Former Sling TV CEO and longtime Dish Network C-level executive Warren Schlichting has landed at video conferencing tech company Poly, reporting a former Dish colleague, CEO Dave Shull, as chief operating officer.

According to a Poly announcement, Schlichting will oversee the company's product and services business units, product and alliance marketing, corporate strategy and business development. 

He will also serve as "executive sponsor" of Poly's "Low Carbon Solutions pillar under the company's Corporate Social Responsibility work to reduce emissions."

Schlichting served as one of Dish's top programming executives after migrating from Comcast Spotlight back in 2011, and he led the satellite TV company's virtual pay TV service, Sling TV, from December 2017 to June 2020.

"Warren is a proven leader, experienced in both creating value and managing significant change," Shull said, in a statement. 

"We've been clear that Poly is transforming and focused on growth, and a big part of that is making certain we operate at a level that matches our ambitions," Shull added. "We already have strong business unit general managers and functional leaders in place, so we expect that Warren will ensure that our business units have the resources and support they need, expand our investments in software and solutions, and elevate our strategic alliance partnerships."

Sling TV Group President Warren Schlichting has left the company.

He’ll be replaced by veteran Dish Network programming and marketing executive Michael Schwimmer, who returned to the company last year. 

Also read: Sling TV: Everything You Need to Know About the vMVPD as It Fights For Relevance Amid Dish’s Wireless Future

Schlichting had a nine-year run at Dish Network, and was put in charge of all aspects of virtual MVPD Sling TV in December 2017. He also led program licensing negotiations for both the Dish Network satellite TV and Sling TV platforms. 

Sling TV has hit a growth wall of late, losing around 375,000 subscribers in the last two quarters. Through March 31, it had 2.31 million customers, down 4.7% year over year. 

Sling TV has deployed several aggressive promotional campaigns during the pandemic, essentially offering its programming free of charge. It appears as though subscriber growth in the second quarter hasn't materialized. 

Schwimmer is a Stanford MBA who worked at Dish from 1996-2005 before leaving to become CEO of Fuse Media. He becomes the third executive to take over the five-year-old Sling TV platform. Former CEO Roger Lynch fled to Pandora in 2018, shortly after Schlichting was slotted in rung above him. 

Separately on Monday, Dish announced several executive moves related to its wireless business. Industry veteran Dave Mayo has joined the company as  executive VP of network development. Mayo will oversee Dish's "buildout strategy and execution of the company's deployment of the nation's first standalone 5G network," the company said.

 Jeff Blum has been promoted to executive VP of external and legislative affairs. And John Swieringa has been named group president, retail wireless, and will retain his duties as dish chief operating officer. 

Although it launched a full 22 months later, AT&T’s DirecTV Now virtual pay TV platform is on a pace to surpass the first virtual pay TV platform to market, Sling TV.

Launching in February 2015, Dish’s Network’s Sling TV has amassed an industry-leading 2.444 million customers. But the virtual pay TV platform just had its slowest quarter since Dish began breaking out its subscriber performance to date—or at least since in the middle of 2017, when Dish began breaking out Sling TV numbers—adding just 41,000 users.

Related: Moffett: Cord-Cutting Slowing Down

In the first quarter, Sling TV reported additions of 91,000 users. In the second quarter of 2017, research group MoffettNathanson said it tallied Sling TV’s gains at around 120,000.

Meanwhile, DirecTV Now added 342,000 users in the second quarter, bringing its total to 1.81 million. AT&T reported DirecTV Now growth of 152,000 in the second quarter of 2017. 

AT&T is aggressively driving this growth with promotions. As TV answerman blogger Phil Swann reported yesterday, the company is still offering new customers a $10-a-month price for their first three months of service. 

Of course, if the two vMVPDs maintained their current trajectories, DirecTV Now would pass Sling as the industry leader before the end of 2018.

With Wall Street analysts now fixated on what Dish does with its wireless spectrum, there is little interest these days in what happens to legacy operations like Sling TV.

“While this deceleration will likely get a fair amount of attention—Sling was once hailed as Dish’s pay TV future—it simply isn’t very important for the longer term,” MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said.

Related: Sling TV Enlists ‘Sexpert’ Dr. Ruth in Promo Spots

For its part, Dish still claims Sling TV will have an important role in its 5G future, and that development of advanced advertising will improve the platforms profitability going forward.

“And so sure, I mean there has been a little bit of a slowdown in growth but we think we’re well-positioned and well poised,” said Sling TV president Warren Schlichting during Dish’s Q2 earnings report last week.

Customer erosion has come to U.S. satellite TV in a big way. And though the two main players — DirecTV and Dish Network — have tried to soften the blow with their own over-the-top services, they are still getting bruised.

Comcast’s $31 billion bid for U.K. satellite giant Sky has again put a spotlight on the domestic satellite-TV business. Adding to the surprise over Comcast’s move was a perception of satellite TV’s decline here, unlike their counterparts across the pond.

For years, Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen has been the poster boy for satellite TV losses. Over the past five years, Dish has lost a whopping 3 million subscribers and, according to Ergen, that decline does not appear to be letting up. Dish’s pioneering OTT service — Sling TV launched in 2015 — is also beginning to show signs of slowing down.

Dish revealed customer numbers for Sling TV for the first time along with fourth-quarter results: the OTT service ended 2017 with 2.2 million subscribers, up 47% for the year. That was better than expected; some analysts had estimated Sling TV had about 1.8 million customers. Dish’s satellite results, though, were stark. Dish finished 2017 with 11.03 million satellite TV customers, 3 million less than the 14.1 million it had in 2013 and 3.1 million behind 2010, its peak subscriber year.

Headed to ‘Less than Zero?’
MoffettNathanson principal and senior analyst Craig Moffett estimated Dish’s satellite subscribers are declining at a rate of 8.8% per year and cash flow is falling at a 21.5% clip.

“One doesn’t often value businesses declining that quickly,” Moffett wrote in a research note, saying an argument can be made for valuing Dish’s satellite business at less than zero.

In the past, Moffett noted, revenue hits from Dish subscriber losses were outpaced by price increases and by declines in subscriber acquisition costs. “That phase is now over as well,” he wrote.

Barclays media analyst Kannan Venkateshwar said, “Overall, these results are likely to underline the need for Dish to make a pivot away from the DBS business sooner rather than later, especially given that incremental subs clearly are coming in at lower margins and even the pace of growth of these subs is slowing.

“It is tough to believe that 2018 will change any of these trend lines, given multiple new competitors like YouTube TV and Hulu,” Venkateshwar added.

Ergen has not been shy about satellite’s decline — for years, he has said the business is maturing — and he was no less candid on a conference call with analysts to discuss Q4 results.

“There’s nothing new on the video business, other than what we’ve been saying for the last five years, which is the video business is going to change,” Ergen said.

Dish’s new CEO — 23-year company veteran Erik Carlson, named to the position earlier this year — is cognizant of the decline but still sees some growth left in the old business.

Related: Sling TV Shakes Up Top Management

“We don’t have the growth dynamics that we had in early years, but we still see some opportunity,” Carlson said on Dish’s fourth-quarter conference call with analysts, adding that the core satellite business continues to be the “engine that’s funding our future.”

Carlson said Dish has spent the past two and a half years improving its subscriber mix, focusing on keeping and acquiring long-term profitable customers. But just how long-term remains to be seen.

Dish’s cash-flow margins have shrunk over the past three years, from 20.9% in 2015 to 17.1% in 2017. Pivotal Research Group CEO and senior media & communications analyst Jeff Wlodarczak said the margin decline is mostly due to shrinking revenue, down about 5% in 2017, and Sling TV’s margins are thin in part because of the startup nature of the business. Still, Wlodarczak gave Sling credit for containing programming costs — he estimated they were up about 3% for the OTT service last year. Exerting further margin pressure is Dish’s plan to build out wireless licenses in an IoT network that will cost up to $1 billion by March 2020.

“I don’t expect margins to grow anytime soon,” Wlodarczak said. “In the end the [satellite TV] business is effectively a declining annuity that still throws off a decent amount of cash.”

Still, the subscriber declines appear to be accelerating. Adding to the pressure is the proliferation of OTT services that have come on the scene since Sling TV launched. In the past year alone, Hulu launched its Hulu Live OTT service, offering 50-plus channels for $39.99 per month, followed by YouTube TV, fubo TV and Philo. That’s on top of existing services like Sony PlayStation Vue, Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Channels.

Watch MCN: vMVPDs by the Numbers

Other Options on Offer
Per Moffett, Dish reached its subscriber peak in the first quarter of 2010, finishing the period with 14.3 million customers. It ended 2010 at 14.1 million customers and see-sawed between losses and gains for the next two years, losing 166,000 customers in 2011, adding 89,000 in 2012, adding 1,000 in 2013 and losing 79,000 in 2014.

Subscriber rolls started to fall off a cliff beginning in 2015 — the year Sling TV launched — when Dish lost 607,000 satellite TV subscribers. Those losses doubled to 1.27 million in 2016 and tempered slightly in 2017, with a loss of 995,000 satellite-TV customers.

Satellite declines shouldn’t come as a surprise, and both Dish and DirecTV have been preparing for that eventuality for years. OTT services like Sling TV and DirecTV Now were supposed to take up the slack. For a moment, they did. Including Sling TV numbers in the mix, Dish lost just 82,000 customers in 2015 and 392,000 in 2016. The growth of those flanking services has begun to slow down, though.

Sling TV added 526,000 customers in 2015 and 878,000 in 2016, per Dish’s financial statements. In 2017, that growth slowed to 711,000 — a 47% increase over the prior year, but given 2016’s 141% gain, a slowdown just the same.

Part of the reason is churn, or the disconnect rate, is high at Sling TV: It was 3.09% in Q4, according to Moffett’s estimates, compared with 1.78% for the satellite business. Ergen blamed some of the volatility on customers switching services month to month to get better deals, and on those who sign up for a service just to watch a specific event and then drop their subscriptions the next month.

“One of the big factors that I don’t think is recognized totally by everyone is [OTT] is somewhat seasonal,” Ergen said on the Q4 call, adding that customers often sign on to view a specific event — mainly sports — taking advantage of a one-month free offer and then canceling when the promotion expires. “One-month churn is particularly high in the industry because people come in and out as a matter of convenience and can move around.”

That could mean that Sling TV and other OTT providers see a customer surge in March, just in time for the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament (March Madness), which begins March 13 and runs through April 2.

Related: Virtual MVPDs Growing 'Like Weeds,' Analyst Says

In addition, Ergen said hardware promotions from providers allow customers more flexibility to move around.

“I’m sure there are some college kids who are going a year and never paying a dime for multichannel TV and getting lifetime HBO from AT&T,” Ergen said, adding that pricing discipline is inevitable. “People aren’t suicidal out there in a capitalist society.”

That discipline won’t necessarily come from Dish. During the media portion of the conference call, Dish executive vice president and group president of Sling TV Warren Schlichting said Sling has no intention of eliminating its one-month promotions.

“We like where we are,” Schlichting said. “We feel like it really puts the onus on us to provide value.”

Growth Engine Has Cooled
Dish might be in the hot seat as the bulk of overall satellite losses have been attributed to the Colorado company. But it is not the only satellite-TV provider (or wired pay TV provider, for that matter) to see subscriber rolls decline. DirecTV, once the growth engine of the satellite sector, had its first full year of customer losses under new parent AT&T in 2017, shedding 554,000 net subscribers. That compares with a gain of 1.23 million customers just one year earlier. DirecTV lost about 550,000 customers in 2015, but gained them back as AT&T’s U-verse TV subscribers migrated to the satellite TV service.

AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson told analysts during its Q4 conference call that losses have been expected at the satellite unit ever since the telco purchased the company for $48.5 billion in 2015.

“Since the day we bought DirecTV, we assumed that traditional linear video would be in a declining mode since that’s kind of the nature of it,” Stephenson said on the call. “OTT and the ability to consume video on mobile devices, we believed would be the trend and the way where things went. We wanted to be in the leadership position and facilitating that kind of consumption of premium video on mobile devices. And we have been in the leadership position in that.”

The key was DirecTV Now, the virtual MVPD service AT&T officially launched on Nov. 30, 2016. DirecTV Now was supposed to take up the slack for losses at DirecTV and wireline offering U-verse TV.

Initially, the strategy worked. U-verse TV subscribers were first encouraged to switch to DirecTV service, and later to DirecTV Now, and a lot of them did. U-verse customers fell precipitously, dropping from 5.6 million in 2015 to 3.6 million at the end of 2017.

“I think if AT&T had not been ‘encouraging’ consumers to swap to DirecTV, satellite TV additions would be far more negative,” Wlodarczak said, adding that consumers focus on data service first and video second.

Cable years ago established itself as the broadband leader: It accounted for 100% of net broadband additions again in 2017. Wlodarczak said consumers looking for a reliable broadband service stop at cable first and quickly learn they can get lower prices if they bundle broadband with video. But even that hasn’t stemmed the bleeding: Cable operators lost 79,000 customers in Q4 and 780,000 for the full year.

Breaking Down the OTT Subs
Stephenson said AT&T firmly believes that it has the product — DirecTV Now — to drive subscriber growth over the next few years.

“We would expect to continue to grow video customers, with our DirecTV Now [product] outpacing our linear customer counts in the sense of net additions,” Stephenson said on the analyst call, adding that customer additions are evenly split between cord-nevers and cord-cutters/shavers. “We still haven’t seen a dramatic uptick in customers that are shifting from our full-value product to DirecTV Now, but we continue to watch that carefully and continue to come up with different ways to make sure we can prove that and track that.”

Nobody believes satellite service is going away tomorrow. For many rural customers — between 10 million and 15 million homes — it is the only reliable way to access broadcast and pay TV content. But subscriber erosion is here, and even with skinnier bundles and promotional offerings, it is likely to stay.

“I think it is going to get a lot worse for satellite TV,” Wlodarczak said.

The MCN 2017 Gatekeepers: Dish’s Andrew LeCuyer: Starting the ‘Hard Conversation’|Mediacom’s Italia Commisso Weinand: ‘Do the Right Thing’|WOW’s Roger Seiken: ‘It Has to Be a Win-Win’|A Veteran Gatekeeper For a New Distributor

Summing up the current state of programming in a simple sentence, the sometimes controversial but always erudite Sanford Bernstein media analyst Todd Juenger last month told a crowd of small and midsized cable operators, “Maybe content is king, but television networks are not content.”

Networks, Juenger argued during a talk at last month’s The Independent Show in Indianapolis, are aggregators of content. And aggregators are increasingly losing their once-tight grip on the pay TV landscape, as subscriber losses increase and advertising revenue dwindles.

It looks as if, finally, the pendulum is starting to swing in favor of distribution.

That, too, is another maybe. Traditional multichannel video programming distributors are gaining leverage, but nobody buys cable service to stare at the fiber network. Content is still key to the overall package. It’s just that the packages are changing.

Younger consumers, weaned on ad-free subscription video-on-demand services like Netflix, are increasingly expecting the same functionality from pay TV. That has led to a new flexibility in carriage talks.

LOOSENING THE BUNDLE
Programmers, which just a few years ago vehemently opposed skinny bundles when they were first introduced, now embrace the concept. Distributors, which in the past have chafed over having to buy a full suite of networks or nothing at all, are finding more and more programmers willing to loosen that bundle and even develop new content to help differentiate against competitive, lower priced offerings from over-the-top players.

In some cases, programmers have been more flexible about their networks, Mediacom Communications executive vice president of programming and human resources Italia Commisso Weinand said. She noted NBCUniversal’s willingness to shut down some less profitable networks, including Cloo, Esquire Network and Universal HD. But she warned distributors not to be complacent. “The wars are not over,” she said, adding that consolidation and subscriber losses are forcing content companies to reset rates more often. “You can work through consolidation; you can’t work through customers not coming back.

“If you look at the video universe, we had 100 million homes once upon a time,” she said. “There aren’t 100 million homes anymore; on a good day there’s maybe 85 million. Truly, cord-cutting has had an impact. That’s lost revenue for the networks; how do [they] get it back? Charge the same customers more money.”

Though the conflict between content providers and distribution methods may rage on, the battlefields are changing. In April, Charter Communications landed a deal with AMC Networks for exclusive content developed just for the two partners’ use. The first content installment from that partnership is expected in 2018.

As part of the agreement, Charter will have an exclusive initial U.S. window to the co-produced content for use on its own platform, while AMC Studios will retain subsequent rights, including the right to distribute the programming internationally. In June, Charter also began beta-testing Spectrum Stream, a sports-free skinny bundle that offers 25 channels for $19.95 per month. Comcast also struck a unique, exclusive deal with AMC Networks, which is providing the MSO with AMC Premiere, an ad-free version of its AMC cable channel available to Xfinity TV subscribers for $4.99 per month.

Smaller operators are encouraged by those developments, but see them as experiments more than anything else. Those operators also have some physical constraints — AMC Premiere would require bandwidth many small operators don’t possess.

Perhaps that attitude is helped along by the fact there aren’t many major deals up for negotiation. Charter’s deal with The Walt Disney Co. is expected to expire by the end of this year, but for the most part operators are focusing on retrans deals.

RETRANS RELIEF FOR SMALLER OPS
For smaller operators, some retrans relief may be coming from their buying co-op, the National Cable Television Cooperative. It has said it expects to begin negotiations soon for its members, 850 companies and nearly 10 million subscribers.

NCTC member WideOpenWest is still working through whether to participate in the group’s retrans negotiations, but believes the representation could be beneficial to small operators, senior vice president of programming Roger Seiken said.

“This is a huge service to their members,” Seiken said. “Those deals are tough if you don’t have a lot of subscribers; it’s tough to do the best job you can. Having an advocate like [NCTC CEO] Rich Fickle and [NCTC senior vice president of programming] Judy [Meyka] by your side negotiating those deals — it’s a great honor. I’m very excited about that.”

With the media landscape changing faster than the polar icecap, Multichannel News takes its annual look at the decision-makers for top pay TV distributors across the country, listed by number of video subscribers: The 2017 Gatekeepers.

AT&T
DANIEL YORK
EVP and Chief Content Officer

If its $108.7 billion deal to acquire Time Warner Inc. passes regulatory muster, AT&T won’t just be the largest content licensor in the world, it will be one of the largest content owners.

Once the deal is approved, AT&T will control more than 25 million video customers through satellite provider DirecTV, telco TV platform U-verse TV and virtual MVPD DirecTV Now, and will own iconic content brands like HBO, TBS, CNN and Cartoon Network.

As executive vice president and chief content officer for AT&T Entertainment Group, Daniel York and his team will oversee content acquisition for the distribution properties.

York, who was named to his current role in 2012, is a veteran of the business who oversees AT&T’s content and programming activities across all platforms, including satellite, mobile, online and IPTV.

He leads strategy, investments, negotiations, acquisitions, operations, development and original content, as well as NFL Sunday Ticket, Red Zone and Fantasy Zone content. York also manages the company’s four regional sports networks and the Audience Network, all Emmy award winners. Previously, York was chief content officer for DirecTV, where he oversaw similar functions.

Prior to joining DirecTV, he was president of AT&T content and advertising sales, where he developed the telco’s original content strategy, oversaw multiplatform content and ad sales activities, and helped build U-verse TV into the fastest-growing video provider in the U.S., going from zero to more than 5 million customers and $10 billion in annual revenue in under six years.

Before AT&T, York was head of programming and development for In Demand Networks, the leading video-on-demand, out-of-market sports package and pay-per-view provider. He began his career with HBO, where he worked for more than 12 years; in his last position there, he was responsible for distribution, marketing, sponsorship, content acquisitions and operations for HBO Sports’s pay-per-view business.

York is based at AT&T Entertainment Group headquarters in Los Angeles.

COMCAST
GREG RIGDON
EVP, Content Acquisition

Since coming from Charter Communications in 2010, Comcast Cable executive vice president of content acquisition Greg Rigdon has been part of some of the industry’s landmark deals — including Comcast’s 2012 renewal with The Walt Disney Co., which helped set the tone and template for years to come.

Rigdon oversees the strategic direction of the company’s content portfolio, including the negotiation of programming agreements for cable systems.

Among his recent accomplishments, in January Comcast ended a years-long dispute with 21st Century Fox’s YES Network, returning the regional sports network to Comcast’s New York-area customers. It had been dark since November 2015.

That deal also included continued carriage of Fox News Channel. Terms were not disclosed, but reports put the four-year pact for Fox News at about $1.50 per subscriber per month initially, with annual increases.

Also in January, the cable operator completed a comprehensive carriage deal with Spanish-language broadcaster Univision that also included broadcast network UniMás and cable network Galavisión, as well as its owned-and-operated stations.

The rest of the year is expected to be a bit more quiet; no major network renewals are expected.

Before joining Comcast, Rigdon was Charter’s executive vice president, programming, business development and strategy. He also previously held senior roles in programming strategy, business affairs and commerce at AOL.

Rigdon has a bachelor’s degree with high honors from Oberlin College and a master’s degree in Russian studies from Princeton University.

KEY LIEUTENANTS: Jennifer Gaiski, senior vice president, content acquisition; Sarah Gitchell, senior vice president/deputy general counsel; Justin Smith, senior vice president, content acquisition

CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS
DAVID ELLEN
Senior EVP

David Ellen joined Charter as senior executive vice president in 2016, but he has already been involved in some major deals.

Earlier this year, Charter settled a months-long legal dispute with 21st Century Fox over how its programming contracts are interpreted. Court documents in July indicated the suit had been “discontinued with prejudice,” and though neither side would comment, it appeared the suit had been settled.

In addition, Fox Networks Group channels, including the Fox broadcast network, FX, National Geographic and the Fox Sports-owned RSNs, apparently reached a deal at the same time. Those networks’ deals expired in April, but they had remained on the air through several extensions. While no formal announcement of a deal has come, Charter systems are still carrying the channels.

Ellen was also instrumental in a less-contentious deal, the AMC Networks content partnership announced in April that calls for Charter and AMC to co-produce, co-develop and co-fund original programming that will initially run exclusively on Charter systems. The first content from that agreement is expected to debut next year.

Ellen oversees several Charter business and corporate functions, including programming, Spectrum Networks, human resources, communications, diversity, security, regulatory policy support and compliance, and legal support for several of those areas.

He joined Charter from Cablevision Systems (now part of Altice USA), where he served as executive vice president and general counsel. Before Cablevision, Ellen served as deputy general counsel at IAC, the multi-brand media and internet company.

Earlier in his career, Ellen worked at the Federal Communications Commission and before that was a law clerk for now-retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor at the U.S. Supreme Court. He also clerked for Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg when they were each on the U.S. Court of Appeals.

He received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College; a law degree from Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review; and a master’s degree from Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar.

TOM MONTEMAGNO
EVP, Programming Acquisition

Tom Montemagno joined Charter Communications as executive vice president, programming acquisition, in 2016 and leads its negotiations with a full range of content providers, from major multichannel media companies and sports networks to local broadcasters. He negotiates all facets of Charter’s programming offerings, including on-demand and home-streaming rights on multiple platforms.

Montemagno joined Charter from Cablevision, where he most recently served as executive vice president of programming. During his 27-year tenure, he held such leadership positions as senior vice president of programming acquisition. He was Cablevision’s lead negotiator with content companies.

Montemagno has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from St. John’s University in New York.

KEY LIEUTENANTS: David Lange, group vice president, programming acquisition; Andrew Rosenberg, senior vice president, programming acquisition; Adam Weinstein, senior vice president, programming acquisition

DISH NETWORK
WARREN SCHLICHTING
EVP, Marketing, Programming and Media Sales

A veteran advertising and media executive, Warren Schlichting oversees the acquisition and renewal of all programming content for Dish Network, including national networks and cable channels, Latino content, local broadcast stations, and premium services such as HBO, Showtime and Starz. Schlichting also oversees Dish’s national marketing efforts and Dish Media Sales, the company’s advertising-sales division.

Prior to joining Dish in 2011, Schlichting led Comcast’s advanced advertising efforts on multiple media and ad delivery platforms, including broadband, interactive television and video-on-demand. Before arriving at Comcast, he was CEO of Hiwire, a Los Angeles-based technology company that provided online ad replacement software for Clear Channel and other radio station groups. He also served in executive positions for Morgan Stanley and the William E. Simon private-equity group.

Schlichting graduated with honors with a degree in Economics from Harvard University, where he was a four-year member of the varsity football team.

KEY LIEUTENANTS: Josh Clark, vice president of programming; Izabela Slowikowska, vice president of international programming; Melisa Ordonez, director of programming acquisition; Ankit Bishnoi, content acquisition for Sling TV

ANDREW LECUYER
SVP, Programming

As Dish’s senior vice president of programming, Andy LeCuyer leads the acquisition and renewal of programming content for Dish and Sling TV. In this role, he leads general entertainment, local broadcast, sports, movie studio and Latino content acquisition, including securing satellite and digital rights (encompassing traditional linear, video-on-demand, TV everywhere and OTT), as well as programming operations.

LeCuyer joined Dish in 2011 as director of programming, overseeing local retransmission relationships nationwide. Soon after, he assumed responsibility for premium, pay-per-view and international programming.

Most recently, LeCuyer led multiple negotiations to secure landmark programming agreements for the launch of Sling TV, the U.S. pay TV industry’s first live over-the-top television service.

Prior to joining Dish, LeCuyer served as vice president of strategic planning for a consumer electronics retailer. Additionally, he spent more than four years as a management consultant for McKinsey, covering a wide range of industries including retail and IT services.

LeCuyer earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Princeton University and a master’s in business administration from Yale School of Management. Following ROTC training during his undergraduate studies, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where he served four years in progressive leadership roles and achieved the rank of captain.

NATIONAL CABLE TELEVISION COOPERATIVE
JUDY MEYKA
EVP, Programming

Judy Meyka, executive vice president of programming for the National Cable Television Cooperative, has spent more than 24 years in the cable television industry. In her current role with the NCTC, she leads the negotiation of video content acquisition agreements across multiple formats and platforms on behalf of more than 800 independent video distributors.

Meyka has been a central part of several key programming negotiations for NCTC members. Last year, the co-op successfully negotiated a deal with AMC Networks that didn’t force members to carry  all six of the programmer’s networks on their most popular tiers, a key development.

Later this year, the NCTC plans to take an even bigger bull by the horns: negotiating its members’ retransmission-consent deals with broadcast groups. Previously, Meyka served in several executive leadership positions, most recently as senior vice president, programming, for Adelphia Communications.

Prior to joining Adelphia, she was senior vice president, distribution, for In Demand and also worked as vice president, programming, for cable distributors AT&T Broadband and MediaOne Group.

Meyka is a graduate of the University of Michigan and received her law degree from the University of Denver College of Law.

KEY LIEUTENANTS: Stewart Myers, vice president, programming; Shelley Thompson, vice president, programming

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS
ERIN McPHERSON
Head of Content Acquisition and Programming

Erin McPherson joined Verizon last December from short-form video pioneer Maker Studios. As head of the telco’s content activities, she oversees programming, strategic partnerships and original content across distribution platforms including Fios, OTT initiatives, IPTV, Oath, Go90, wireless and 5G.

McPherson replaced long-time Verizon content chief Terry Denson. She reports directly to Brian Angiolet, senior vice president of consumer products and new business development.

Prior to Maker, McPherson was vice president/head of video programming and originals at Yahoo, where she grew the company’s original video roster to more than 80 ongoing series.

McPherson graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and received her bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Middlebury College.

COX COMMUNICATIONS
ANDREW ALBERT
SVP, Programming

Cox Communications senior vice president of programming Andrew Albert oversees all video provider relationships and content acquisition, and has led the MSO’s carriage negotiations with such content producers as The Walt Disney Co., Turner, NBCUniversal, Viacom and 21st Century Fox.

Albert is actively involved in setting Cox’s video product strategy, including the deployment of TV everywhere, video-on-demand and high-definition services, as well as the company’s multicultural programming strategy.

Albert joined Cox in 1995 as director of programming and was promoted to executive director of programming in 2002. The following year he was promoted to vice president. He has served in his current role since 2013.

Prior to joining Cox, Albert was director of programming and director of budgets and financial analysis for TeleCable in Norfolk, Va. Before that he was in the financial management program with General Electric, where he served as a sales and marketing analyst.

KEY LIEUTENANTS: Suzanne Fenwick, vice president, content acquisition; Mark Gathen, vice president, content acquisition; Chris Tygh, vice president, content acquisition

ALTICE USA
MICHAEL SCHREIBER
EVP and Chief Content Officer

About one year after European telecom company Altice N.V. purchased Cablevision Systems, making it the fourth-largest U.S. cable operator, Altice USA debuted as a separate, publicly traded stock. With its new currency, executive vice president and chief content officer Michael Schreiber, who joined the company from Comcast in 2016, could have even more clout with programmers as the potential for additional industry consolidation increases.

Schreiber is up to the task. Shortly after Altice announced a corporate-wide rebranding, Schreiber and his team cut a new programming deal with Viacom that not only returned more than a dozen of its youth-oriented channels to Altice USA’s Suddenlink Communications unit after a two-year hiatus, but brought new advanced advertising capabilities to the U.S. operations.

Schreiber is responsible for all programming-related developments, negotiations and agreements covering all content platforms company-wide. In addition to the Viacom partnership, he has forged deals with major programmers and broadcasters across the Optimum and Suddenlink footprints.

Prior to joining Altice USA, Schreiber was senior vice president of content acquisition for Comcast, where he led the execution of new media and digital content deals. He was one of the lead negotiators of key programming agreements and renewals, and oversaw acquisition for platforms including VOD, TV everywhere, Streampix, Watchable and advanced advertising.

Before joining Comcast, Schreiber worked at NBCUniversal, most recently as vice president, business development, digital distribution. He also assisted in the founding, development and launch of Hulu.

KEY LIEUTENANTS: Alan Dannenbaum, senior vice president, programming (a Comcast veteran); Bradley Fleisher, senior vice president, programming (a Time Warner Cable and NBCU veteran)

MEDIACOM COMMUNICATIONS
ITALIA COMMISSO WEINAND
EVP, Programming and Human Resources

Since joining Mediacom Communications as its third employee, Italia Commisso Weinand has worked alongside Rocco Commisso, her brother and fellow cable hall of famer, to build Mediacom into the nation’s fifth-largest cable operator, serving almost 1.4 million customers.

As the company embarked on a series of major acquisitions, Italia’s insight and experience allowed the company’s early operations, human resources, marketing and programming policies. Understanding that Mediacom needed to attract and retain an employee workforce of dedicated and proficient individuals, she developed a family-oriented corporate culture based on fairness, diversity and career growth.

It is a policy that has paid off, as Mediacom has grown from fewer than 20 employees in 1996 to more than 4,700 today.

Commisso Weinand began her 40-year cable career at Time Warner Cable in New York, and worked for Comcast immediately prior to becoming a founding member of Mediacom. Throughout her professional life, she has committed to numerous charitable causes, including Habitat for Humanity, Hope Through Care, Lake Drive School of the Deaf and the Knights of Columbus.

A Cable TV Pioneer, Commisso Weinand was named to the 2004 Wonder Women class by Multichannel News and Women in Cable Telecommunications. In addition to serving on Mediacom’s board, she is a board member for The Cable Center and The Emma L. Bowen Foundation and a past board member of Cable Positive and WICT.

KEY LIEUTENANTS: Barry Paden, group vice president, programming; Joseph Appio, vice president, programming; John Woods, vice president, advanced consumer services; Glenn Goldsmith, consultant

WOW
ROGER SEIKEN
SVP, Programming Roger Seiken joined WOW in March following long-time programming chief Peter Smith’s retirement a few months earlier. Based in Denver, Seiken will manage content provider relationships and oversee all programming negotiations with cable networks and broadcasters.

Prior to joining WOW, Seiken spent more than 12 years at Verizon, where he led the business and legal affairs effort for content acquisition for Verizon’s Fios TV, mobile and digital video platforms. As an original member of the Fios TV team, he helped that business grow from a start-up video service to a top MVPD with more than 5 million subscribers.

Prior to Verizon, Seiken worked for Discovery Communications in both affiliate sales and legal affairs roles. Before that he practiced corporate and securities law at Hogan Lovells and at Fried, Frank in Washington, D.C.

KEY LIEUTENANTS: Robin Feller, director of programming; Jim Waechter, programming financial analyst

Dish Network has asked Tribune Media to submit to baseball-style arbitration to settle their days-long retransmission-consent dispute, a move that would restore Tribune's channels while talks continue.

Update:Tribune: Let FCC Monitor Dish Talks

About 42 Tribune stations in 33 markets went dark to Dish customers at 7 p.m. on Sunday. Dish has complained that the broadcaster is asking for an exorbitant rate hike and extended carriage for its WGN America cable channel while Tribune argues it is merely asking for fair market value for its content.

"We want to return these local stations to our customers immediately, and binding, baseball-style arbitration offers a path to reach a fair deal and to serve the best interests of our customers," said Dish executive vice president of programming Warren Schlichting in a statement.

Related:Tribune: Dish Giving Broadcaster Cold Shoulder

In the meantime, Dish continues to hand out "tens of thousands" of free over-the-air antennas to customers affected by the blackout.

"Our solution to offer free over-the-air antennas to impacted consumers has been tremendously successful, and provided consumers with a meaningful option to fight back against the unreasonable demands of broadcasters whose primary goal should be to serve the very consumers that they are using as pawns to gain negotiating leverage," Schlichting continued in his statement.