For the Record: Charter’s 'Astounding' Video Turnaround Came from Growth, Not System Acquisition

Charter: Moments after Charter’s surprising announcement Friday that it gained video subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2025, a news organization (that will go unnamed) sent Policyband a message claiming that Charter fudged its numbers. How so? Charter, the message said, failed to disclose that the 44,000 video net ads mostly came from the purchase of a few small cable systems in the quarter. “If they didn't buy those smaller cable TV companies, they would have lost subscribers,” the message said. After scrubbing the numbers, Policyband determined that the vast majority of the 44,000 net ads came from CEO Chris Winfrey’s new growth strategy of providing $129 a month worth of programing apps (including ESPN and HBO Max) to traditional cable TV customers for free. In the fourth quarter, Charter in fact added just 810 video subscribers from a single system purchase. That Charter was close to achieving positive net ads should have been obvious to anyone watching the company’s pay-video trends in recent years. In the third quarter of 2024, Charter lost 294,000 video customers; at the end of the third quarter of 2025, the loss had plunged to 70,000, setting up the 4Q25 move into positive territory. (More after paywall.)