Charter sees quarterly revenues rise
STAMFORD — Cable-and-internet giant Charter Communications reported Tuesday rising revenues and profits for the past quarter, as it saw growing demand for its internet services but a decline in video and phone customers.
First-quarter revenues increased about 5 percent year-over-year, to $11.2 billion. Profits totaled about $253 million, compared with $168 million in the same period in 2018, reflecting higher adjusted earnings, lower depreciation and amortization costs and lower merger and restructuring costs.
“We performed well in the first quarter,” Charter CEO and Chairman Tom Rutledge said on a call Tuesday with investment analysts. “Our three-year effort to deliver better products, at better prices, via a single operating entity, with a unified product-and-marketing service infrastructure is beginning to pay off.”
Charter shares closed Tuesday at about $371, nearly flat compared with their Monday finish.
Nearly three years after the company acquired Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks for about $65 billion, Charter now serves about 26.6 million residences and 1.9 million small and mediumsize businesses. Its total customer base grew about 4 percent in the past year.
Its internet consumer base rose about 5 percent in the past year, to about 24 million. In the same time frame, its video business dropped 2 percent, to nearly 16 million customers.
“As part of a (product) bundle, video drives internet sales and reduces (customer) churn,” Charter Chief Financial Officer Christopher Winfrey said on the call. “It remains an integral part of our business strategy for connectivity services, as it drives less stand-alone profit over time.”
The company’s “voice” phoneservice business counts about 10 million customers, down 3 percent from a year ago.
During the past year, the company has rolled out its mobile platform, which is available to customers of its Spectrum-branded internet service. About 176,000 mobile lines were added in the past quarter.
Among other recent developments, Charter earlier this month reached an agreementwith regulators to stay in New York state by expanding its internet service, nine months after the state’s Public Service Commission had ordered the firm to leave for allegedly violating the terms of its merger with Time Warner Cable.
Last December, the company settled, for $174 million, a lawsuit by the New York State Attorney General’s office alleging that Charter and TWC, when it operated independently, denied customers reliable and fast internet service that had been promised.
Meanwhile, construction continues at 406 Washington Blvd., the future site of Charter’s headquarters and a few blocks from its current home at 400 Atlantic St.
Earlier this month, Charter gained the Stamford Zoning Board’s approval to add a second building on the site, complementing its originally planned 500,000-square-foot tower next to the downtown MetroNorth station.
Charter plans to move into the new headquarters in 2021.