Charter Reports Third Quarter Financial and Operating Results

Thursday, November 6th, 2008
Charter Communications logo

ST. LOUIS — Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) (along with its subsidiaries, the “Company” or “Charter”) today reported financial and operating results for the third quarter and first nine months of 2008.

Key Operating Results

All of the following customer growth and ARPU statistics are presented on a pro forma basis. RGUs increased 205,400 during the third quarter of 2008, representing more than a 50 percent increase in net adds versus the year-ago quarter. As of September 30, 2008, Charter served approximately 5,544,400 customers and the Company’s 12,387,100 RGUs were comprised of 5,136,100 basic video; 3,118,500 digital video; 2,858,200 HSI, and 1,274,300 telephone customers.

  • Telephone customers increased by approximately 98,800 during the third quarter of 2008 and the number of telephone customers is up nearly 60% year-over-year. Telephone penetration is now 12.4% of telephone homes passed.
  • HSI customers increased by approximately 70,900 in the third quarter of 2008, a 32% higher net gain than during the year-ago quarter. While HSI customers continued to climb, ARPU remained essentially flat with last year at $40.53.
  • Digital video customers increased by approximately 61,600 and basic video customers decreased by 25,900 during the third quarter. Video ARPU was $58.87 for the third quarter of 2008, up 6.6% year-over-year.

Third quarter 2008 total ARPU increased 11.1% to $106.07 from the same period in 2007, driven primarily by an increase in bundled customers, advanced services growth, and upgrading customers to higher service tiers.

Operating Statistics – Digital Video:

                                    Approximate as of
                   ---------------------------------------------------
                            Actual                   Pro Forma
                   ------------------------- -------------------------
                      Sept. 30,     June 30,     Dec. 31,    Sept. 30,
                           2008         2008         2007         2007    
                   ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------

Digital video
 customers           3,118,500    3,056,900    2,920,100    2,860,500
Digital
 penetration of
 basic video
 customers                60.7%        59.2%        56.0%        54.1%
Digital set-top
 terminals
 deployed            4,504,800    4,409,300    4,192,700    4,125,400
Pro forma
 digital video
 customers
 quarterly net
 gain                   61,600       33,900       59,600       16,700

“¢ Pro forma operating statistics reflect the sales and acquisitions of cable systems in 2007 and 2008 as if such transactions had occurred as of the last day of the respective period for all periods presented.
“¢ “Digital video customers” include all basic video customers that have one or more digital set-top boxes or cable cards deployed.

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