Steve Sklar is a seasoned media executive with deep cross functional leadership experience and serves as Vice President of Advertising and Monetization at Frndly TV, the leading provider of affordable Feel-Good Live TV for the whole family. He is responsible for Frndly’s advertising business, including direct sales, managing SSP partnerships, demand partnerships with broadcasters and device manufacturers and relations with ad tech vendors. During his tenure, Sklar has led the rapid growth of Frndly TV’s advertising business to an eight-figure business line.
As founder of S Squared Advisory, Sklar has provided consulting services to media and telecommunications companies in product strategy, business development, advertising, and content partnerships. He has advised companies including Frndly TV, Sony, SpotX, Viasat and Windstream in areas such as OTT video, SVOD, AVOD, F.A.S.T. channels, and programmatic advertising. Sklar has also served as an expert witness for independent cable programmers and as an Executive-in-Residence at FTI Consulting in their Telecom, Media and Technology practice.
Sklar held executive roles at CenturyLink and Qwest for 13 years including serving as Vice President, Video Strategy and Development where he oversaw product strategy, product development, content acquisition & operations, business development and video engineering and led the launch and growth of CenturyLink’s Prism TV service to a $500 million annual business line. He also led overall video and content strategy including OTT and the development of a vMVPD and standalone SVOD and Latino offerings. Prior to its acquisition by CenturyLink, Sklar led video and wireless products for Qwest and was responsible for Qwest Choice TV, the Qwest Wireless MVNO, and the development of the Q Zone broadband content store with SVOD, TVOD and subscription gaming offerings. He also oversaw the company’s residential, MDU and commercial partnerships with DIRECTV and Qwest’s reseller partnership with Verizon Wireless. Sklar has significant experience launching new products like OTT video, IPTV, broadband, VoIP and international Pay TV networks and has had leadership roles in product, business development and content distribution with industry leaders including Cablevision, Insight Communications, Starz and HBO. He began his career as a media banker in New York City.
Sklar lives in Denver with his wife Betsy. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College.