Charter Q3: Declines continue, expects quick exit from Chapter 11

Could the clouds finally be parting for Charter Communications? The beleaguered cable MSO, which is currently moving through bankruptcy proceedings, reported $1.6 billion in revenues, a 3.8 percent pro forma increase.

Still, there were losses. Charter reported the loss widened from $322 million to $1.03 billion during the third-quarter. The MSO attributed the income decrease from operations and an increase in net loss from the impairment of franchises, which were offset by a rise in bundled services sales and cost cutting measures.  

Similar to its cable MSO brethren, Charter also lost 46,500 basic video customers but at the same time adding 22,800 digital video customers. Growth did come in broadband and telephony, however. During the quarter, Charter added 52,400 new broadband subscribers and 84,000 new telephony lines bringing it to a total of 3 million HSI and 1.535 million total subscribers, respectively. An uptick in sales of The Charter Bundle helped drive its subscriber ARPU up 8.2 percent to $115.26.

Of course, the big question on everyone's mind is its pending bankruptcy proceedings. In October, the MSO was granted an extension, much to the chagrin [1] of its creditors, for its reorganization plan. With this plan in place, Charter thinks it will reemerge out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the next few weeks.

For more:
- see the company release here [2]
- TelecomPaper has this article [3]

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