...February 5, 2025 S&P Global Ratings' broadband assumptions remain largely intact. We believe competition will stay intense and lead to subscriber losses of about 100,000 for Charter in 2025 (up slightly from our previous estimate of 75,000). However, we expect the pace of the company's subscriber losses will ease (relative to the 508,000 it experienced in 2024) because most disconnects stemming from the mid-2024 end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) have already occurred. Normalizing for the impact of the end of the ACP (140,000) and storm-related cancellations (20,00), the company's fourth-quarter 2024 broadband subscriber losses only stood at 17,000. We view Charter's strategy favorably. The company has not raised its broadband prices as much as many of its peers, which better positions it to appeal to consumers when new competition emerges. Furthermore, it has been a leader in using low-priced mobile offerings to attract and retain broadband subscribers, which has helped improve...
