Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR), the third largest cable MSO (multi service operator) in the U.S., recently announced that it will complete the deployment of digital network across its entire footprint by the end of this week. The digital migration project which started 13 months ago has already resulted in higher revenues and lower customer churn for the company.
At present, Charter Communications serves nearly 4.2 million pay-TV subscribers. In third-quarter 2014, the company lost around 9,000 video customers compared with 27,000 in the year-ago quarter. Charter Communications is relentlessly focusing on its “Spectrum” brand for triple-play offerings. In line with this, the company doubled its HD (high definition) video channels and introduced TV Everywhere service along with cloud-based TV program guide.
Earlier, Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) had rebranded its “Xfinity” product suite and Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) redesigned its “Optimum” brand of products to gain a competitive edge.
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In Apr 2014, Comcast had reached an agreement with Charter Communications to divest 3.9 million subscribers as a strategy to ease the regulatory concern over its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC). Before this, in Feb 2014, Comcast had signed an agreement with Time Warner Cable to acquire the latter in an all-stock deal valued at around $45.2 billion.
If the Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal gets regulatory approval then Charter Communications will have to start the digital conversion process again as more than 2.4 million of these divested subscribers are currently using analog technology.
Liberty Media Corp. (LMCA), which controls a 27.3% stake in Charter Communications, was also aggressively pursuing the idea of Charter Communications taking over Time Warner Cable. However, Charter Communications lost to Comcast in the bid.
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