Dish announced that Michael Schwimmer will lead the International Business Development and Strategy Group of Sling TV after its President, Warren Schlichting resigned as the company experienced a net loss of 375,000 customers. Schwimmer rejoined Dish in June 2019, and Schlichting’s exit comes after Sling TV reported massive subscriber decline throughout the past two quarters.
The service lost 94,000 accounts in the fourth quarter of 2019, which accounts for its first-ever subscription decline. Then, it lost an additional 281,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2020. By the time the end of March came around, its customer numbers were down by 4.7% year-over-year.
Sling TV’s losses arrived after the service raised its prices in December 2019. The service introduced a share of promotional offers, but not enough to prevent the subscriber decline. In February, it gave new and returning customers the chance to sign up for USD 5 as a fifth-anniversary deal. Sling TV also offered free viewing without a required subscription in April to provide easy access to entertainment to its audience during the Covid-19 pandemic, to increase its paying subscribers.
Dish’s satellite TV business has suffered a decline over the last several years as a result of cord-cutting. The network launched Sling TV in 2015, hoping the internet-delivered pay-TV package would make up for its losses. In the fourth quarter of 2019, Dish posted Sling TV’s first-ever sub declines, with a net loss of 94,000 accounts. That accelerated in Q1, as Sling TV sheds 281,000 customers. As of 31st March, Sling TV had 2.31 million customers, a decline from 4.7% a year earlier.