Columbia Tristar Television Distribution

Sony Corp.'s Columbia TriStar is planning a joint bid with Germany's third-largest bank and a German publisher for KirchMedia, the main entertainment unit of the insolvent German media giant Kirch Group, a source with knowledge of the talks said Sunday. German bank Commerzbank and WAZ Gruppe, a newspaper group said to be close to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Socialist Democrats, were in talks with Columbia TriStar to acquire the KirchMedia assets, said the source, who would not comment on financial terms or how control of the assets would be divided.

Helene Michaels is leaving her position as president of network production at Columbia TriStar Television, continuing a period of executive turnover at the Sony Pictures Entertainment division.

Michael Ovitz, the super-agent who was formerly president of Walt Disney Co., is moving his talent management firm into television production. Eric Tannenbaum, the president of Sony Corp.

Brillstein-Grey Entertainment has ended its television production arrangement with Universal Studios Inc. and struck a new joint venture with Sony Corp.

"Seinfeld" may be on its way out, but its value is on its way up. TV industry insiders say that even before the top-rated comedy airs its final original "yada, yada, yada" on NBC this May, the syndication rights for the show are likely to skyrocket for stations wanting to broadcast "Seinfeld" reruns for years to come.

Jerry Seinfeld dropped a Christmas Eve bomb on NBC by deciding the time had come to end his long-running series. Now the network can only sweat it out as the stars of "Mad About You" debate whether to light their own fuse.

No official fight bell will clang when the two latest entries in the late-night talk-show arena, "Vibe" and "The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show," square off at 11 p.