SPT Coming Back to NATPE

Studio shopping 'Queen Latifah' for fall 2013

By Paige Albiniak -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/11/2012 4:42:09 PM

After several years away, Sony Pictures Television will again participate in the annual convention of the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE), which is being held at the Fontainebleau Hotel and Resort in Miami Beach this January.

SPT executives, who are shopping a new talk show, Queen Latifah , to TV stations for fall 2013, will attend the show, but other than that, SPT's participation in NATPE hasn't been decided yet. Other syndicators -- such as CBS Television Distribution, Debmar-Mercury, Disney-ABC, Twentieth and Warner Bros. -- exhibit at the show and take suites in the host hotel.

Neither SPT nor NATPE would comment.

Rod Perth was named NATPE's CEO and president in May, taking over the job from Rick Feldman, who ran the organization from April 2003 until last February. Prior to joining NATPE, Perth was the founder and president of RHP Media Consulting. He also was co-founder and president of television for ReelzChannel; president of Jim Henson Television Worldwide; and president of USA Networks Entertainment.