Charter price increases see customers migrate to cheaper PayTV packages

Charter Communications, the second largest cable provider in the US, shed 211,000 residential video customers in Q3 2022. Overall, the company’s customer base in this segment is now 14.64 million, down 4.2% year on year. The decline is part of a general pattern in cable – though it has been exacerbated by recent price increases.

Chris Winfrey

In an earnings calls, Charter COO Chris Winfrey, who is poised to become CEO in December, said increased programming costs were forcing Charter to pass through price hikes to consumers – and that some were choosing to churn out completely or shift to lower cost PayTV packages. “Customers have a difficulty affording (TV services),” he explained, “even if it’s really something that they’d like to have.”

Charter markets its services under the Spectrum brand in the US. Its latest results echo the situation at the US’s biggest cable company Comcast, which has also seen a steady decline in video subs. Both companies however have managed to offset these losses in other areas. Overall, growth in mobile, advertising sales and residential internet helped boost Charter’s Q3 revenues by 3.1% to $13.6 billion.