The FierceVideo editorial team is proud to present its inaugural Emerging Leaders Awards, recognizing the brightest young professionals rising up the ranks of the streaming video and pay TV industry. Throughout the months of June and July we’ll be featuring these profiles with each of our finalists. We will announce the winners during our upcoming OTT Blitz Week of virtual panels happening during the last week in July.
Tim Meyer/Sling TV:
Tim Meyer leads Sling TV’s business development team and is responsible for negotiating and launching partnerships for Sling TV with brands such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, TiVo and more. In his 10 years at Dish and Sling TV, Meyer has supported various groups within both businesses with a focus on video including EchoStar, Move Networks, Sling Media, Dish Technologies and Sling TV.
Streaming Industry Q&A:
What streaming services do you subscribe to?
Sling TV, of course! We stream everything in my house, so I also subscribe to Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu (SVOD), ESPN+, Apple TV+, Quibi, Locast, Peacock, SiriusXM, Spotify and Pandora.
What are your favorite shows you’re watching in 2020?
On Sling TV, I watch “Homeland,” “Billions,” “Chicago PD” and “The Last Dance.” We also love to binge “Ozark,” “Jack Ryan” and of course “Tiger King.”
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
Although it might sound cliché, the last 10 years have played out like one continuous highlight reel. Charlie, Erik and the rest of our executive leadership team have an incredible pulse on the industry, which allows me to learn a ton and also makes my job fun. I have worked with incredible people and have made impactful lifetime connections and friendships at Dish and Sling TV. One of our core values is “adventure” and I can honestly say every day is a new adventure for me and the team.
What’s next for you in terms of new challenges in streaming TV?
There are a few things that keep me up at night. The first is relevancy – things have changed dramatically in the streaming space since our launch, with so many new services, whether live linear or on-demand. People are subscribing to more streaming services than ever before, and one of my day-to-day responsibilities is to ensure we stay relevant on the most popular platforms and streaming devices in the market. We prioritize keeping a close eye on the market and leaning in with the right set of partners to ensure our content is discoverable and relevant to their users. Another challenge constantly on my mind is mobile adoption for live TV; no one has really done this well and I’m not entirely sure why. As Dish enters the wireless market, I’d love to find a better way to connect people to our product on their mobile devices. Lastly, I’m always thinking about how to become an app/experience a user can’t live without. If our users were forced to delete all their apps, we want to be the one they say “no way, I can’t delete that.”