Channel and served on the boards of Madison Square Garden, AMC Networks and STX Entertainment.
He is survived by his wife, Carol Biondi, and daughters Anne and Jane.
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From
Variety:
Remembering Frank Biondi Jr., the Exec Who Was Viacom’s ‘Secret Weapon’
Frank Biondi Jr. was never a flashy CEO. He rarely stood in the spotlight at the media companies he led.
But Biondi, who died Nov. 25 at age 74, was a hugely influential figure for a generation of executives who worked for him at HBO, Columbia Pictures Television, Viacom and Universal Studios.
Friends and colleagues remember Biondi as a low-key manager who was buttoned up when it came to business but was never afraid to take a gamble on something that had the backing of his top lieutenants.
“He provided a lot of energy and leadership for Viacom at a time when we were deep in debt and we were only able to make a few bets to move ourselves forward,” says Tom Freston, a fellow former Viacom CEO and longtime head of MTV Networks.
Sherry Lansing, who headed Paramount Pictures during Biondi’s time at Viacom, recalls an executive who was equal parts brilliant and kind. “He was calm in all situations,” Lansing says. “He was calm during the bad times, and he was calm — although happy — when we would have a big hit.”
Matt Blank, former Showtime chairman-CEO, first met Biondi when they were working together at Time Inc. and HBO in the late 1970s. It was Biondi who persuaded Blank to move over to Showtime not long after Biondi was recruited by Sumner Redstone to be CEO of Viacom in 1987. “You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who helped more people and guided the careers of more executives than Frank,” Blank says.
Biondi was a quick study on any given subject, attentive and always accessible, friends and colleagues say. Those qualities made him a strong leader and counterpart to the mercurial Redstone. Biondi had a way of making executives feel that he was rooting for them.
“When you made a call to Frank, he always returned it very quickly, and he always tried to be helpful,” Blank says.
The growth of Viacom on Biondi’s watch attracted attention from the business press. The CEO wound up in the unfamiliar position of being front and center of a New Yorker profile by Ken Auletta, published in January 1995, with the headline “Redstone’s Secret Weapon.” One year later, Redstone would fire Biondi — a decision that Viacom veterans to this day believed was spurred by Redstone’s envy over the praise for Biondi in the pages of The New Yorker.
“It was obvious especially in the early days that Frank was the guy calling the shots and running the show,” Freston says. “Sumner was watching the stock price.”
Biondi was also a role model in how he conducted himself outside the office, starting with his devotion to his family and his wife of 45 years, former ABC executive Carol Oughton.
“He would leave the office at 6 o’clock,” Freston recalls. “He drove a modest car. He did not lead a fancy life in any way. For Frank, it was family first, then Viacom, and then sports. He was a hell of a tennis player.”
Biondi grew up in New Jersey, the son of a Bell Telephone executive. After graduating from Livingston High School in 1962, he earned a BA in psychology from Princeton University in 1966 and an MBA from Harvard in 1968.
His early career included serving as assistant treasurer from 1974 to 1978 at “Sesame Street” producer Children’s Television Workshop. He moved on to Time Inc. as a VP from 1978 to 1984. He took on additional duties as CEO of Time Inc.’s HBO in 1982. Biondi left to become CEO of Coca-Cola Television from 1985 to 1987, during the period when the soft drink giant owned Columbia Pictures.
By the time he landed at Viacom, Biondi had gained experience in virtually every aspect of the media business, from production and distribution to running a pay-TV startup to wheeling and dealing on high-level acquisitions.
Freston cites Biondi’s decision to give the OK to produce original animated series for MTV and Nickelodeon as an example of his leadership style. He did it because he had faith in the team leading the charge. “He believed in MTV and Nickelodeon,” Freston says. “He greenlighted the strategy that led to ‘Rugrats’ and ‘Doug’ and ‘Ren & Stimpy,’ and those animated properties went on to become some of the biggest revenue drivers for all of Viacom.”
Biondi also had a strong competitive streak. Freston recalls persuading Biondi in a three-minute phone call in 1989 to allow Viacom to announce the launch of a comedy-focused cable channel after they learned that HBO was about to announce a comedy cabler. The result, after some twists and turns, was Comedy Central, which remains one of Viacom’s biggest assets.
But at the time, there was no such strategic vision, just a desire to play spoiler to Biondi’s former employer.
“We invented the whole thing that morning,” Freston recalls. “There was no business plan. It was really just meant to foil HBO’s big announcement. The business was much more seat-of-the-pants in those days. Frank was a risk-taker despite the fact that he was also a very buttoned-up guy.”
Biondi faced his share of career ups and downs — after he was ousted at Viacom, he spent about two years as CEO of Universal Studios before the ax fell again amid a broader management shake-up. But he bore no grudges, friends say. He had no trouble keeping business and personal issues distinct in his mind.
“Frank stayed very close to some of the people he worked with over the years,” Blank says. Blank notes that he made a point of reaching out to Biondi earlier this year to get his perspective on a possible business opportunity. His counsel, as ever, was sharp and insightful. “He took great pleasure in seeing [executives] go on to have their own successes,” Blank says. “He always made you feel like you were part of the family.”
Lansing echoes that sentiment. “He was an inspiration to me in how to conduct a meaningful life,” she says. “He valued his wife and his children above all else. He rose to the very top of the entertainment industry, but he never lost sight of what was important in life.”
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Originally published: Monday, November 25, 2019.
