Charter Communications executives said it expects to pay less for set-top...
Charter Communications executives said it expects to pay less for set-top boxes than other cable operators that have made the transition to all-digital systems. Charter’s push to modernize its cable systems is in process. “We're already getting better pricing on…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
our set-top boxes, and going forward there is an opportunity for an even ’thinner’ environment,” in which it can buy cheaper set-tops and handle more of its traditional tasks in the network, CEO Tom Rutledge said on a teleconference with analysts Tuesday. Plus, as customers buy more smart-TV sets and iPads, the cost of connecting additional screens to the cable system drops even lower, he said. “As we move to a server-based architecture, the capital intensity of each one of those connections from a cable operators’ perspective goes down.” Charter doesn’t have the capability today to introduce advanced services such as a remote-storage DVR system, Rutledge said. The company last week asked the FCC to give it a waiver similar to Cablevision, where Rutledge worked before joining Charter recently, for a waiver of CableCARD rules so it can instead use downloadable devices separating set-top navigation and security functions (CD Nov 5 p10). Charter lost 73,000 video subscribers during Q3 for a total of 4.03 million on Sept 30. The operator added 69,000 broadband subscribers for 3.73 million total and 52,000 phone customers for 1.88 million, it said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bnyb2v). Q3 sales increased 3.7 percent from a year earlier to $1.88 billion. Its net loss widened 2 percent from a year earlier to $87 million on higher capital spending.