Latest news with #SpectrumTVSelect
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Is Charter-Cox Merger The Last Big Cable Deal?
The announcement that Charter Communications, the largest cable operator in the U.S., is merging with Cox Communications, one of the last of the cable pioneer old guard, gave me a weird The Last of Us vibe. In a sea of traumatic challenges from Big Tech, direct to consumer streaming platforms, ever-empowered consumers, and the grand designs of Elon Musk, the cable video world has been reeling. Is the merger of Charter and Cox a last gasp to fend off their ravenous competitors and avoid the business equivalent of viral collapse? The combined entity of Charter and Cox (assuming regulatory approvals) will become the largest multi-system operator (MSO) in the U.S., serving 37 million broadband subscribers and over 15 million multichannel video subscribers in 48 states in the U.S., with revenues totaling $80 billion. Remember when the ire of legislators was trained on 'big cable?' That term needs a bit of adjustment given that the digital giants Amazon, Apple and Alphabet have revenues of $638 billion, $391 billion, and $350 billion, respectively. But the Charter-Cox combination carries significant implications nevertheless for a variety of media industry players. Content is not King here. It is true that the combined entity will by dint of its grander scale be able to cut the wholesale programming costs for the former Cox subscribers, and for all the networks delivered to the combined subscribers those revenues remain irreplaceable today. The companies have also announced an 'efficiency' target of $500 million. But this deal is all about broadband. The traditional multichannel video business is never going to be the same, on a faster downward spiral than anyone could have predicted (I'm sure a blogger will now tell me he predicted this precisely in 2008, but I have yet to see it). Over 50% of the revenues for the combined company will be from its broadband business, and although Charter, Cox and the U.S. broadband business has also suffered subscriber losses in the last two years, as well as growing threats from wireless broadband and perhaps Elon Musk's Starlink, broadband often seems pretty close to electricity and water among consumer desires. There just aren't a lot of great substitutes. As to content, this deal will likely yield at least a decent boost for some of the media industry's streaming services. Today Charter's 'Spectrum TV Select' customers get free access to a host of streaming apps through their owners' affiliation agreements with Charter, including Disney's Disney+ and ESPN+; NBC Universal's Peacock; Paramount Plus, Warner Bros. Discovery's Max (I mean HBO Max), AMC+, Univision's ViX and Sinclair's Tennis Channel Plus. I would expect that the former Cox subscribers will ultimately be folded into Charter's deals and expand the streaming apps' distribution. One of the fascinating aspects of the Charter-Cox combination is the echo of legendary names in the cable industry. James Cox founded Cox Enterprises back in 1898 and its cable business was long a part of a group of family-founded cable companies such as Continental Cablevision (Amos Hostetter, Jr.), Cablevision (Charles Dolan) and Comcast (Ralph then Brian Roberts). Collectively this group was once known as the 'Killer Cs.' John Malone may not have been a cable industry founder per se but might as well have been given his oversized presence for nearly 5 decades. As of today, Malone is the largest shareholder of Liberty Broadband, which owns 26% of Cox. The Charter merger will bring an end to Malone's ownership and board seat – although as usual with a massively successful return on investment for Malone. If the tone here seems a bit wistful of the past, you can add big cable dealmaking to the list. Who is left in cable – especially cable-delivered video - to put together a big deal? AT&T and Verizon are significant players in broadband, but they are wireless-driven businesses that are never likely to merge even under the most generous of regulatory treatments. Altice – the former Cablevision now operating under the Optimum consumer brand - is the next largest legacy cable provider after Cox. But the day the Charter-Cox deal, Altice's stock dropped nearly 15%. And this is a company that has lost over 90% of its market cap in the last 3 years. Investors have clearly lost faith in a white knight coming along for Altice. More deals may or may not emerge – old-timer Mediacom is still operating independently - but none may ever again represent a real realignment in the cable world. Yeah, Charter-Cox really does sound the last of them – if not The Last of Us.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Charter Loses 181,000 Pay TV Customers in First Quarter of 2025
Pay TV is still declining, though Charter Communications has found a way to slow this loss. During the first quarter of 2025, the company saw a loss of 181,000 pay TV customers. That's less than half of the 405,000 pay TV customers the company lost during the first quarter of 2024. By March 31, Charter reported having 12.7 million total video customers. Charter credited simplified pricing as well as the launch of its Life Unlimited package in September as the reasons for this stymied loss. Currently, Spectrum TV Select also includes access to ad-supported versions of Max, Disney+, ESPN+, Paramount+, Peacock, AMC+, ViX, Tennis Channel Plus, Discovery+ and BET+. These streaming offerings mark a hard-won victory for Charter, which has become more bullish in recent years about providing streaming access to its pay TV customer as programmers invest more in streaming and less in cable. Spectrum has also made strides to make logging into these streamers as seamless as possible, establishing itself as a hub for television entertainment. 'I think we're on a good trajectory, and it's a little unknown. I call it option value. The biggest driver here for us is, obviously, internet and mobile, but I think our video results can improve, and I think we're offering compelling product. At a minimum, it's something that we're proud to put on the bill now and to use together with broadband,' Charter Communications CEO Chris Winfrey said on Friday during the company's earnings call. This quarter also saw a decline in internet customers and an increase in mobile. Internet customers decreased by 60,000, and by the end of the quarter, Charter's total of internet customers was 30 million. As for mobile, that customer base increased by 514,000, bringing the quarter's total of mobile lines up to 10.4 million. Charter also noted that its first quarter results did include impacts from the Los Angeles wildfires, which took place in January. The quarter included 9,000 disconnects that were fire related, the credits Charter extended to impacted customers and some incremental expenses. In the coming quarters, the company expects it will incur additional capital expenditures as the roughly 16,000 Los Angeles homes that were lost are rebuilt. But at present, Charter does not believe this will require the company to change its outlook. 'First quarter adjusted EBITDA was not meaningfully impacted by either,' CFO Jessica Fischer said on the call. The post Charter Loses 181,000 Pay TV Customers in First Quarter of 2025 appeared first on TheWrap.
