Charter Communications' groundbreaking deal with Walt Disney last fall included streaming platforms’ Disney+ and Hulu in Charter's traditional cable TV bundle, which was intended to stem video subscriber losses. But that is not working so far.

Total second-quarter losses widened substantially -- to 408,000 from 200,000 in the second quarter of 2023 -- 12% higher than expected.

Charter now has a total of 13.3 million U.S. video subscribers.

“There had been some speculation that Charter’s landmark Disney agreement last year -- and Paramount deal just signed -- would be part of a resurrection of the linear TV bundle,” says Craig Moffett, co-founder and media analyst of MoffettNathanson Research. “It’s clear that is not happening.”

Quarterly declines have accelerated compared to a year ago -- down 9.5% in the second quarter. There was a 8.0% drop in the first quarter of this year, a 6.8% pull back in the fourth quarter of 2023, 6.0% in the third quarter and 5.1% in the second quarter of 2023.

In other Charter business, its highly scrutinized broadband business had better news -- the quarterly subscriber decline was half that of the expected total of 149,000.

This news sent Charter stock price soaring -- up 17% in early Friday morning stock price to $366.98.

“As was the case with Comcast, that’s the worst quarter ever for broadband,” says Moffett. “Are we out of the woods yet? Well, no, not quite.”

At issue was a Federal program that was ending -- one that provided subsidies for broadband customers. Charter says it is working to lower costs for those subscribers who used that program.

In addition, quarterly broadband revenue managed a slight rise of 1% to $5.8 billion.

On the positive side, the mobile phone business grew 33% year-over-year to 8.8 million subscribers. Revenue rose 37% to $737 million.

Company-wide revenues were basically flat at $13.7 billion, with cash flow -- adjusted earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) -- rising 3% to $5.7 billion.