OTT TV Product
CenturyLink had earlier announced that they would be launching a new slimmed-down OTT product for their customers shortly. However, reports from several reliable sources indicate that the officials from the telecom company have now decided to push the launch of the latest OTT service to the third quarter.
In a recent announcement, CenturyLink’s president of consumer markets, Maxine Moreau said, “We are still in the process of technically trialing the product in four markets. It’s going well. We do plan to launch the service in early next quarter. We’ll evaluate the pricing strategy, the packaging strategy and then we will phase-in the launch over the rest of the year.”
The launch of the OTT product from the telecom company was actually scheduled for early Q2. The officials from the company wanted to expand the service into more of their markets by mid-2017, but the recent announcement from CenturyLink confirms that this is less likely to happen. The telecom company refused to shed any details on what is triggering the delay, although expert analysts suggest that they might be waiting to get things right.
Product Launch Rescheduled
Experts also claim that the latest OTT service from CenturyLink will also experience a steady competition from the over the top service of other telecom companies such as AT&T’s DirecTV Now, Dish Network’s Sling TV, and Sony’s PlayStation Vue. In addition to that, they will also have to compete against other leading OTT services like Hulu’s new live TV service and YouTube TV.
CenturyLink also talked about deemphasizing Prism TV as they are proceeding with the plan of launching a new OTT TV package. However, officials from the telecom giant confirmed that Prism TV would remain to be an integral part of their video arsenal. Moreau stated that the company would be using Prism TV “to capture the higher value customers. So our video strategy will be one of offering multiple options to the customers, based on their purchasing needs.”
CenturyLink is already one of the leading internet providers in the country and the launch of this new OTT service will certainly draw in more customers to their offerings. CenturyLink’s new offering is actually a blessing to cable and internet subscribers, as it will help them acquire the best internet and cable deals in much lower price tariffs.
