Dan McDonald

Dan McDonald joined NAB as vice president of Research in 2016. In his current role, Mr. McDonald leads a team charged with developing telecommunications policy analyses to support NAB’s advocacy efforts before Congress and the FCC on behalf of member radio and television stations. NAB’s Research department also commissions annual reports on the health and economic impact of the local broadcast industry, assists in post-event analyses of NAB’s numerous trade shows and conferences and oversees NAB’s Committee on Local Radio Audience Measurement (COLRAM) and Committee on Local Television Audience Measurement (COLTAM).

Prior to joining NAB, Mr. McDonald was most recently the executive director of Programming and Consumer Research at National Geographic’s U.S. cable channels. At National Geographic, Mr. McDonald helped design channel audience targets and program audience profiles, generated all program and daypart ratings estimates and oversaw all primary research projects, including focus groups, program testing and public opinion polling. Mr. McDonald has also served as director of Research for the Southern Division of Comcast Spotlight, director of Programming and Research for WBBM-TV in Chicago and ratings research manager for the former Paramount Stations Group.

Mr. McDonald is past chair of the Council of Research Excellence as well as the Media Rating Council’s Radio Committee. He also participates with Nielsen’s Local TV Alliance.

Mr. McDonald holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania.