Charter Loses 181,000 Pay TV Customers in First Quarter of 2025

Pay TV is still declining, though Charter Communications has found a way to slow this loss. During the first quarter of 2025, the company saw a loss of 181,000 pay TV customers. That’s less than half of the 405,000 pay TV customers the company lost during the first quarter of 2024.

By March 31, Charter reported having 12.7 million total video customers. Charter credited simplified pricing as well as the launch of its Life Unlimited package in September as the reasons for this stymied loss.

Currently, Spectrum TV Select also includes access to ad-supported versions of Max, Disney+, ESPN+, Paramount+, Peacock, AMC+, ViX, Tennis Channel Plus, Discovery+ and BET+. These streaming offerings mark a hard-won victory for Charter, which has become more bullish in recent years about providing streaming access to its pay TV customer as programmers invest more in streaming and less in cable. Spectrum has also made strides to make logging into these streamers as seamless as possible, establishing itself as a hub for television entertainment.

“I think we’re on a good trajectory, and it’s a little unknown. I call it option value. The biggest driver here for us is, obviously, internet and mobile, but I think our video results can improve, and I think we’re offering compelling product. At a minimum, it’s something that we’re proud to put on the bill now and to use together with broadband,” Charter Communications CEO Chris Winfrey said on Friday during the company’s earnings call.

Charter also noted that its first quarter results did include impacts from the Los Angeles wildfires, which took place in January. The quarter included 9,000 disconnects that were fire related, the credits Charter extended to impacted customers and some incremental expenses. In the coming quarters, the company expects it will incur additional capital expenditures as the roughly 16,000 Los Angeles homes that were lost are rebuilt. But at present, Charter does not believe this will require the company to change its outlook.

“First quarter adjusted EBITDA was not meaningfully impacted by either,” CFO Jessica Fischer said on the call.

More to come …

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