Charter Says Pandemic Slowed Cord Cutting -- for Now

A slowdown in video customers canceling service might be temporary, resulting from shelter-in-place orders, Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge said Friday, announcing Q1 results. He said the company expects residential broadband demand to stay strong, but unemployment and economic issues could be a headwind. Nonpolitical advertising in March was down 18% year over year in large part due to sports cancellations (see 2005010011), Chief Financial Officer Chris Winfrey said. Q2 for advertising “will be challenging,” he said, saying Charter expects ads to pick up when the economy picks up. He said 140,000 customers are in its disconnection protection program, with 65,000 of them carrying past-due balances beyond the point of normal disconnection. He said those numbers are likely to grow in Q2. Charter has 25.47 million residential broadband customers, up 1.45 million; 15.55 million residential video customers, down 400,000; and 9.36 million residential voice customers, down 655,000. In Q1, it lost 70,000 video customers compared with a loss of 152,000 in Q1 2019. Revenue was $11.7 billion, up 4.8%. Rutledge said the FCC's April 6 GHz order (see 2004240011) was "a transformational step for broadband," but it didn't affect what value Charter might see for citizens broadband radio service auction spectrum.