CenturyLink CEO Glen Post said the company will decide in a few months whether to introduce IPTV in any of Qwest's legacy markets.
Reading between the lines during today’s first-quarter earnings call, the next market to receive CenturyLink’s IPTV service will probably be in Qwest’s local-phone service territory. And the roll out could come as early as this year.
CenturyLink chief executive Glen Post said the company expanded the service, called Prism TV, in the first quarter to three new markets: Tallahassee, Orlando and Raleigh, N.C.
Prism TV, which offers video content over a dedicated Internet network, is now available in eight legacy CenturyLink/Embarq markets. CenturyLink purchased Embarq in 2009 and completed its acquisition of Denver-based Qwest on April 1.
Post said the company will continue to expand Prism TV in 2011, ultimately reaching 1 million homes with the service.
However, in response to a question from an analyst, Post said the company does not expect “any additional rollouts in the CenturyLink market” this year.
“We’ll be evaluating the Qwest markets in the coming months,” Post said. “We do think there could be some opportunity there… We’ll be making those decisions around midyear as far as any additional rollouts of IPTV in any of those markets.”
He noted that the company is working through cost estimates and a “shortening of (fiber) loops.”
CenturyLink is also dealing with burdensome video franchise laws in Colorado and other states that require companies to secure agreements with individual municipalities before offering a service that competes with existing cable-TV offerings.
Qwest revisited efforts for video franchise reform in Colorado this legislative session, but a bill wasn’t introduced. A measure in Idaho failed this year.
Note: This post was updated at 4:10 p.m. on May 5, 2011, to clarify Post’s comments about loops.