Charter CEO: Hurricanes Hit Hard But Underlying Subscriber Trends Positive

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2024 – Cable giant Charter Communications lost more broadband subscribers than expected after hurricanes Helene and Milton, but is ultimately trending better year-over-year, the company’s CEO said Tuesday.

Charter CEO Chris Winfrey said he expected some of the 30,000 disconnects in the wake of the storms to be temporary. He spoke at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York.

“Customers who are remodeling their home that got flooded, you know, have disconnected temporarily, and they’ll be back,” he said. “Customers whose homes need to be, unfortunately, rebuilt also will be back.” 

Charter had previously said that it would likely lose an additional 100,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter, owing to the Affordable Connectivity Program drying up. But Winfrey said aside from ACP and hurricane impacts, broadband subscriber numbers were looking promising.

“We’ll give the final number on the earnings call, but if you leave those one-times to the side, the underlying trend for subscribers is actually better year-over-year,” Winfrey said. That was apparently comforting to investors – the company’s stock was up more than 3 percent after the webcast.

The company lost 61,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2023 and reported 110,000 losses last quarter.

Tuesday’s stock bump didn’t fully undo a more than 9 percent dip yesterday after a top executive at Comcast said the company was set to lose more broadband subscribers than expected in the fourth quarter. Cable stocks generally took a hit after the news. 

Cable’s been losing broadband customers amid competition from fixed wireless and fiber ISPs, but industry analysts noted fixed wireless additions seemed to level off last quarter.

Charter is one of the largest internet providers in the country, with more than 30 million subscribers.