• by Wayne Friedman , August 30, 2017

Fox Television Group has made two significant moves -- a senior executive change and a renewal of a major affiliate group for some of its stations.

David Madden, president of entertainment of Fox Broadcasting, is stepping down. He will be replaced by Michael Thorn, EVP of development for Fox’s production arm,Twentieth Century Fox.

Thorn led the development of two recent big hits for the studio -- “Empire,” which runs on the Fox network, and “This Is Us,” which airs on NBC. He will report to Gary Newman and Dana Walden, co-chairs and CEOs of Fox Television Group.

According to reports, Madden is in negotiations for the top programming position at AMC Networks.

Separately, Fox Broadcasting Company has renewed its network agreement for some mid-size market TV stations with the Sinclair Broadcast Group. The deal includes stations in South Carolina, Texas, Nevada, Georgia and Indiana.

Other possible affiliate changes involving a major Sinclair deal to buy Tribune Media for $3.9 billion are still being considered. Fox has affiliations with 14 stations owned by Tribune Media.

Back in early August, reports surfaced that Fox was considering moving those network affiliations to stations owned by Ion Media.

Sinclair, in the process of buying Tribune Media, has been viewed by many TV companies and industry analysts as being anti-competitive.

In August, when the news broke about the possible Tribune Media change for Fox, Sinclair's stock price slipped nearly 8%.

Now, the news of a Sinclair/Fox affiliation agreement for these mid-size TV stations -- perhaps signaling stability for Sinclair -- had Sinclair stock soaring 7% to end Wednesday at $31.45.