CenturyLink's Prism TV Adds Sports Plus Package

CenturyLink's Prism TV today (April 19) launched Prism Sports Plus, a package of six full-time channels and five part-time services for $8.99 per month. New additions to the Prism TV lineup via the tier are Fox-distributed YES Network and Fox Soccer Plus; ESPN's Bases Loaded (baseball), Buzzer Beater (basketball) and Goal Line (football) college-sports live look-in services; MLB Strike Zone, the pro-baseball look-in service; Anthem Media's Fight Network and Fantasy Sports Network; equestrian-focused Ride TV and international-focused One World Sports.

NFL Red Zone, the pro football look-in service that Prism TV had offered for a $64.99 annual fee, also is included in the new sports package, an increasingly popular way for multichannel distributors to increase their sports-programming quotient without adding to expanded-basic programming charges.

Anthem and One World Sports put out press releases announcing their additions onto Prism TV, the IP-based service that ended 2015 with a reported 285,000 customers amid a possible universe of 3.2 million homes.

The telco has launched Prism TV in markets including Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.; Seattle; LaCrosse and Platteville, Wisc.; Columbia and Jefferson City, Mo.; Tallahassee and central and southwest Florida; Las Vegas; central North Carolina; Phoenix; Omaha, Neb.; Denver and Colorado Springs, Colo.; Portland, Ore., and Salt Lake City. Some markets will see the Sports Plus service launch on May 20, CenturyLink said. All services have launched in high-definition format in addition to standard definition.

Kent Gibbons

Kent has been a journalist, writer and editor at Multichannel News since 1994 and with Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He is a good point of contact for anything editorial at the publications and for Nexttv.com. Before joining Multichannel News he had been a newspaper reporter with publications including The Washington Times, The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal and North County News.