CenturyLink is one of the largest phone and Internet service providers in the United States, but it has been losing money on Prism TV.
According to FierceCable, CenturyLink is experiencing losses with its TV service. Now in an effort to make up these losses it is getting ready to replace the TV service with a streaming service it is already testing.
“Our [OTT] trial is getting really strong reviews right now … We have deemphasized [Prism TV] and are moving more toward the over-the-top product and also focusing more on the broadband offerings we have versus the video,” said CenturyLink President and CEO Glen Post, to investors on CenturyLink’s fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday.
Operating expenses have been going up for CenturyLink over the last year. In total costs went up 2.4% driven mostly by higher Prism TV content costs.
“If you look at our Prism product … we’ve talked about content costs have really gone out of sight the last couple of years,” Post said. “If you look at the margins, sometimes actually negative margins. We have to make a truck roll and the cost of provisioning really makes it difficult from a returns standpoint for really driving the kind of returns we expect.”
So it seems that in the second quarter 2017 CenturyLink is looking at launching because “We plan to launch those markets in early second quarter, expand that midyear and then further expand it throughout the year,” she added.
CenturyLink is considering teaming up with its long-time rival AT&T to resel their new DIRECTV NOW streaming service. “On the over-the-top, we’re looking at every option,” Post said. “If we can get a better deal or we can get some of our content cost down and get the same type of service available with a DIRECTV NOW, we’ll certainly take a look at that. We are talking to all of our service providers, looking at every possibility there.”
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