LAS VEGAS – CenturyLink, a provider of data, voice, TV and managed services, is demonstrating its enhanced Prism TV app on the next-generation Internet-connected Smart TV products from LG Electronics at the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week in Las Vegas. A pilot program will follow later this year.
LG’s new Smart TVs are powered by the webOS platform, built with open web technologies and application accelerators such as HTML5, nodeJS, and TV-optimized UI templates, which facilitate rapid development and deployment of premium TV-centric apps. The Smart TV apps developed for webOS can also be deployed quickly to many other operating systems and platforms which support modern browsers.
“The LG Smart TV experience, focused on simple set-up, switching, and discovery, represents the ideal modern TV platform choice for CenturyLink to enable its subscribers to access the Prism TV app quickly on a big screen and easily find and watch the TV shows that they want,” said Sam Chang, LG Electronics USA senior VP and head of LG Silicon Valley Lab.
Prism TV App to Deploy on LG Smart TVs and HDMI Sticks
As part of the pilot program, CenturyLink plans to deploy its enhanced Prism TV app on LG Smart TVs and LG HDMI Sticks, giving its customers the convenience of viewing premium content without the use of a traditional set-top box. CenturyLink recently announced the launch of the 3.0 version of its app, allowing Prism TV customers to access an enhanced offering of live TV channels and video-on-demand (VOD) content inside and outside of the home on iOS, Android and Kindle mobile devices.
“CenturyLink is committed to providing its Prism TV customers with seamless, anytime, anywhere programming by expanding the TV Everywhere ecosystem and bringing TV content to various devices,” said Steve Sklar, CenturyLink vice president, video strategy & development. “We are very pleased to be showcasing our Prism TV app on Smart TV products from LG, a global leader in consumer electronics technology.”
The LG HDMI Stick, powered by Android, is part of LG Electronics’ suite of smart set-top boxes which complements the Smart TV platform and enables pay TV operators to satisfy subscribers’ whole home entertainment needs on existing TVs. The LG Stick enables convenient wireless delivery of live TV and VOD content to any TV with an HDMI port, with the available option of 802.11ac, the next-generation high-performance Wi-Fi standard.
The Prism TV app is powered by Azuki Systems, the core platform provider for CenturyLink’s TV Everywhere service. Prism TV, currently available in 12 markets including Las Vegas, Tallahassee, Phoenix and Colorado Springs, is delivered through CenturyLink’s fiber optic network and offers advanced features that customers may not get from cable or satellite, including more than 200 HD channels, a wireless set-top box, whole home DVR, warp-speed channel change, multi-view, and TV applications such as Facebook, Yahoo! Sports and Picasa.
