TV and Internet video customer losses continue for Charter Communications, which reported second-quarter results on Friday.
The company, led by CEO Chris Winfrey, lost 172,000 online customers, compared to 117,000 internet subscribers during the same period a year earlier amid continued intense competition from fixed wireless and fiber services. Charter narrowed its losses of TV customers to 21,000, versus a decline of 80,000 TV customers in the same period in 2025, as subscribers made more upgrades to added entertainment products.
“We expect stabilization and a return to broadband growth over time, with better converged connectivity and pricing product,” Winfrey told analysts in prepared remarks during a morning call as investors looked to how Charter will rebound in an increasingly competitive market. Continued subscriber losses in traditional broadband and video services in the second quarter were marked by a decline in Charter’s shares of $6.49, or 5 percent, to $120.01 in pre-market trading.
Video and Internet losses were offset by Charter adding 406,000 mobile wireline subscribers, down from the addition of 500,000 total mobile wireline subscribers in the same period last year. The recent customer losses come as legacy cable giants face increasing competition from YouTube and other rivals in the streaming era and traditional TV’s decline in reaching and retaining video viewers.
The company previously added its streaming apps for programmers in its expanded basic Spectrum packages to reduce disruption and saw an uptick in subscriptions when Disney Channels were not available to YouTube TV subscribers during the recent carriage dispute. Charter had 12.52 million pay-TV customers at the end of the second quarter, down 0.8 percent from the previous year’s 12.6 million.
Total revenues at Charter fell 0.7 percent to $13.5 billion, while net income attributable to Charter shareholders increased 5.7 percent to $1.29 billion in the second quarter. TV video revenues declined 9.7 percent to $3.1 billion in the second quarter, which was offset by a 3.2 percent year-over-year decline in Internet revenues to $5.8 billion.
Charter’s latest results come on the heels of the announcement of a $34.5 billion merger with Cox Communications to create a cable giant, with massive scale in both broadband Internet connectivity and video. Winfrey said the Cox deal is expected to close in mid-to-late August.
“We have a fully developed integration plan for Cox, and we are confident in our ability to execute well and at a faster pace than previous integrations,” Winfrey said. “We expect to grow the assets.” He expects transaction expense synergies to be around $800 million, which could grow to $1 billion over time.
