• by Wayne Friedman , October 28, 2022

Boosted by advertising, mobile, and broadband revenues, Charter Communications grew overall revenues in the third quarter by 3.1% to $13.6 billion.

Advertising revenue soared by 23% to $481 million versus the same period a year ago, due to midterm-related political advertising revenues.

Without political advertising, Charter's core advertising business was essentially flat -- down 0.2%.

The company's leading broadband revenues inched up 3.9% to $5.57 billion, even as the growth in new subscribers slowed to a gain of 61,000 versus a 243,000 increase in the third quarter of a year ago.

The continuing decline in the legacy cable TV subscription business led to a 2.7% decline in revenue to $4.4 billion as subscribers shifted to lower-priced video packages. Subscriber declines were higher -- with a loss of 211,000 versus 133,000 in the third quarter of 2021.

Fewer video subscribers due to cord-cutting and a shift in consumers moving to alternative channels lowered Charter's programming expense -- the carriage fee it pays to TV networks -- by 3.8% to $112 million.

Mobile phone business was up 40% to $750 million.

Charter's net income to its shareholders was virtually unchanged at $1.19 billion versus $1.22 billion. Free cash flow dropped 39% to $1.5 billion.