John D. Miller (television executive)

John Douglas Miller (born October 7, 1950) is a retired television advertising and marketing executive who led the marketing of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) for decades.

He was chief marketing officer (CMO) of NBCUniversal (NBCU), the NBC Sports Group, and NBC Olympics; chaired the NBCU Marketing Council; co-founded the NBC Agency; and oversaw the network's joint marketing collaborative process known as Symphony.

John Douglas Miller was born on October 7, 1950, in Chicago, Illinois; his parents were musicians.

After high school, he enrolled as a theater major at Kansas University.

Switching from acting to television journalism, he graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in public communications from Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in 1972.

In Chicago, Miller began doing freelance advertising work in 1972.

In 1973, he joined WMAQ-TV, an owned-and-operated Chicago affiliate of NBC as a production assistant, quickly becoming an associate producer and then on-air promotion director, where he enjoyed the creative freedom and "getting shows launched".

The CBS station in Chicago, WBBM-TV, noticed his work and Miller felt it was time for a change; he was hired by WBBM in 1976 and by 1978 was managing promotions for them.

In 1980, Miller was hired by Steve Sohmer to move to the CBS network in Los Angeles as the director of affiliate marketing for CBS-TV, West Coast.

Miller described Sohmer as his mentor and tutor; and says he learned from Sohmer to pay attention to detail while maintaining focus on big issues—what Sohmer called, "do a million little things right".

He compared working with Sohmer to getting a master's degree, saying "I learned a lot from his successes as well as his failures; he's a bigger-than-life personality."

Married to Sharon Worsham Miller since 1981, the couple has four sons.

Miller is a two-time international barbershop quartet champion.

In July 1981 Miller became the head of advertising and promotion for CBS News in New York during a CBS transition that he described as a "trying year".

Walter Cronkite had just left and was replaced by Dan Rather.

Miller came into an environment where promotion was of lesser importance, and it changed to "one that was given higher visibility".

Miller returned to NBC in August 1982 as vice president of affiliate promoting on the West Coast; when Sohmer moved to NBC, he brought Miller with him.

At the time, NBC was the third-rated network.

As Miller described NBC then, it was a "dismal third place", and the early years were "depressing", but as years in which he learned valuable lessons.

He remembers the lowest point in 1983, when all nine new shows of the season did not survive to mid-season.

By 1984, The Cosby Show gave NBC a chance in a prime-time ratings contest.

When Sohmer left NBC for Columbia Pictures in 1985, NBC realigned its executive staff.

Miller was promoted to vice president of advertising and promotion.

The Hollywood Reporter wrote that in his new role, Miller "in effect has moved from chief operating officer to CEO of the advertising and promotion department".

By then NBC was no longer straining in third place in the ratings and had a shot at first place, and Miller sought to use the network's own air time for promotions, including of NBC's older shows.

In 1989, Miller was named a senior vice president in the entertainment division.

In the four years since he took over from Sohmer, the business of network promoting had changed to include new forms of promotion like direct mail and promotional videocassettes; a Broadcasting magazine article summarized Miller's approach to marketing and advertising: "After having spent so much time performing before audiences in barber shop quartets, and coming from family with a performance background, it's not surprising that Miller's philosophy toward promotion contains a strong element of showmanship with no reluctance for taking chances."

Miller relocated from Burbank to New York in January 1990 when NBC Television named him executive vice president (EVP) of marketing, in charge of all marketing for the NBC network including affiliates and the entertainment, news and sports divisions.

A 1990 Channels Magazine article said there was no position in the other major networks (ABC, CBS or Fox) where one person held an equivalent amount of marketing management oversight or responsibility, and that Miller handled "one of the busiest jobs in television" with "consistent outward calm".

NBC's consolidation of all marketing efforts under one person was praised by its competitors, and Miller was described as "maintain[ing] his cool" even with frequent bi-coastal travel and a demanding job, earning "respect from his peers".

In July 1991, he relocated back to the West Coast when a new position was created in the NBC Entertainment division, and he took on the additional role of EVP of daytime and children's programming.

In May 1993, event programming was added to his responsibilities and he was named NBC EVP for advertising and promotion, resulting in six promotions between 1982 and 1993.

In 1995, Miller and Vince Manze (then the senior vice president of advertising and promotion for NBC) were named as the Promax Marketers of the Year, and were called the "dynamic duo of NBC promos" by Susan Karlin in an Electronic Media feature.

She wrote that they "replumed the network's peacock logo, themed its comedy nights and devised an unprecedented way of hooking viewers".

Karlin describes these promotional efforts as part of the vision of the president of NBC West Coast at the time, Don Ohlmeyer, to "incorporate all network and affiliate programing and identities under one NBC brand name".

He was part of the team behind the successful 'Must See TV' promotional campaign and the 'NBC 2000' promotional campaign, which changed television promoting and marketing and defined industry practices.

He marketed renowned series including Friends, Seinfeld, ER and others, as well as 12 NBC Olympic broadcasts and other sports events.

He retired in 2022 after 50 years in the broadcast media industry, 43 of which were with NBC.

Miller was recognized by his peers in the entertainment industry with numerous awards for promotion, advertising and marketing, and received nine Emmy Awards, including one for an outstanding commercial.

He has served on the advisory board for the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and as a faculty lecturer at the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was an adjunct professor in the Master of Entertainment Industry Management program.