It seems 2017 has been a bad year for Charter as it started out with a loss of 100,000 traditional video customers in the first quarter 2017. In total Charter lost 2% of its subscribers compared to the same time in 2016.
In what is just one more sign of the power of cord cutting, Charter did see growth in one area: broadband Internet subscribers. That part of Charter saw a 428,000 subscriber jump in the first quarter of 2017.
Charter’s data cap free Internet is driving a lot of new subscribers to ditch services with data caps and move over to Spectrum Internet. That data cap free Internet was a requirement imposed on Charter in exchange for permission to buy Time Warner Cable.
Charter recently purchased several competitors including Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. It seems from Charter’s point of view the mergers are going great and were well worth the investment.
“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.”
Clearly cord cutting is having a real and noticeable impact on Charter. The question now is how will Charter respond to the slow loss of customers as its competitors launch live TV streaming services such as Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, and DIRECTV NOW and soon Comcast along with Verizon will also be launching new live TV service.
Source: Business Journal
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