LAS VEGAS — After shuttering the beta test for its OTT service Stream last month, CenturyLink confirmed to Fierce that it will also no longer work to promote and grow its linear Prism TV product.
“Due to emerging market trends in video content and delivery, we do not plan to expand our Prism TV service offering,” CenturyLink spokesperson Francie Dudrey told Fierce, in a statement delivered at the NAB Show yesterday. “We will continue to provide service and support to our current Prism TV subscribers and make the service available to qualified customers who request it in the markets where we currently offer Prism TV.”
Last month, it was reported that CenturyLink is no longer offering its Prism TV service to new customers, offering instead DirecTV satellite service.
Residential services account for only around 25% of CenturyLink revenue following the company’s transformational $34 billion purchase of Level 3 Communications. With that purchase, company officials said, the company is now firmly focused on the global enterprise telecom services marketplace.
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With that priority, the expensive gambit of licensing programming and building pay TV services is being reconsidered at the company, which had planned at one point to build virtual MVPD service Stream into a Prism replacement.
There has been speculation that CenturyLink might divest its consumer-facing assets, but the company doesn’t have any plans to discuss that this time.
For her part, Dudrey also addressed the ending of the Stream beta test.
“CenturyLink continually evaluates the products and services we offer and makes changes when needed,” she said in another statement. “We conducted various trials of our CenturyLink Stream over-the-top video solution, but plan to discontinue this service in April 2018. We are exploring options to meet market demand for streaming video services.”