Charter loses 171K broadband subs as it absorbs ACP impactCharter loses 171K broadband subs as it absorbs ACP impact

Charter attributed 140,000 broadband losses in Q4 to the demise of the ACP and another 20,000 to the impact of a pair of hurricanes. Meanwhile, Charter is nearing 10 million mobile lines and is seeing improved video sub losses.

Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor

January 31, 2025

6 Min Read
Charter Spectrum van
(Source: Charter Communications)

Charter Communications shed 171,000 residential broadband subs in the fourth quarter of 2024, lowering its total to 28.03 million. While that was a tad worse than the -155,000 expected by analysts, Charter's Q4 broadband losses were outsized by losses tied to the demise of the Accordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Meanwhile, Charter also lost more video subscribers. However, those video losses are narrowing as the cable operator starts to see the benefits of a strategy that boosts the value of video by bundling Charter's baseline pay-TV packages with direct-to-consumer streaming apps. Charter also tacked on another large batch of mobile lines in Q4, and (in a bit of a surprise) ended up losing fewer video subs than broadband subs. More on all that later.

ACP losses delivers a hard hit, but worst is over

Sticking with broadband, the operator estimated that about 140,000 sub losses in Q4 were tied to non-pay and voluntary churn among former ACP customers. About 20,000 of those broadband losses were linked to the hurricanes. Without the impact of ACP and the storms, Charter's broadband losses would've been in-line with analyst expectations, MoffettNathanson explained in a research note (registration required).

Charter had about 5 million customers in ACP, which provided up to $30 per month toward Internet service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands. Charter estimates that it's been able to keep about 90% of them connected.

"Looking forward, we think we're past the one-time ACP-related impacts to our customer base," Charter CFO Jessica Fischer said on Friday's earnings call.

Charter expects to disclose financial impacts related to the California wildfires in its Q1 2025 results.

Though fixed wireless access (FWA) growth is slowing and fiber overbuild activity is waning, Charter is not making predictions about when it might return to broadband subscriber growth. But Charter does expect to see better broadband results this year.

"I'm not going to give a short-term outlook, other than to say we'd better be better this year than we were last year," Charter President and CEO Chris Winfrey said.

Network upgrades and rural buildouts

Charter is progressing with its hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) upgrade plan and rural buildout initiatives.

Fischer said Charter ended 2024 with symmetrical 1 Gbit/s speeds available in all eight phase I upgrade markets, and has introduced 2-Gig down by 1-Gig up speeds in Lexington, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, with more to follow this year. Targeting 15% of its HFC footprint, Charter's phase I markets feature upstream-enhancing "high-split" upgrades on 1.2GHz plant operating on traditional, centralized cable modem termination systems (CMTSs).

Phase II, covering 50% of the HFC footprint, also involves an upgrade to 1.2GHz with a distributed access architecture and a virtual CMTS. Phase III, covering 35% of the footprint, will be a full DOCSIS 4.0 upgrade on 1.8GHz plant (with DAA and vCMTS). In all cases, Charter will deliver multi-gigabit downstream speeds and at least 1 Gbit/s in the upstream.

Following the completion of its full plant walk-out and the finalization of its project plans, Charter now expects to spend about $5.4 billion on its HFC network upgrade plan through 2027, up from a prior estimate of $4.6 billion.

Turning to Charter's rural buildouts, the company added 117,000 subsidized fiber passings in Q4, ending 2024 with 813,000. Charter expects to grow its rural passings by 450,000 in 2025, which represents a new high-water mark for the operator.

Charter added 41,000 rural subsidized customers (40,000 residential and 1,000 business) in the quarter for a grand total of 295,000 (283,000 residential and 12,000 business).

Fisher said Charter remains on track to complete its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) buildout by the end of 2026 – about two years ahead of schedule.

Capex update

Charter also provided an updated capex forecast through 2028. The operator expects 2025 to be its peak-spending year.

Charter capex chart (Source: Charter Q4 2024 earnings presentation)

(Source: Charter Q4 2024 earnings presentation)

Charter's multi-year capex forecast does not include line extensions associated with the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Charter's not all that jazzed about BEAD. While BEAD bidding is in the early stages, Charter has "a lower appetite to bid due to regulatory conditions," Fischer said.  

Closing in on 10M mobile lines

Charter's mobile business was steady as it continued to benefit from its Spectrum One home broadband/mobile bundle and the relatively recent launch of its new "Life Unlimited" service convergence packaging plan/strategy.

The operator added 529,000 mobile lines (511,000 residential and 18,000 business), down slightly from year-ago ads of 546,000. Charter ended 2024 with 9.88 million mobile lines.

Charter estimates that 87% of mobile traffic now runs on its own Wi-Fi and CBRS networks. Winfrey said he expects that number to rise as the operator expands CBRS deployments and continues to expand access to Wi-Fi access points in its own footprint and through partnerships with regional cable operators.

Charter, he said, has deployed "thousands" of CBRS radios and expects to deploy thousands more this year "in a multitude of markets." Charter has deployed a CBRS network in Charlotte, North Carolina, but has yet to identify where else it is deploying CBRS.

Feeling better about video

Charter's video losses are narrowing as the operator takes advantage of new, more flexible packages, starts to bundle in direct-to-consumer streaming apps and expands its deployment of the Xumo Stream Box, a 4K-capable streaming device that's now Charter's go-to platform for new video subs.

Video is also a key component of Charter's Life Unlimited packages that were introduced last fall.

Charter lost 110,000 residential video subs in Q4, improving on a year-ago loss of 248,000, ending the quarter with 12.32 million. Analysts expected Charter to lose 254,000 video subs in Q4.

Those improvements come as Charter prepares to fully roll out new video packages that combine Charter's pay-TV service with several DTC streaming apps (including ad-supported version of Max, Disney+, Paramount+, Discovery+, Peacock, AMC and BET) that represent up to $80 in retail value.

Charter stream app slide

(Source: Charter Q4 2024 earnings presentation)

"Charter has leaned into its video offerings in a way that their peers have not. It appears that they are beginning to see the early impacts of their bundled streaming packages," Moffett said.

Winfrey said Charter is in the process of integrating those apps onto the platform and developing a "store" that lets customers access and authenticate the apps. The aim is to roll out the broader pay-TV/streaming bundle in the first half of the year.

"I think video can become an asset again," Winfrey said. "It doesn't  mean we're going to grow video. I'm not saying that. But I think we can use it as a significant asset that is also unique to us compared to most of our competitors."

About the Author

Jeff Baumgartner

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Jeff Baumgartner is a Senior Editor for Light Reading and is responsible for the day-to-day news coverage and analysis of the cable and video sectors. Follow him on X and LinkedIn.

Baumgartner also served as Site Editor for Light Reading Cable from 2007-2013. In between his two stints at Light Reading, he led tech coverage for Multichannel News and was a regular contributor to Broadcasting + Cable. Baumgartner was named to the 2018 class of the Cable TV Pioneers.

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