Jon Watts – Project Director
Experienced media consultant
Jon is Executive Director and Co-Founder of The Project X Institute, a new industry think tank and strategic advisory firm launching in 2021. He has nearly 25 years of consulting experience across the media, technology, advertising and entertainment industries, providing insights and strategic advice to major enterprises, investors and policy-makers around the world. He has project directed a range of major industry initiatives during the last decade, including programmes exploring TV audience measurement, metrics and data and the development of the connected TV advertising ecosystem in Europe. Previously, Jon co-founded and led MTM, a UK-based research and strategy consulting firm, leading engagements focused on strategy and growth, media futures, digital transformation, OTT and advanced advertising. He also co-founded venture consulting firm fathom and was a senior manager at Spectrum Strategy Consultants. Jon speaks regularly at industry conferences and events around the world and is actively involved in a wide range of industry organizations, trade bodies and initiatives.
Jonathan Steuer – Expert Advisor
Media data specialist & EVP, TV Strategy & Currency, VideoAmp
Jonathan has been actively involved in emerging media for over twenty-five years and has been an innovator in media research and audience-based media planning for over two decades. He currently serves as the EVP of TV Strategy & Currency at VideoAmp; however, he serves the TV Data Initiative in an independent capacity as a subject matter expert. Jonathan joined VideoAmp in 2020, where he develops and drives the strategy behind the company’s development and deployment of a currency-grade transaction-ready cross-platform TV dataset for the entire media ecosystem. He is involved in many trade and professional organizations and is a frequent participant in and speaker at industry events.
From 2016-2020, Jonathan served as Chief Research Officer at Omnicom Media Group, where he spearheaded OMG’s efforts to develop and deploy advanced TV solutions and other data-driven cross-platform audience-based media planning, buying and reporting solutions for use across OMG’s media agencies. Prior to Omnicom Media Group, Jonathan worked at TiVo and AT&T on TV data products and services and at Iconoculture on media, entertainment and technology consumer strategy. From 1993-2003, Jonathan spent ten years as an entrepreneur and consultant in the emerging Internet business. In 1993 he co-founded Hotwired, the first banner-ad-supported Website from Wired magazine. He also co-founded pioneering online/offline community Cyborganic, a (too-)early social media startup. In 1995 he joined the launch team at CNET, the first integrated Web / TV programming venture. He then joined the pioneering online community the WELL, where he led product development of a Web-based online community tool. In 1997 he joined early e-business builder Scient as a strategy consultant.
In addition to his other roles, Jonathan is the co-founder of Anonymous Media Research, where he developed patented single-source cross-media audience measurement tools based on automated audio and video content recognition (ACR) technologies. He is inventor on 8 issued US patents; others pending.
Jonathan holds a Ph.D. in Communication Theory and Research from Stanford University (1995) and an A.B. in Philosophy from Harvard College (1988). He is the author of a still- widely-cited paper on virtual reality (“Defining Virtual Reality: Dimensions Determining Telepresence”). Jonathan originally hails from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and lives in the East Village, New York City with his wife Marjorie Ingall, two teenagers and three cats.
Alan Wolk – Analyst
Co-Founder and Lead Analyst, TV[R]EV
“If you know anything about television, you probably know Alan Wolk.” That’s how Adweek describes the co-founder of leading media industry consulting firm TV[R]EV and best-selling author of Over The Top. How The Internet Is (Slowly But Surely) Changing The Television Industry.
It’s safe to say that Wolk, a much sought-after writer, speaker and consultant, whose book is used as a textbook at a number of top business schools, has established himself as one of the industry’s most influential thought leaders. He and his hand-picked analyst team have helped make TV[R]EV one of the media industry’s go-to resources as it attempts to process the changes coming from Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Madison Avenue and beyond.
A contributing writer at Forbes, NextTV, FierceCable and other industry news sites, Wolk has been interviewed and quoted by everyone from NPR to The New York Times and is a regular guest on Cheddar TV, offering expert opinion on breaking stories in the media industry.
