Charter Q2 revenue falls 1.7% to $13.5 billion as internet customers decline

Charter Communications reported second-quarter revenue of $13.5 billion, down 1.7% from a year earlier, marking its fourth straight quarterly revenue decline as residential video and internet weakness continued to outweigh growth in mobile. Net income attributable to Charter shareholders was $1.292 billion, or $10.66 a diluted share, compared with $1.301 billion, or $9.18, a year earlier, and ahead of analysts polled by FactSet who expected $9.98 a share. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP profit metric, fell 4.3% to $5.449 billion, or 3.2% excluding transition expenses tied to the previously announced Cox transaction. Operationally, Spectrum Mobile remained the main growth driver, with 406,000 net line additions in the quarter and 1.7 million added over the last 12 months, bringing total mobile lines to 12.5 million as of June 30, 2026. Internet customers fell by 172,000 to 29.4 million, a steeper decline than the 116,000 loss in the same period of 2025, while video customers declined by 21,000 to 12.5 million and voice customers continued to contract. Charter said it is upgrading its network to offer symmetrical and multi-gigabit internet speeds across its footprint and expects to complete that network evolution initiative in 2027. The company said lower residential video revenue was the primary reason for the revenue decline, with streaming-app programming costs increasingly allocated within video revenue. Residential revenue fell 3.5% to $10.4 billion, internet revenue dropped 3.2% to $5.8 billion, and video revenue slid 9.7% to $3.1 billion. Mobile service revenue rose 18.9% to $1.1 billion, commercial revenue increased 1.5% to $1.9 billion, advertising sales climbed 12.3% to $416 million, and other revenue rose 7.1% to $894 million. Capital expenditures were $2.9 billion, net cash flow from operating activities rose to $3.9 billion from $3.6 billion a year earlier, and free cash flow declined to $969 million from $1.046 billion. Charter repurchased 4.0 million shares of Class A common stock for $838 million during the quarter and also bought back $1.2 billion in aggregate principal amount of notes for $1.0 billion in cash under an open-market repurchase program. As of June 30, 2026, total principal debt stood at $93.8 billion, and Charter said its credit facilities provided about $3.7 billion of additional liquidity beyond its $509 million cash position. The company continues to expect full-year 2026 capital expenditures, excluding impacts from the previously announced Cox transaction, of about $11.4 billion.