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Charter Loses 100K TV Customers, but Broadband Growth Strong

Charter Communications managed to lose another 100,000 traditional video customers, but more than made up for the losses with significant broadband growth. Like Comcast, Charter has increasingly benefited from telcos like AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Windstream and Frontier simply refusing to upgrade their networks at any real scale. As a result, consumers are increasingly flocking to cable broadband if they want anything resembling next-generation broadband speeds. To that end, Charter added an impressive 428,000 broadband subscribers during the first quarter.

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Still, with programming costs jumping 8.2% and the company's video subscriber base down 2% from this time last year, Charter still faces some headwinds.

Unlike Comcast, which uses arbitrary and unnecessary usage caps to help protect TV revenues from streaming video competition, Charter was banned from imposing caps for a period of seven years as a condition of its latest merger. Cable lobbyists have, however, already convinced the FCC to kill some of those conditions, and are pressuring the agency to kill the usage cap restrictions as well.

Charter's $79 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House hasn't been a good one for customers, who say the company's customer service post-merger has actually been somehow worse than the traditionally awful support the cable sector is already known for. Support representatives often provide conflicting information, and many users also say they're paying higher rates than ever before in the wake of the deal.

For its part, Charter CEO Tom Rutledge continues to insist the post-acquisition integration is going swimmingly.

“As we near the first anniversary of the close of our transformative transactions in May of last year, the execution of our integration and operating plan remains on track,” CEO Tom Rutledge says. “We have now launched our Spectrum pricing and packaging to nearly all of the homes we pass in our new footprint. We are already seeing the benefits of our customer-focused strategy in those markets, including greater connect volumes and the sales of higher quality products, all of which will lead to higher customer satisfaction, lower churn, and faster customer and financial growth in future quarters.”

Most recommended from 19 comments



SuperSpy
join:2012-06-15
Coldwater, MI

11 recommendations

SuperSpy

Member

Hmm

I wonder how many of these 'new customers' are ones that they forced to cancel their accounts and set up new ones just to get new promo rates.
Nucleartx
join:2016-09-08
Belton, TX

7 recommendations

Nucleartx

Member

Special rate

I foresee a special offer coming up, $15 per month increase for internet only. This will be a unique semi annual event called "Wallstreet First, it's all that matters!".

Anon2bc24
@2600:1005.x

4 recommendations

Anon2bc24

Anon

Pick and choose

I think a lot of video customers have realized the wasted money from traditional video offerings from satellite , Telco, and cable. Constant commercials, repeats, trash channels, high prices. The rebellion has begun in earnest. The window on "creators/media" companies forcing packs of useless channels down consumer's throats is ending. It's interesting to see at&t try to buy time warner. It seems to be another transitional company whose business model is failing being bought out by a company whose extreme need for profits can't be sustained in the long run. Reminds me of Richard Gere's business plan in pretty woman.
techguru308
join:2016-05-19
Cincinnati, OH

2 recommendations

techguru308

Member

TV Subscriber losses

The reason why Charter Communications is losing so many TV subscribers is due to the fact they are not going to offer insanely cheap promotions and TV packages. They would rather not have you as a customer if all you want is TV for $10.00 to $20.00 a month. So I would expect higher TV subscriber losses for this year while the legacy TWC and BHN promotions expire. Charter Communications made it quite clear that they do not want you as a customer if all you want is heavily discounted services in the webcast they had explaining their Q1 Results in 2017.