Sling TV founding CEO Roger Lynch is Pandora’s new president and CEO

Pandora announced today it has appointed Roger Lynch as its new president and CEO.

Lynch was the founding CEO of Dish’s Sling TV previous to the move. He will also become a member of Pandora’s board of directors, along with Snap Inc.’s Michael Lynton.

Naveen Chopra was serving as Pandora’s interim CEO after Tim Westergren, Pandora’s former CEO, announced he was stepping down from all official positions.

Lynch’s new position comes just as Pandora has launched a rebranding effort to focus on conversion of free users to paying customers. The company started to see a climb this year in Q2 for its efforts, topping revenue targets and closing at 4.86 million total paid subscribers, sending shares up more than 7 percent in extended trading.

Pandora has seen a steady decline in the number of active users since 2014, when about 81.5 million people were actively using the service on a monthly basis. That number now stands at 76 million (compare that to Spotify’s 140 million active monthly users, 50 million of whom are paying customers).

The addition of Lynch and board inclusion of Lynton, who ran Sony Pictures before joining Snap, could signal Pandora is thinking about getting into video in the future.

Lynch will begin his new appointment on September 18, 2017.

*An earlier version of this article mistakenly mentioned Robert Lynch in the headline as the new CEO of Pandora. It is Roger Lynch. We regret the error.

Featured Image: Sling TV