The troubles keep piling up for DISH Network. The satellite TV provider recently reported losing a staggering 348,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2024 alone – 213,000 from its traditional linear TV service and another 135,000 from its Sling TV streaming platform. As the company bleeds customers, discussions of a potential merger with rival DirecTV have intensified.

For years, the prospect of a merger between the two satellite giants has loomed large over the pay-TV industry. Back in 2022, DISH co-founder Charlie Ergen went so far as to declare such a transaction “inevitable.” But with Ergen absent from the recent quarterly earnings call, it fell to DISH’s new CEO, Hamid Akhavan-Malayeri, to field questions about the possibility of a DirecTV combination.

Amidst the grim subscriber losses, declines in revenue and free cash flow, Akhavan-Malayeri was thrown into the fire early in his tenure. When asked to outline DISH’s strategy for avoiding bankruptcy, he pointed to rebuilding cash reserves and refocusing on high-quality subscribers less likely to cancel service.

The CEO also had an opportunity to address the long-simmering DirecTV merger talks. While acknowledging the “significant synergy” such a deal could unlock, Akhavan-Malayeri seemed hesitant to make any bold declarations.

“I can’t speak how inevitable it is,” he said, referring to Ergen’s 2022 comments. “To me, obviously, there’s significant synergy there. When you look at the two businesses being in the same space and both businesses are in a space where we are under attack by the content providers and a number of other challenges. I think that opportunity certainly has always been there and is there. It’s a matter of us getting to finding the right time and economics to look at it.”

For now, the new CEO’s priorities lie elsewhere. “My focus more than anything else is to address the two significant challenges ahead of us,” he explained. “One is, as I mentioned, just immediate financing needs and second is getting our business operationally to the point where [we have] a business that is sustainable and is generating significant economic value. Those two priorities right now are taking, I would say, 99% of my time.”

Still, the potential benefits of a DISH-DirecTV merger are hard to ignore. The combined company would boast over 20 million paid subscribers, making it the largest remaining cable channel distributor in the United States. Executives would also have to decide the fate of the two companies’ live TV streaming services, Sling TV and DirecTV STREAM.

The most logical path forward may be to position Sling TV as a lower-cost complement to DirecTV STREAM’s more premium offerings. Currently, DirecTV STREAM’s cheapest package starts at $79.99 per month, while Sling TV’s entry-level plan is just $40. Maintaining both services could create an attractive range of options at different price points.

There’s also an opportunity to cross-pollinate the two services’ features and perks. Current Sling subscribers who upgrade to a DirecTV STREAM plan could gain access to regional sports networks, while DirecTV customers could benefit from Sling’s new rewards program – helping boost the ranks of those coveted “high-quality” subscribers.