After confirming in March that it was testing such a service, CenturyLink is prepping further trials of an over-the-top ‘skinny TV’ platform.
prismKnown as Prism Stream, the service will be deployed where the company has no footprint for its traditional PrismTV IPTV service. DISH Network’s SlingTV product is similar in concept, but notably, CenturyLink’s service will include local feeds of all four major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC).
“With regard to the over-the-top products, we are going to be going forward with skinny bundles,” said Dean Douglas, president of sales and marketing for CenturyLink, speaking during the company’s second-quarter earnings call. “We piloted this in one market, and we expect to go forward with a broader pilot towards the end of the year and really test the market in terms of pricing as well as the ability to penetrate the marketplace with this OTT offering to compliment what we have in the Prism markets.”
CenturyLink CTO Aamir Hussain said during the call that programming deals are still in the works. “The key for getting the skinny bundles to work is having the right level of programming agreements in place,” he said. “Today on Prism TV service we buy through NCTC. When we launch our TV over-the-top offering, that offering we are negotiating brand new agreements with the broadcasters. And those agreements are not bound by any caps or by franchise agreements. So these are non-franchise-type agreements. They allow us to pretty much have a nationwide reach. And the top four or five, we are doing very, very well on those agreements and we really, really feel very comfortable with the timeline that we have provided.”
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