Key Financial Data
- Q1 Total revenue: $13.6 billion (-1% year-over)
- Net income: $1.16 billion (-4.4%)
- Broadband revenue: $5.85 billion (-1.3%)
- Video revenue: $3.25 billion (-9.2%)
- Traditional phone revenue: $338 million (-5%)
- Wireless revenue: $1.05 billion (+15.1%)
- Advertising revenue: $358 million (+5.3%)
- Other revenue: $906 million (+14.2%)
- Total customer relationships: 31.7 million (-1.5%)
- Broadband customer relationships: 29.6 million (-1.5%)
- Broadband customer net additions: -120,000 (vs. -59,000)
- Mobile customer relationships: 12.1 million lines (+17.1%)
- Mobile customer net additions: +368,000 lines (vs. +507,000)
- Video subscriber relationships: 12.5 million (-1.3%)
- Video subscriber net additions: -60,000 (vs. -181,000)
- Read more Q1 2026 media earnings coverage
Charter Communications reported weaker first-quarter 2026 results on Friday, as broadband and video subscriber losses continued to weigh on revenue, partially offset by strong growth in its mobile business.
The company posted revenue of $13.6 billion during the first three months of the year (Q1), down 1 percent on a year-over basis. Net income attributable to shareholders fell 4.4 percent to $1.16 billion, while adjusted EBITDA declined 2.2 percent to $5.64 billion.
Broadband losses persisted, with Charter ending the quarter with 29.6 million Internet customers, down 1.5 percent from a year ago. The company lost 120,000 Internet subscribers during the quarter, compared to a loss of 59,000 in the prior-year period.
Total customer relationships fell 1.5 percent to 31.7 million, while connectivity customers — which include Internet and mobile — declined 1 percent to 30.5 million.
Video subscriber losses continued but improved from last year. Charter reported 12.5 million overall Spectrum TV customers, down 1.3 percent from last year, with a net loss of 60,000 subscribers compared to a loss of 181,000 a year earlier. Traditional television service customers dropped 11.1 percent to 5.9 million.
Mobile remained the company’s primary growth driver. Charter added 368,000 Spectrum Mobile lines during the quarter, bringing its total to 12.1 million, up 17.1 percent from last year. Mobile service revenue increased 15.1 percent to $1.05 billion. Spectrum Mobile operates on Verizon’s network and is typically bundled with the company’s home Internet service.
By segment, Internet revenue declined 1.3 percent to $5.85 billion, while video revenue fell 9.2 percent to $3.25 billion. Voice revenue decreased 5 percent to $338 million.
Stock Price
“We remain confident about our ability to win in the marketplace and grow over the longer term,” Charter CEO Chris Winfrey said in a statement on Friday. “That confidence is founded on our advanced network, our core operating strategy of delivering great products at great prices and our focus on increasing customer satisfaction.”
During a conference call with investors, Winfrey promised that Charter will remain price-competitive when it comes to its broadband and pay TV offerings and is committed to improving the customer experience over time.
To some degree, Charter has already started ticking boxes on those goals: For two years, Spectrum TV has included access network-owned streaming services with its traditional pay TV packages, and the company recently started selling subscriptions to other streaming services through its own marketplace, which allows customers to pay for streaming apps through their Spectrum bills.
Charter has also rolled out certain customer service and price guarantees across its product line, hoping to win back broadband and pay TV customers who have eloped to competitors.
“Our head is not in the sand,” Winfrey told investors on an early morning conference call.
Charter is also moving forward on its acquisition of Cox Enterprises, which will allow the company to expand its fiber broadband footprint. The combined company will operate as Cox while maintaining the Spectrum brand for consumer and business services. Regulators in California still need to approve the deal.
Jessica Fischer, the Chief Financial Officer at Charter, said the company stands to save $800 million in operating synergies by acquiring Cox, up from a prior projection of $500 million in savings.
“There’s space for us to continue to find more there,” Fischer said, a strong indication that the companies are looking for ways to further consolidate their operations. Typically, those consolidations include job losses in overlapping business units, though Fischer offered no insight to that effect on Friday.
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