McGowan named SVP Corporate Research at Univision

Univision Communications Inc. (UCI) announced that Stephen J. (“Steve”) McGowan has been named senior vice president, Corporate Research, effective immediately. McGowan, who most recently served as vice president, Research at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), will be based at UCI’s corporate headquarters in New York and will report to Jed Meyer, executive vice president, Corporate Research.

In this role, McGowan will help oversee UCI’s research efforts, providing leadership, strategic analysis and support for network management, programming and ad sales. To this end, he will work closely with industry groups such as the Media Rating Council and leading research partners like Nielsen and comScore to ensure that methodologies are sound and UCI audiences are adequately represented. Additionally, McGowan will support thought leadership efforts and partner with Company stakeholders to execute initiatives and identify custom research opportunities.

“Steve has over 20 years of robust industry experience in syndicated research, ad hoc analysis and strategic consulting, including project-level planning on new technologies at several media companies,” said Meyer. “His expertise will be crucial for UCI as we continue to expand our research initiatives and work to ensure that today’s methodologies are representative of the country’s changing demographics and inclusive of the U.S.-Hispanic communities we serve.”

In his most recent role at PBS, McGowan directed all of the syndicated and custom research efforts for the company’s headquarters, collaborating with more than 300 local affiliates nationwide. His team worked with Nielsen to measure cross-platform viewership for shows like Downton Abbey, Sherlock and PBS’s daytime children’s programming. McGowan also helped relaunch PBS’s viewer community, which continually engages the network’s audience through an online research forum.

Before joining PBS, McGowan was managing director of Monocacy Media Partners, providing direction to media companies regarding consumer research design, as well as project-level planning on new technologies, consumer adoption and usage. Prior to that, McGowan served as senior vice president of Research at Discovery Communications Inc. (DCI), where he directed all corporate, programming and ad sales research efforts for Discovery’s U.S. television portfolio. He expanded his consultative role to develop new channels and evaluate network acquisition strategies, including the launch of Animal Planet, the acquisition of Travel Channel and planning for DCI’s digital networks. Previously, McGowan spent six years at The Nielsen Company, where he assisted in preliminary efforts to measure Digital Video Recorder (DVR) use and Video on Demand behavior. In his role as senior vice president, Client Research at Nielsen, he was the project manager for Nielsen’s efforts to track video usage on portable media devices.