Charter Communications lost video customers in its third quarter, although fewer than in the year-ago period, as the cable and Internet giant faces stiff competitive headwinds from YouTube and other streaming-era rivals. It also posted a drop in broadband users, which was in line with the year-ago quarter.
The company, led by CEO Chris Winfrey, said it lost 70,000 pay TV subscribers in the third quarter, compared with a loss of 294,000 customers in the same category in the year-ago period.
Charter disclosed it had shed 64,000 residential TV subscribers and another 6,000 business accounts during the latest quarter. For its second quarter, Charter had reported an 80,000 customer decline after offering Hulu to select Spectrum TV customers as part of a deal with Disney.
At the end of the third quarter, Charter said it had 12.5 million overall pay TV subscribers, down 3.5 percent from 13 million in the year-ago period.
In its broadband business, Charter lost 109,000 subscribers, compared to a loss of 110,000 customers in the third quarter of 2024.
Third-quarter revenue came to $13.67 billion, down 1 percent from $13.79 billion in the year-ago period. The decline was due to lower residential video and advertising sales revenues offset by higher residential mobile service and Internet revenues.
Charter had been forecast to post quarterly revenues of $13.74 billion by Zacks Consensus Estimate for the third quarter. The company said it had 31.1 million total customers at the end of the third quarter, excluding mobile-only relationships
In May, Charter unveiled a $34.5 billion deal with Cox Communications to combine their businesses and create a cable TV giant with greater scale in broadband internet connectivity and video to take on tech giants in the video and advertising spaces.
