Charter Communications is promoting Alison Hellman to senior vice president of content, strategy and marketing for Spectrum Networks, a move that hints at further streaming plans.
Hellman led the launch of the Spectrum News app, which is available to all Spectrum residential customers including internet–only subscribers. The company said the app – which offers local news, weather and live streams of all Spectrum Networks – has nearly one million downloads to date.
Hellman also spearheaded the expansion of the Spectrum Network’s footprint with recent network launches in Dallas, TX and Asheville, NC.
In her new role, she will oversee content and product initiatives, as well as digital strategy for Spectrum Networks’ more than 30 local networks across the country.
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The promotion could signal that Charter is pushing ahead with more app-based video products for its broadband-only subscribers.
“We have the opportunity to offer an app-based platform to our data-only customers. We haven’t offered that IP-only product although we’ve opened up some of our video products through apps to our internet-only customer base, like our news channels for instance,” said Charter CEO Tom Rutledge during his company’s most-recent earnings call.
Despite a return to video subscriber declines in the fourth quarter, Charter grew its residential video customer base by 19,000 in 2020, compared to a decline of 484,000 in 2019. So, the company still sees some runway for traditional video. During a Morgan Stanley investor conference earlier this month, he said that live TV will continue to be sold in a linear package for a “significant period of time” and that there are still lots of people who enjoy that experience.
“But it is being priced out of the market in many ways and the new streaming products, which really haven’t been successful in a linear perspective yet, are gaining some traction in the marketplace,” he said. “I think we can manage our video relationships with customers going forward and we can sell streaming packages and be a storefront and an aggregator.”