• by Wayne Friedman , November 5, 2013

The fourth-largest U.S. cable operator, Charter Communications, had a mixed third-quarter financial period -- fewer video customers, higher Internet business and trimming of net losses.

In its core business, Charter lost 27,000 video subscribers in the latest period -- now at 4.2 million subscribers. This was down from the year-ago loss of 71,000. Its broadband users had a net gain of 12%  -- now at 4.3 million subscribers. Phone customers had a net loss of 24%, now at 2.2 million.

Charter posted a net loss of $70 million. But that was less than the $103 million it lost in the third-quarter 2012 period. Revenue was up 5.4% to $2.1 billion.

Charter’s video revenue was 7.4% higher to $1.04 billion and Internet business was 15.2% higher to $575 million, with phone revenues down 27.5% to $161 million. Ad revenues dropped 15% to $75 million due to a decline in political advertising.

Liberty Media, which owns a 27% stake in Charter, witnessed its revenue climb $956 million to $1.1 billion. During the period, it accounted for its purchase of Sirius XM Radio -- as well as the exclusion of premium TV pay channel group Starz, spun off earlier in the year.

Net income was $63 million down from $74 million a year ago.