The losses of TV video and Internet customers continue for Charter Communications, which reported its second quarter results on Friday.
The company, led by CEO Chris Winfrey, lost 172,000 Internet customers, compared with 117,000 Internet subscribers shed during the year-earlier period amid stiff competition from fixed wireless and fiber connection services. Charter narrowed its loss of TV customers to 21,000, against 80,000 TV customers dropped in the same period of 2025, as subscribers did more upgrades for entertainment products added.
“We expect to stabilize and return to broadband growth over time, with our better converged connectivity product and pricing,” Winfrey told analysts in prepared remarks during a morning call as investors look to how Charter will rebound in an increasingly competitive market.
Winfrey addressed media reports Charter was in talks with SpaceX to use Starlink satellitesfor its mobile services. “It’s natural for us, we talk to many industry players … I don’t think it makes any sense to get into the details of any of those conversations that we have with many industry players,” he said.
Continuing subscriber losses in traditional broadband and video services in the second quarter led to shares in Charter falling by $6.49, or 5 percent, to $120.01in pre-market trading.
The video and Internet losses were offset by Charter adding 406,000 mobile wireline subscribers, down from adding 500,000 total mobile wireline subscribers in the year-ago period. The latest customer losses came as legacy cable giants face increasing competition fromYouTube and other streaming-era competitors and the decline of traditional TV to reach and retain video viewers.
The company earlier added programmers’ streaming applications in Spectrum’s expanded basic packages to lower churn and had a slight bump in signups when Disney channels were unavailable for YouTube TV subscribers during a recent carriage dispute. Charter had 12.52 million pay-TV customers at the end of the second quarter, down 0.8 percent from a year-earlier 12.6 million.
Overall revenue at Charter slipped 0.7 percent to $13.5 billion, while net income attributable to Charter shareholders rose 5.7 percent to $1.29 billion in the second quarter. TV video revenue fell 9.7 percent to $3.1 billion in the second quarter, which was offset by Internet revenue falling 3.2 percent year-over-year to$5.8 billion.
The latest results for Charter follow the announcement of a $34.5 billion merger withCox Communicationsto create a cable behemoth, with enormous scale in both broadband internet connectivity and video. Winfrey said the Cox deal is expected to close in mid- to late August, after earlier looking to complete the deal in mid-2026.
“We have a fully developed integration plan for Cox, and we have confidence in our ability to execute well and at a faster pace than previous integrations. We expect to grow the asset,” Winfrey argued. He forecast transaction expense synergies at around $800 million, which could grow to $1 billion over time.