Charter shed 100,000 video customers on the residential side in Q1 2017, according to its earnings report released Tuesday. Most of those losses came from legacy Time Warner Cable systems, and Charter CEO Tom Rutledge pointed out in an earnings call that legacy Charter systems would have added pay TV customers if the integrated properties were not included. In Q1 2016, Charter added 24,000 pay TV subs on a pro forma basis.
On the residential broadband side, the operator added 428,000 high-speed internet subs in the first quarter of this year. In a research note, MoffetNathanson points out that was better than Wall Street consensus had predicted (388,000), but didn’t get near last year’s big gain of 520,000. “Charter’s broadband base is still growing at a 7 percent annual rate,” MoffetNathanson notes.
“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,” Rutledge says in a statement. “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.”