CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is rolling out some new features for its IPTV customers in several of its service areas, including the ability to pause live TV from any room and to quickly flip through the last five channels the user was watching.
The Monroe, La.-based company said the new features for Prism TV are available through its Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Mediaroom IPTV platform to customers in La Crosse, Wis., Columbia and Jefferson City, Mo., Orlando, Tallahassee and southwest Fla., Las Vegas and central North Carolina.
The upgrade also allows subscribers with whole-home DVR service to pause live TV from any room in the house, rewind and fast-forward up to the live broadcast point and add the channel they're watching to their 'Favorites' list with one-touch.
CenturyLink said Mediaroom soon will give users access to content and programming online, as well as allow users access to social media sites such as Facebook. Also on tap, an enhanced on-demand library and additional HD channels.
Earlier this month, CenturyLink confirmed plans to bring its IPTV service into some of the Qwest markets it acquired when it bought the telco last year. It said it initially would launch in just one or two markets in 2012.
CenturyLink is the third-largest telecom company in the U.S., but it hasn't been very aggressive with its IPTV rollout; to date, it has collected just more than 50,000 subscribers from the 1 million homes it passes.
Forecasts say IPTV will gradually grow its share in the market, doubling in size by the end of 2016, when it likely will control 16 percent of pay-TV subscriptions.
For more:
- see this release
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