Charter's hybrid offering slows video losses in Q3 2025

Charter Communications Inc.'s hybrid linear/streaming program offering continued to slow video customer losses in the third quarter, according to company executives.

The cable distributor reported that it shed 70,000 pay TV subscribers during the three months ended Sept. 30, a major reduction from the 294,000 defections it sustained in the corresponding year-earlier period.

Charter closed the third quarter with 12.6 million overall pay TV subscribers, down 3.5% from 13.0 million at the end of third quarter 2024.

"Our video customer losses continued to improve to 70,000, less than 1/4 of last year's third-quarter losses," said CEO Christopher Winfrey on an Oct. 31 earnings call. "That was driven by significant product improvements over the past 2 years."

Winfrey was referencing Charter's Seamless Experience that began with a new carriage pact with The Walt Disney Co. in September 2023. Since then, Charter has signed distribution deals, maintaining linear relationships with programmers' TV networks while adding access to their streaming offerings at no extra charge to its Spectrum TV Select video customers.

To that end, Charter is now offering a number of streaming apps, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, HBO Max, Paramount Skydance Corp.'s Paramount+, NBCUniversal Media LLC's Peacock, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.'s AMC+, ViX, The Tennis Channel Inc. and Fox Corp.'s FOX One, which collectively retail for $116 per month. That lineup is slated to expand to include Discovery+ and BET+, which will bring the value to $125 monthly.

Earlier in October, the company unveiled the Spectrum App Store, a digital marketplace where Spectrum TV customers can activate, manage and upgrade the streaming apps included with their video plans. The Spectrum App Store also allows nonvideo customers to purchase and manage streaming apps on an a la carte basis.

"It's an important additional step in our effort to bring back utility and value to customers in the video ecosystem really for the benefit of our connectivity services," Winfrey said. "With the combination of over $125 of included video app value in our video product, unified search and discovery in Xumo and our digital marketplace, we're now more fully marketing our Seamless entertainment packaging."

Amid the slowing video subscriber losses, Winfrey is realistic about the shrinking pay TV universe.

"I just want to be clear, our goal here, it isn't to have positive video ads. ... Unfortunately, it's not to save the video ecosystem because it's pretty challenged," he said.

Rather, he said it is to offer a unique and differentiated product for the company's connectivity subscribers "in a way that generates new ways to market and acquire customers."

All told, Charter saw its base of broadband subscribers decrease 1.5% to 29.8 million in the third quarter from 30.3 million in the year-earlier period. The company saw its residential internet customers recede 1.6% to 27.8 million, while its small business broadband customers dipped 0.9% to 2.0 million.

Charter enjoyed a strong quarter with phones, finishing the period with 11.4 million mobile lines, up 21.8% from almost 9.4 million.

Corporately, Charter's third-quarter revenue slipped 0.9% to $13.67 billion.

Net income attributable to Charter shareholders declined 11.2% to $1.14 billion, or $8.34 per share, from $1.28 billion, or $8.82 per share. Results in the just-completed quarter reflected higher operating expense primarily due to M&A costs related to the previously announced Cox Communications Inc. transaction and severance costs.

Winfrey said the $34.5 billion Cox deal remains on track to be completed in mid-2026 as Charter continues toward regulatory approvals.

Listen to Tom Montemagno, executive vice president of programming acquisition for Charter, talk about the company's Seamless strategy on "MediaTalk."