• by Wayne Friedman , January 23, 2009

ABC Television Network's top research executive--Michael Mellon, senior vp of research--has stepped down, replaced by former Fox research executive Charles Kennedy.

Mellon came to ABC in December 2003, and has been based at the ABC's offices in Burbank, CA.

Before ABC, Mellon served as executive vp of Paramount Worldwide TV Distribution, where he had worked for 11 years in various positions. Previously, Mellon held senior positions at Walt Disney Television, and Buena Vista Television, Embassy Television, and Tandem Productions as well as station sales rep firms, Telerep and H.R. Television.

Kennedy assumes Mellon's role and title. Kennedy had been senior vp of consumer insights at DYG, a Conn.-based consumer research company. At DYG, Mr. Kennedy focused in consumer research of entertainment. DYG was founded in 1986 by Daniel Yankelovich, Florence Skelly, Madelyn Hochstein and Patrick Grande, with a focus on social and marketing research.

Before DYG, Kennedy worked at Fox Broadcasting, where he was responsible for testing viewer reaction to all Fox programs. Kennedy started in research at News Corp. cable channels FX channel, The Family Channel and Fox Sports.