Eisner Brings His Media Expertise to Local TV Markets

Michael D. Eisner is best known for developing the Walt Disney Company into a diversified entertainment conglomerate, but one specific slice of the media business has always been his sweet spot: television. He saw the potential of ESPN and bought it for Disney in 1995. Earlier in his career, as an ABC executive, he helped discover seminal shows like “Happy Days.” Now, as owner of the Tornante Company, which he founded after leaving Disney in 2005, Eisner sees opportunity in an area that’s considered television’s biggest backwater: original shows aired by local stations, mostly during the day. Tornante and Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns 162 stations, have formed a company, Tornante-Sinclair, that aims to produce and distribute new syndicated talk shows, court shows and game shows.