Alan Wurtzel

President, Research and Media Development, NBCUniversal

Alan Wurtzel is the President of Research and Media Development for NBCUniversal.  He is responsible for the planning, development and analysis of all audience, program, and marketing research for the NBC Television Network, the news and information cable networks MSNBC and CNBC, the entertainment cable networks USA, Syfy, Bravo and Oxygen, and the Telemundo Spanish language network.  He is also responsible for all research in support of NBCUniversal’s digital initiatives.



In addition Wurtzel leads the company’s Broadcast Standards & Practices Department, which oversees program content and advertising and commercial clearance for the network. He joined NBCUniversal in May 1999.



Throughout his tenure, Wurtzel has led numerous research initiatives for the company, including measuring the effectiveness of television ads viewed on a DVR and launching the TAMi, or Total Audience Measurement Index, a compilation of data designed to measure the total exposure to any one program across multiple media platforms.  Wurtzel has also conduced extensive research around the Beijing and Vancouver Olympics, taking advantage of the unique scope and duration of the games to gain unprecedented insight into consumer cross-platform behavior.  Additionally, Wurtzel helped spearhead the creation of the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), a group of leading US television content providers, media agencies and advertisers who joined forces in 2009 to help promote research innovation and explore new ways to measure audiences across traditional and new media.



Prior to joining NBCUniversal, Wurtzel spent 21 years at ABC in a variety of managerial positions, including the role of senior vice president, Media Development, Brand Management and Research.  In that position, he was responsible for innovating and managing a variety of initiatives designed to leverage existing ABC media businesses.  Prior to that, he served for five and a half years as senior vice president, news magazine and long form programming for ABC News.



Before joining ABC, Mr. Wurtzel taught at the University of Georgia and at Queens College, City University of New York.  He authored many articles for both academic journals and consumer publications and is the author of the textbook Television Production, published by McGraw-Hill, which has been a standard in the field for over twenty years.



He was named a “Media Maven” by Advertising Age in 2009 for his work with cross-platform measurement and was selected by Mediaweek as one of the “Most Influential Executives Shaping the Future of Media” in 2007.



Wurtzel holds a Ph.D in mass communications from New York University.  He and his wife, Susan, and their two daughters, Joanna and Caroline, reside in New York.