Charter loses 141,000 video subscribers in Q2

Charter reported residential video subscriber losses that were more than double the figure from the same quarter one year ago.

The company lost 150,000 residential video subscribers, compared with a loss of 73,000 in the second quarter of 2018. But the company added 9,000 small and medium business video subscribers so net video subscriber losses for the quarter totaled 141,000. Charter ended the quarter with 15.8 million residential video subscribers.

Charter – which has spent years integrating both Time Warner Cable and Bright House – did grow its total customer relationships at a fast rate, adding 203,000 during the quarter.

"We are realizing the benefits of consolidating three large cable operators under one centralized operating strategy, with lower customer churn, fewer service transactions per customer and improving customer satisfaction resulting in growth of over 1 million customer relationships year-over-year," said Charter CEO Tom Rutledge in a statement.

RELATED: Charter loses 145,000 video subscribers in Q1

Despite the accelerated decrease in residential subscribers, Charter’s second quarter revenues grew 4.5% to $11.3 billion as residential revenue grew 3.7%, commercial revenue grew 4.7% and mobile revenue reached $158 million. Adjusted earnings grew 3.3% year over year to hit $4.2 billion.

Broadband services did the heavy lifting for Charter’s residential business. The segment’s revenues grew 8.8% year over year to $4.1 billion. Residential video revenues mostly held steady, up 0.6% year over year to approximately $4.4 billion.

Charter attributed its mostly flat video revenues to annual rate adjustments and promotional rolloff, partly offset by a decline in video customers during the last year, a higher mix of Choice and Stream customers within its video base and lower pay-per-view and video on demand revenues.