As president, Sony Pictures Television (SPT), Steve Mosko oversees all television operations for Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). An SPE executive for more than two decades, Mosko leads the largest independent television studio, a company that ranks as a leader in the production and distribution of programming around the world, encompassing an extraordinary span of genres, time periods and television venues.
As president, Mosko also oversees pay cable, video-on-demand, pay per view, digital networks, and advertiser sales. Additionally, Mosko directs the studio’s international networks with 120 channel feeds available in more than 159 countries, reaching more than 543 million households worldwide; Crackle.com, SPE’s premium video website; and the studio’s interests in: 3net, the first 24/7 fully programmed 3D television network; FEARnet, the number one horror/thriller website and VOD service; GSN, cable’s game show network; and ITN Networks, Inc., a national media sales company.
Recently, Mosko has integrated the studio’s domestic and international activities in the television industry. Some of the programs currently in production at the studio include the original network primetime series Unforgettable and Rules of Engagement for CBS; Pan Am, Happy Endings and Shark Tank for ABC; and Community and The Sing-Off for NBC. The studio also produces a prolific roster of primetime cable series, including dramas Necessary Roughness for USA; Justified for FX; Breaking Bad for AMC; Damages for DirecTV; Franklin and Bash and HawthoRNe for TNT; Drop Dead Diva for Lifetime; comedies The Big C for Showtime, and The Boondocks for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim; as well as reality series Re-Modeled and Plain Jane for the CW.
From Los Caballeros Las Prefieren Brutas to a Russian version of Married…with Children, SPT is a leader in local-language production around the world, producing shows in approximately 70 countries. Additionally, the studio produces critically acclaimed, highly rated motion pictures for television, including the blockbuster Primetime Emmy-winning Broken Trail for AMC, Emmy-nominated Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story for TNT and several others.
Under Mosko’s direction, SPT received 29 Emmy nominations in 2008, the most the studio has ever received, resulting in six statues. With Mosko at the helm, the company also produces first-run syndicated programs such as syndication’s longtime #1 and #2-rated game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, three court shows and the #1 and #2 network daytime serials The Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives. The studio is working with Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions to produce and distribute her latest syndicated programs, The Nate Berkus Show and The Dr. Oz Show. SPT is currently celebrating two Emmy wins for Breaking Bad, including Bryan Cranston for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Aaron Paul for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
Additionally, this year SPT received ten Daytime Emmy Award wins, including Outstanding Talk Show Informative for The Dr. Oz Show, Outstanding Talk Show Host Dr. Mehmet Oz for The Dr. Oz Show; and Outstanding Game Audience Participation Show for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! Six Daytime Emmys went to The Young and the Restless for the following categories: Outstanding Drama Series Directing Team, Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team, Outstanding Achievement In Multiple Camera Editing, Outstanding Achievement In Live & Direct to Tape Sound Mixing, Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design for a Drama Series, and Outstanding Achievement In Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series. Mosko’s division also directs the sales of all feature films produced by SPE to advertiser-supported broadcast and cable networks and pay cable, as well as sales of the SPT library of more than 150,000 episodes of over 500 series and nearly 4,000 motion pictures.
SPT also creates original shortform material from the Minisode Network to original scripted series for digital distribution. Further, Mosko oversees advertiser sales for SPT, one of the premier national advertiser sales entities, which handles the commercial inventory for the studio’s first-run and off-network syndicated series as well as in all of SPE's digital businesses in the United States.
Mosko joined SPE in 1992 as vice president of the western region for Columbia TriStar Television Distribution, the syndication and cable network production and distribution organization that was a predecessor to SPT. For that entity, he held several senior management positions, including executive vice president, sales, before being named president in 2000. In this role, Mosko built on the studio’s syndication business, overseeing first-run and off-network program sales in more than 200 markets and supervising efforts of regional offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas.
From 1988-1991, Mosko was vice president and station manager of Philadelphia’s WPHL-TV. There, he managed the station’s day-to-day operations and was involved in long-term strategic planning. Previously, from 1983-87, he was general sales manager for that city’s WTAF-TV. Additionally, for four years, Mosko served at NBC affiliate WMAR-TV in Baltimore, his hometown, first as an account executive and then as local sales manager.
Mosko was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame in 2005. Under his leadership, SPT was honored with the Special Recognition Award at the 2004 Sony Corporation Global Top Meeting in Tokyo, in recognition of the group’s outstanding fiscal achievements, including record revenues and earnings. Previously, his considerable work for the studio garnered him the distinction in 2001 of being chosen by Electronic Media magazine (now TelevisionWeek) as one of the television industry’s annual 12 to Watch most impactful executives. In 2003, he was named to Entertainment Weekly’s 14th Annual Power List, ranking #39 among entertainment industry executives.
Mosko is a member of the executive committee for the Los Angeles Board of Governors of Paley Museum, the National Board of Junior Achievement, the board of directors for the Ad Council and the board of directors of the Game Show Network. Mosko was formerly the chairman of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation and a member of the board of directors of Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. In 2000, he was chairman of the National Association of Television Program Executives. While working in Philadelphia, he was president of the Philadelphia Ad Club and a member of the Philadelphia Police Department’s Drug Advisory Council.
A native of Baltimore, Mosko graduated from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications. In 1995 his alma mater recognized his accomplishments with its Presidential Achievement Award. In 2011 Mosko was awarded an honorary doctorate by Chapman University.