• by Wayne Friedman , November 1, 2024

Charter Communications, the biggest U.S. linear pay TV distributor, posted a slight 1.6% gain in third-quarter revenue to $13.8 billion -- higher than analysts' expectations.

Driven by results that were better than expected, its stock rose sharply higher in early morning Friday trading -- up 15% to $376.74.  Net income inched up 2% to $1.3 billion with free cash flow 48% higher to $1.6 billion. 

Revenues for internet business rose 1.7% to $5.8 billion, while video revenue sank 7% to $3.7 billion.

Total video consumers sank 10% (294,000) year-over-year to 13.0 million. Analysts were expecting a bigger drop in total video customers -- 374,000. In the second quarter of this year, Charter lost 408,000 video customers.

At the same time, Charter was able to maintain its internet/broadband consumer levels, slipping just 1.3% to 30.3 million.

Helping to stem long-term cord-cutting that impacts its video subscriber business, Charter has made a major transition in its deals with big TV network owners -- now able to offer much smaller, lower-priced bundles of networks and streamers. 

In addition, Charter is adding streaming platforms to its bundling of linear TV networks. 

Charter says Spectrum TV Select video customers will soon receive up to $80 per month of programmers' streaming application retail value at no extra cost -- which include the ad-supported versions of Max, Disney+, Peacock, Paramount+, ESPN+, AMC+, Discovery+, BET+, ViX and Tennis Channel Plus.