Charter Communications Inc at UBS Global Media & Communications Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : So maybe to kick us off today, can you give us a sense for what the major priorities are for you and the company as we head into 2025?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : That's great. And I think we can dive into a number of those topics during our session here today. And let's start with broadband. Comcast was here yesterday and gave an update in the fourth quarter with some slightly higher high-speed data losses in the fourth quarter and some pressure on ARPU that's going to put them on the lower end of the 3% to 4% range. What are you seeing in your business as we look out into 4Q?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : It sounds like correct me if I'm not remembering this correctly, but outside of the ACP issues, the trends were better year over year in the third quarter as well on the high-speed data.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : What do you think is driving that? What looks like, again, underlying improvement of sort of two quarters in a row, maybe relatively modest, but is it things that Charter is doing, or do you think it's sort of a stabilization within the industry?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Maybe we'll talk about sort of different modes of competition. First, fixed wireless. It's been the sort of the more immediate driver of competition or the change in competition over the last couple of years, I'd say. What's your view of the product? How much staying power do you think it has? And how do you see it impacting the business over time?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Is it -- are you changing the messaging? Or is it new packaging that you guys have been talking about? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 10, 2024 / 4:15PM, CHTR.OQ - Charter Communications Inc at UBS Global Media & Communications Conference

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Now shifting to fiber to the home. We had a fiber-to-the-home panel yesterday. We had John Stankey here today, Verizon, T-Mobile yesterday. Does look like the build-out is accelerating a bit. I think we're looking for 10 million new homes this year. I think the US is in the 50% to 55% range. I would say, where do you think that sort of competitive fiber footprint sort of tops out? And are you guys -- talk about how you execute in a market as you see increased competition from fiber?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : That was the theme of the fiber to the home -- a lot of people said, call it fiber to the press release.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Actually, I thought you got some good news on that front last week. AT&T laid out sort of 45 million locations in region out of 67 million, so it's only two-thirds or sort of the forth. Comcast on their call, talking about penetration suggested that when fiber opens up in the market over time, they didn't give a range with sort of three to five-year period, they end up splitting the market with the fiber provider. Is that what you're seeing? Or how do you see that?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Got it. At the Liberty Media Investor Day, you noted that Charter is uniquely positioned to deliver a converged connectivity product. Can you describe that again here?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Do you think that the initiative at -- well, Verizon now with the Frontier acquisition what AT&T talked about last week in T-Mobile there those wireless competitors leaning into convergence. Do you think that changes the competitive environment, either in wireless or in the broadband side? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 10, 2024 / 4:15PM, CHTR.OQ - Charter Communications Inc at UBS Global Media & Communications Conference

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Got you. Maybe if we can sort of put ACP to bed. 5 million subs at Charter when the program was canceled. What happened to those subs? Where are they now? And I would imagine most of them are still on the books and on different rate plans, if you could just sort of give us the --

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : It doesn't sound like that the end of and maybe moving some of those customers on to it as a low percentage of retention plans, but it doesn't seem like it's affecting the overall. I mean, obviously, it's a much bigger base, but it's affecting ARPU either.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Got it. Maybe let's chat briefly about video. You've got all the major media company, D2C services included with your basic video plans now. When will you start marketing this? And what do you expect the impact to be on your business? Do you expect it to change the trends that we've seen in either video or broadband.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : So you said, number two, I got sort of understood number one, number three. Number two, DTC to broadband. Is that marketing a D2C only package or what would -- REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 10, 2024 / 4:15PM, CHTR.OQ - Charter Communications Inc at UBS Global Media & Communications Conference

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : So talk a little bit about Zoom before you move off of video. I mean, first of all, why not phase out traditional video and go sort of all in, all IP, I think the boxes are cheaper, is it more of self-installation? Is that sort of part of the product road map.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : And you've referenced the new pricing impacting a couple of times. Can you just discuss why you launched that the new pricing packaging this fall, what's it intended to do and maybe how it should impact overall ARPU and maybe high-speed data ARPU.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Got it. Can you also talk about your new customer commitment? That's another initiative. I think you talked about on the third quarter call.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Great. Maybe we'll dig in a little bit to network evolution and network expansion. First on the evolution side, high splits are largely done in the step 1 markets. What are the services you're able to provide in these areas? And the $100 per home passed cost was very expensive. What's next in terms of the sort of the network road map? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 10, 2024 / 4:15PM, CHTR.OQ - Charter Communications Inc at UBS Global Media & Communications Conference

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : I mean, the $100 did you -- you went over before, but does that get you to the [4 by 1] or does it get you a way to...

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Great. Maybe over to network expansion, you've been expanding the network by about 1.4 million location homes per year. Can you maintain this right going forward? And then how have the returns been versus your model?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : And that's just because the net -- the costs are -- I think you mentioned it on the call, right? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 10, 2024 / 4:15PM, CHTR.OQ - Charter Communications Inc at UBS Global Media & Communications Conference

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Right. So does that 1.4 -- [1.2, 1.4] go down over time in the way you should think --

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Got you. And then touching on beads on the call, you definitely signaled sort of less enthusiasm for bead. Although I think you won some homes in the Louisiana, the first day that sort of doled out some of the beat funds. Do you expect any changes with the Trump administration of the program to maybe...

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : And I think it's a safe bet to say that satellite and the LEO projects, one in particular make a bigger role with this administration. How do you see -- I mean, it's a question we're getting quite a bit now. I mean, how do you see competition from Starling from Hyper? Is that -- and maybe compared to what we're seeing in fixed wireless? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 10, 2024 / 4:15PM, CHTR.OQ - Charter Communications Inc at UBS Global Media & Communications Conference

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Got you. So 2 quick financial topics in our remaining time our first cost structure. You've referenced a number of times all the investments you've made in the workforce with training systems, including AI, how much margin expansion is left in the business as you look out sort of post those investments?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Got it. And lastly, capital intensity. How do you see longer-term capital intensity in the cable business? Or given all the moving parts and especially as we look beyond sort of network evolution and maybe even the sort of lower sort of network expansion.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS - Analyst : Sounds good. Chris, thanks for joining us.