CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS, INC. /MO/ (CHTR)
SIC breadcrumb: Transportation, Communications, Electric, Gas, And Sanitary Services > Communications > SIC 4841 Cable & Other Pay Television Services
SEC company page: https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=1091667. Latest filing source: 0001091667-26-000017.
Informational only - descriptive public-record data, not investment advice.
Selected Fundamentals
| Metric | Value | Unit | FY | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 54,774,000,000 | USD | 2025 | 2026-01-30 |
| Net income | 4,987,000,000 | USD | 2025 | 2026-01-30 |
| Assets | 154,213,000,000 | USD | 2025 | 2026-01-30 |
Financials
Annual standardized facts from SEC companyfacts as of latest extracted filing date 2026-01-30. Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001091667.json. Derived margins, ratios, and free cash flow are computed from the extracted annual SEC facts.
| Metric | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 29,003,000,000 | 41,581,000,000 | 43,634,000,000 | 45,764,000,000 | 48,097,000,000 | 51,682,000,000 | 54,022,000,000 | 54,607,000,000 | 55,085,000,000 | 54,774,000,000 | |
| Net income | 3,522,000,000 | 9,895,000,000 | 1,230,000,000 | 1,668,000,000 | 3,222,000,000 | 4,654,000,000 | 5,055,000,000 | 4,557,000,000 | 5,083,000,000 | 4,987,000,000 | |
| Operating income | 3,355,000,000 | 4,106,000,000 | 5,221,000,000 | 6,511,000,000 | 8,405,000,000 | 10,526,000,000 | 11,962,000,000 | 12,559,000,000 | 13,118,000,000 | 12,908,000,000 | |
| Diluted EPS | 15.94 | 34.09 | 5.22 | 7.45 | 15.40 | 24.47 | 30.74 | 29.99 | 34.97 | 36.21 | |
| Operating cash flow | 8,041,000,000 | 11,954,000,000 | 11,767,000,000 | 11,748,000,000 | 14,562,000,000 | 16,239,000,000 | 14,925,000,000 | 14,433,000,000 | 14,430,000,000 | 16,077,000,000 | |
| Capital expenditures | 5,325,000,000 | 8,681,000,000 | 9,125,000,000 | 7,195,000,000 | 7,415,000,000 | 7,635,000,000 | 9,376,000,000 | 11,115,000,000 | 11,269,000,000 | 11,659,000,000 | |
| Share buybacks | 1,562,000,000 | 11,715,000,000 | 4,399,000,000 | 6,873,000,000 | 11,217,000,000 | 15,431,000,000 | 10,277,000,000 | 3,215,000,000 | 1,213,000,000 | 5,132,000,000 | |
| Assets | 39,316,000,000 | 149,067,000,000 | 146,130,000,000 | 148,188,000,000 | 144,206,000,000 | 142,491,000,000 | 144,523,000,000 | 147,193,000,000 | 150,020,000,000 | 154,213,000,000 | |
| Stockholders' equity | -46,000,000 | 40,139,000,000 | 36,285,000,000 | 31,445,000,000 | 23,805,000,000 | 14,050,000,000 | 9,119,000,000 | 11,086,000,000 | 15,587,000,000 | 16,054,000,000 | |
| Cash and cash equivalents | 5,000,000 | 1,535,000,000 | 551,000,000 | 3,483,000,000 | 1,001,000,000 | 601,000,000 | 645,000,000 | 709,000,000 | 459,000,000 | 477,000,000 | |
| Free cash flow | 2,716,000,000 | 3,273,000,000 | 2,642,000,000 | 4,553,000,000 | 7,147,000,000 | 8,604,000,000 | 5,549,000,000 | 3,318,000,000 | 3,161,000,000 | 4,418,000,000 |
Ratios
| Metric | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net margin | 12.14% | 23.80% | 2.82% | 3.64% | 6.70% | 9.01% | 9.36% | 8.35% | 9.23% | 9.10% | |
| Operating margin | 11.57% | 9.87% | 11.97% | 14.23% | 17.48% | 20.37% | 22.14% | 23.00% | 23.81% | 23.57% | |
| Return on equity | 8.77% | 3.39% | 5.30% | 13.53% | 33.12% | 55.43% | 41.11% | 32.61% | 31.06% | ||
| Return on assets | 2.36% | 0.84% | 1.13% | 2.23% | 3.27% | 3.50% | 3.10% | 3.39% | 3.23% | ||
| Current ratio | 0.17 | 0.34 | 0.23 | 0.52 | 0.40 | 0.29 | 0.33 | 0.31 | 0.31 | 0.39 |
Financial Charts
Quarterly
Quarterly standardized facts from SEC companyfacts as of latest extracted filing date 2026-04-24. Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001091667.json.
| Quarter | End Date | Revenue | Net Income | Diluted EPS | Method |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-Q2 | 2022-06-30 | 8.80 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2022-Q3 | 2022-09-30 | 7.38 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2023-Q1 | 2023-03-31 | 6.65 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2023-Q2 | 2023-06-30 | 13,659,000,000 | 1,223,000,000 | 8.05 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2023-Q3 | 2023-09-30 | 13,584,000,000 | 1,255,000,000 | 8.25 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2023-Q4 | 2023-12-31 | 13,711,000,000 | 1,058,000,000 | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD | |
| 2024-Q1 | 2024-03-31 | 13,679,000,000 | 1,106,000,000 | 7.55 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2024-Q2 | 2024-06-30 | 13,685,000,000 | 1,231,000,000 | 8.49 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2024-Q3 | 2024-09-30 | 13,795,000,000 | 1,280,000,000 | 8.82 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2024-Q4 | 2024-12-31 | 13,926,000,000 | 1,466,000,000 | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD | |
| 2025-Q1 | 2025-03-31 | 13,735,000,000 | 1,217,000,000 | 8.42 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2025-Q2 | 2025-06-30 | 13,766,000,000 | 1,301,000,000 | 9.18 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2025-Q3 | 2025-09-30 | 13,672,000,000 | 1,137,000,000 | 8.34 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2025-Q4 | 2025-12-31 | 13,601,000,000 | 1,332,000,000 | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD | |
| 2026-Q1 | 2026-03-31 | 13,597,000,000 | 1,163,000,000 | 9.17 | reported discrete quarter |
Quarterly Charts
Macro Cross-References
- CPIAUCSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average
- UNRATE - Unemployment Rate
- FEDFUNDS - Federal Funds Effective Rate
- CES0500000003 - Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Total Private
- DFEDTARU - Federal Funds Target Range - Upper Limit
- DFEDTARL - Federal Funds Target Range - Lower Limit
- DGS3MO - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 3-Month Constant Maturity
- DGS2 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 2-Year Constant Maturity
- DGS10 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 10-Year Constant Maturity
- DGS30 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 30-Year Constant Maturity
- T10Y2Y - 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Minus 2-Year Treasury Constant Maturity
- CPILFESL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items Less Food and Energy
- CPIUFDSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Food
- CPIENGSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Energy
- CUSR0000SAH1 - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Shelter
- PCEPI - Personal Consumption Expenditures: Chain-type Price Index
- PCEPILFE - Personal Consumption Expenditures Excluding Food and Energy: Chain-type Price Index
- PPIACO - Producer Price Index by Commodity: All Commodities
- T10YIE - 10-Year Breakeven Inflation Rate
- U6RATE - Total Unemployed, Plus All Marginally Attached Workers Plus Total Employed Part Time for Economic Reasons
- PAYEMS - All Employees, Total Nonfarm
- CIVPART - Labor Force Participation Rate
- EMRATIO - Employment-Population Ratio
- UNEMPLOY - Unemployed
- CE16OV - Employment Level
- ICSA - Initial Claims
- JTSJOL - Job Openings: Total Nonfarm
- JTSQUR - Quits: Total Nonfarm
- GDPC1 - Real Gross Domestic Product
- A191RL1Q225SBEA - Real Gross Domestic Product: Percent Change from Preceding Period
- INDPRO - Industrial Production: Total Index
- TCU - Capacity Utilization: Total Index
- HOUST - New Privately-Owned Housing Units Started: Total Units
- PERMIT - New Privately-Owned Housing Units Authorized in Permit-Issuing Places: Total Units
- RSAFS - Advance Retail Sales: Retail Trade
- PCE - Personal Consumption Expenditures
- DSPIC96 - Real Disposable Personal Income
- PSAVERT - Personal Saving Rate
- M2SL - M2
- BOPGSTB - U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: Balance
- MSPUS - Median Sales Price of Houses Sold for the United States
- HSN1F - New One Family Houses Sold: United States
- RHORUSQ156N - Homeownership Rate in the United States
- TTLCONS - Total Construction Spending: Total Construction in the United States
- RRVRUSQ156N - Rental Vacancy Rate in the United States
- TOTALSL - Total Consumer Credit Owned and Securitized
- REVOLSL - Revolving Consumer Credit Owned and Securitized
- DRCCLACBS - Delinquency Rate on Credit Card Loans, All Commercial Banks
- GDP - Gross Domestic Product
- GPDI - Gross Private Domestic Investment
- GCE - Government Consumption Expenditures and Gross Investment
- PCEC - Personal Consumption Expenditures
- NETEXP - Net Exports of Goods and Services
- GFDEBTN - Federal Debt: Total Public Debt
- GFDEGDQ188S - Federal Debt: Total Public Debt as Percent of Gross Domestic Product
- FYFSD - Federal Surplus or Deficit
- FGRECPT - Federal Government Current Receipts
- FGEXPND - Federal Government: Current Expenditures
- MANEMP - All Employees, Manufacturing
- USCONS - All Employees, Construction
- USTRADE - All Employees, Retail Trade
- USFIRE - All Employees, Financial Activities
- USGOVT - All Employees, Government
- AWHAETP - Average Weekly Hours of All Employees, Total Private
- DGORDER - Manufacturers' New Orders: Durable Goods
- NEWORDER - Manufacturers' New Orders: Nondefense Capital Goods Excluding Aircraft
- BUSINV - Total Business Inventories
- EXPGS - Exports of Goods and Services
- IMPGS - Imports of Goods and Services
- IR - Import Price Index (End Use): All Commodities
- PPIFIS - Producer Price Index by Commodity: Final Demand
Latest quarter (10-Q)
Latest 10-Q source: 0001091667-26-000028.
Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
General
Charter Communications, Inc. (together with its controlled subsidiaries, “Charter”) is a leading broadband connectivity company with services available to nearly 59 million homes and small to large businesses across 41 states through our Spectrum brand. Founded in 1993, we have evolved from providing cable TV to streaming, and from high-speed Internet to a converged broadband, WiFi and mobile experience. Over the Spectrum Fiber Broadband Network and supported by our 100% U.S.-based employees, we offer Seamless Connectivity and Entertainment with Spectrum Internet, Mobile, TV and Voice products.
Charter is a holding company whose principal asset is a controlling equity interest in Charter Communications Holdings, LLC (“Charter Holdings”), an indirect owner of Charter Communications Operating, LLC (“Charter Operating”) under which substantially all of the operations reside. All significant intercompany accounts and transactions among consolidated entities have been eliminated.
The Cox Transactions
On May 16, 2025, Charter, Charter Holdings, and Cox Enterprises, Inc. (“Cox Enterprises”) entered into a Transaction Agreement (the “Transaction Agreement”) pursuant to which (i) Cox Enterprises will sell and transfer to Charter 100% of the equity interests of certain subsidiaries of Cox Communications, Inc. (“Cox Communications”) that conduct Cox Communications’ commercial fiber and managed IT and cloud services businesses (the “Equity Sale”), (ii) Cox Enterprises will contribute the equity interests of Cox Communications and certain other assets (other than certain excluded assets) primarily related to Cox Communications’ residential cable business to Charter Holdings (the “Contribution”), and (iii) Cox Enterprises will pay $1.00 to Charter (collectively, the “Cox Transactions”). Under the Transaction Agreement, Charter and Cox Enterprises may designate one or more wholly owned subsidiaries to take actions with respect to Charter and Cox Enterprises, respectively.
Pursuant to the Transaction Agreement, at the closing of the Cox Transactions (the “Closing”):
•in consideration of the Equity Sale, Charter will pay $3.5 billion in cash to Cox Enterprises;
•in consideration of the Contribution, Charter Holdings will (i) pay to Cox Enterprises $650 million in cash and (ii) issue to Cox Enterprises convertible preferred units of Charter Holdings with an aggregate liquidation preference of $6.0 billion, which will pay a 6.875% dividend per annum, and approximately 33.6 million Charter Holdings common units. The Charter Holdings convertible preferred units will be convertible into Charter Holdings common units, with an initial conversion price of $477.41, subject to certain adjustments. The Charter Holdings common units will be exchangeable by the holder, in certain circumstances, for cash or, at the election of Charter, Charter Class A common stock on a one-for-one basis, subject to certain adjustments; and
•in consideration of the $1.00 payment from Cox Enterprises to Charter, Charter will issue to Cox Enterprises one share of the newly created Charter Class C common stock. The Charter Class C common stock will be equivalent, economically, to the outstanding Charter Class A common stock and the Charter Class B common stock but will have a number of votes per share that reflect the voting power of the Charter Holdings common units and the Charter Holdings convertible preferred units held by Cox Enterprises on an as-converted, as-exchanged basis.
The combined entity will assume Cox Communications’ approximately $12.4 billion in outstanding net debt and finance leases.
Overview
The competitive environment continued to challenge Internet customer growth in the first quarter of 2026 with a loss of 120,000 Internet customers. Mobile lines grew by 368,000 while video and voice customer losses improved versus the prior year period as customers find value in bundling our seamless connectivity and entertainment products. Our core strategy is to deliver great products, at a great value, while continuously improving service. We remain focused on improving customer results through the power of our advanced fiber-powered network and cutting-edge connectivity products and services, and our simplified pricing and packaging strategy that better utilizes our seamless connectivity and entertainment products to offer lower promotional and persistent bundled pricing to drive growth. Our Internet and mobile product bundles provide a differentiated connectivity experience by bringing together Spectrum Internet, Advanced WiFi and Unlimited Spectrum Mobile
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to offer consumers fast, reliable and secure online connections on their favorite devices at home and on the go in high-value packages. We have completed deals with major programmers to deliver better flexibility and greater value to our customers by including seamless entertainment applications with certain of our Spectrum TV packages at no additional cost. We offer the sale of these seamless entertainment applications to customers on an à la carte basis, and through our digital storefront, the Spectrum App Store, customers can easily activate, upgrade, buy and manage their streaming applications in one place. We also continue to develop other elements of our video product and are deploying Xumo stream boxes to new video customers.
Our customer commitments focus on reliable connectivity, transparency, exceptional service and always improving. By continually improving our product set and offering consumers the opportunity to save money by switching to our services, we believe we can continue to penetrate our expanding footprint and sell additional products to our existing customers. We see operational benefits from the targeted investments we made in employee wages and benefits to build employee skill sets and tenure, as well as the continued investments in digitization of our customer service platforms, all with the goal of improving the customer experience, reducing transactions and driving customer growth and retention.
We currently offer Spectrum Internet products with speeds up to 1 Gbps across our entire footprint and multi-gigabit data speeds in a portion of our footprint. Our network evolution initiative remains on track to deliver symmetrical and multi-gigabit speeds across our entire footprint with convergence everywhere we operate. We spent $427 million on our subsidized rural construction initiative during the three months ended March 31, 2026 and activated approximately 89,000 subsidized rural passings.
We realized revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and income from operations during the periods presented as follows (in millions; all percentages are calculated using whole numbers; minor differences may exist due to rounding):
| Three Months Ended March 31, | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | % Change | ||||||||||||||
| Revenues | $ | 13,597 | $ | 13,735 | (1.0) | % | ||||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 5,637 | $ | 5,763 | (2.2) | % | ||||||||||
| Income from operations | $ | 3,208 | $ | 3,237 | (0.9) | % |
Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income attributable to Charter shareholders plus net income attributable to noncontrolling interest, interest expense, net, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock compensation expense, other income (expenses), net and other operating (income) expenses, net, such as special charges, merger and acquisition costs and (gain) loss on sale or retirement of assets. See “Use of Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow” for further information on Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.
Total revenues decreased $138 million during the three months ended March 31, 2026 compared to the corresponding period in 2025 primarily due to higher seamless entertainment allocation, partly offset by growth in connectivity revenue. Adjusted EBITDA and income from operations were also negatively impacted by one-time favorable adjustments of $75 million in the first quarter of 2025.
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The following table summarizes our customer statistics for connectivity, Internet, mobile, video and voice as of March 31, 2026 and 2025 (in thousands except per customer data and footnotes).
| Approximate as of | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 31, | ||||||
| 2026 (a) | 2025 (a) | |||||
| Customer Relationships (b) | ||||||
| Residential | 29,452 | 29,914 | ||||
| Small Business | 2,231 | 2,246 | ||||
| Total Customer Relationships | 31,683 | 32,160 | ||||
| Monthly Residential Revenue per Residential Customer (c) | $ | 118.44 | $ | 120.07 | ||
| Monthly Small Business Revenue per Small Business Customer (d) | $ | 162.71 | $ | 161.31 | ||
| Connectivity (e) | ||||||
| Residential | 28,446 | 28,758 | ||||
| Small Business | 2,074 | 2,080 | ||||
| Total Connectivity Customers | 30,520 | 30,838 | ||||
| Internet | ||||||
| Residential | 27,524 | 27,979 | ||||
| Small Business | 2,036 | 2,045 | ||||
| Total Internet Customers | 29,560 | 30,024 | ||||
| Mobile Lines (f) | ||||||
| Residential | 11,714 | 10,031 | ||||
| Small Business | 420 | 334 | ||||
| Total Mobile Lines | 12,134 | 10,365 | ||||
| Video (g) | ||||||
| Residential | 12,021 | 12,160 | ||||
| Small Business | 524 | 551 | ||||
| Total Video Customers | 12,545 | 12,711 | ||||
| Voice | ||||||
| Residential | 4,665 | 5,372 | ||||
| Small Business | 1,207 | 1,234 | ||||
| Total Voice Customers | 5,872 | 6,606 | ||||
| Mid-Market & Large Business Primary Service Units ("PSUs") (h) | 360 | 344 |
(a)We calculate the aging of customer accounts based on the monthly billing cycle for each account in accordance with our collection policies. On that basis, as of March 31, 2026 and 2025, customers include approximately 87,600 and 92,200 customers, respectively, whose accounts were over 60 days past due, approximately 7,800 and 10,700 customers, respectively, whose accounts were over 90 days past due and approximately 13,600 and 17,000 customers, respectively, whose accounts were over 120 days past due.
(b)Customer relationships include the number of customers that receive one or more levels of service, encompassing Internet, mobile, video and voice services, without regard to which service(s) such customers receive. Customers who reside in residential multiple dwelling units (“MDUs”) and that are billed under bulk contracts are counted based on the number of billed units within each bulk MDU. Total customer relationships exclude mid-market & large business customer relationships.
(c)Monthly residential revenue per residential customer is calculated as total residential quarterly revenue divided by three divided by average residential customer relationships during the respective quarter.
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(d)Monthly small business revenue per small business customer is calculated as total small business quarterly revenue divided by three divided by average small business customer relationships during the respective quarter.
(e)Connectivity customers represent all customers receiving our Internet and/or mobile connectivity services.
(f)Mobile lines include phones and tablets which require one of our standard rate plans (e.g., "Unlimited" or "By the Gig"). Mobile lines exclude wearables and other devices that do not require standard phone rate plans.
(g)Video customers only include customers that purchase Spectrum traditional or streaming linear video packages and exclude customers that only purchase streaming applications.
(h)Mid-market & large business PSUs represent the aggregate number of fiber service offerings counting each separate service offering at each customer location as an individual PSU.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
For a discussion of our critical accounting policies and the means by which we develop estimates, see “Item 7. Management’s Discussio
[Excerpt truncated for page length; source filing is linked above.]
Latest 10-K MD&A
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Reference is made to “Part I. Item 1A. Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” which describe important factors that could cause actual results to differ from expectations and non-historical information contained herein. In addition, the following discussion should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes thereto of Charter included in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Overview
We are a leading broadband connectivity company with services available to 58 million homes and small to large businesses across 41 states through our Spectrum brand. Founded in 1993, we have evolved from providing cable TV to streaming, and from high-speed Internet to a converged broadband, WiFi and mobile experience. Over the Spectrum Fiber Broadband Network and supported by our 100% U.S.-based employees, we offer Seamless Connectivity and Entertainment with Spectrum Internet, Mobile, TV and Voice products. See “Part I. Item 1. Business — Products and Services” for further description of these services, including customer statistics for different services.
During the year ended December 31, 2025, we added 1.9 million mobile lines while Internet and video losses improved as compared to the prior year period. Sales were challenged by the competitive environment but were offset by lower customer churn. We remain focused on improving customer results through our brand platform, Life Unlimited which emphasizes the power of our advanced fiber-powered network and cutting-edge connectivity products and services, and our simplified pricing and packaging strategy that better utilizes our seamless connectivity and entertainment products to offer lower promotional and persistent bundled pricing to drive growth. Our Internet and mobile product bundles provide a differentiated connectivity experience by bringing together Spectrum Internet, Advanced WiFi and Unlimited Spectrum Mobile to offer consumers fast, reliable and secure online connections on their favorite devices at home and on the go in high-value packages. We have completed deals with major programmers to deliver better flexibility and greater value to our customers by including seamless entertainment applications with certain of our Spectrum TV packages at no additional cost. In July 2025, we began launching the sale of these seamless entertainment applications to customers on an à la carte basis, and we recently launched the Spectrum App Store, a digital storefront that helps customers activate, upgrade, buy and manage their streaming applications in one place. We also continue to evolve other elements of our video product and are deploying Xumo stream boxes to new video customers.
Our customer commitments focus on reliable connectivity, transparency, exceptional service and always improving. By continually improving our product set and offering consumers the opportunity to save money by switching to our services, we believe we can continue to penetrate our expanding footprint and sell additional products to our existing customers. We see operational benefits from the targeted investments we made in employee wages and benefits to build employee skill sets and tenure, as well as the continued investments in digitization of our customer service platforms, all with the goal of improving the customer experience, reducing transactions and driving customer growth and retention.
We spent $2.2 billion on our subsidized rural construction initiative during the year ended December 31, 2025 and activated approximately 483,000 subsidized rural passings. We currently offer Spectrum Internet products with speeds up to 1 Gbps across our entire footprint and multi-gigabit data speeds in a portion of our footprint. Our network evolution initiative remains on track to deliver symmetrical and multi-gigabit speeds across our entire footprint with convergence everywhere we operate.
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We realized revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and income from operations during the periods presented as follows (in millions; all percentages are calculated using whole numbers; minor differences may exist due to rounding).
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | Growth | ||||||||
| Revenues | $ | 54,774 | $ | 55,085 | (0.6) | % | ||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 22,708 | $ | 22,569 | 0.6 | % | ||||
| Income from operations | $ | 12,908 | $ | 13,118 | (1.6) | % |
Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income attributable to Charter shareholders plus net income attributable to noncontrolling interest, net interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock compensation expense, other income (expenses), net and other operating (income) expenses, net, such as special charges, merger and acquisition costs and (gain) loss on sale or retirement of assets. See “—Use of Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow” for further information on Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.
Total revenues decreased slightly primarily due to lower customers, higher seamless entertainment allocation and lower advertising sales, partly offset by mobile line growth and higher average revenue per customer. Adjusted EBITDA grew slightly with mobile revenues growing at a faster rate than mobile direct costs. Income from operations was further negatively impacted by an increase in loss on disposal of assets and merger and acquisition costs.
Approximately 89% of our revenues for each of the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024 are attributable to monthly subscription fees charged to customers for our Internet, mobile, video, voice and commercial services as well as regional sports and news channels. Generally, these customer subscriptions may be discontinued by the customer at any time subject to a fee for certain commercial customers. The remaining 11% of our revenue is derived primarily from advertising revenues, franchise and other regulatory fee revenues (which are collected by us but then paid to local authorities), sales of mobile and video devices, processing fees or reconnection fees charged to customers to commence or reinstate service, installation, VOD and pay-per-view programming, and commissions related to the sale of merchandise by home shopping services.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Certain of our accounting policies require our management to make difficult, subjective and/or complex judgments. Management has discussed these policies with the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of Charter, and the Audit Committee has reviewed the following disclosure. We consider the following policies to be the most critical in understanding the estimates, assumptions and judgments that are involved in preparing our financial statements, and the uncertainties that could affect our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows:
•Capitalization of labor and overhead costs
•Valuation and impairment of franchises and goodwill
•Income taxes
Capitalization of labor and overhead costs
Costs associated with network construction or upgrades, placement of the customer drop to the dwelling and the placement of outlets within a dwelling along with the costs associated with the deployment of new customer premise equipment necessary to provide Internet, video or voice services, are capitalized. Costs capitalized include materials, direct labor and certain indirect costs. These indirect costs consist of compensation and overhead costs associated with support functions. While our capitalization is based on specific activities, once capitalized, we track these costs on a composite basis by fixed asset category at the cable system level, and not on a specific asset basis. For assets that are sold or retired, we remove the estimated applicable cost and accumulated depreciation. The costs of disconnecting service and removing customer premise equipment from a dwelling and the costs to reconnect a customer drop or to redeploy previously installed customer premise equipment are charged to operating expense as incurred. Costs for repairs and maintenance are charged to operating expense as incurred, while plant and equipment replacement, including replacement of certain components, betterments, and replacement of cable drops and outlets, are capitalized.
We make judgments regarding the installation and construction activities to be capitalized. We capitalized direct labor and overhead of $2.6 billion and $2.4 billion for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. We capitalize direct labor and overhead using standards developed from actual costs and applicable operational data. We calculate standards
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annually (or more frequently if circumstances dictate) for items such as the labor rates, overhead rates, and the actual amount of time required to perform a capitalizable activity. For example, the standard amounts of time required to perform capitalizable activities are based on studies of the time required to perform such activities. Overhead rates are established based on an analysis of the nature of costs incurred in support of capitalizable activities, and a determination of the portion of costs that is directly attributable to capitalizable activities. The impact of changes that resulted from these studies were not material in the periods presented.
Labor costs directly associated with capital projects are capitalized. Capitalizable activities performed in connection with installations include such activities as:
•dispatching a “truck roll” to the customer’s dwelling or business for service connection or placement of new equipment;
•costs to package and ship new equipment to a customer's home for self-installation;
•verification of serviceability to the customer’s dwelling or business (i.e., determining whether the customer’s dwelling is capable of receiving service by our cable network);
•customer premise activities performed by in-house field technicians and third-party contractors in connection with the installation, replacement and betterment of equipment and materials to enable Internet, video or voice services; and
•verifying the integrity of the customer’s network connection by initiating test signals downstream from the headend to the customer premise equipment, as well as testing signal levels at the utility pole or pedestal.
Judgment is required to determine the extent to which overhead costs incurred result from specific capital activities, and therefore should be capitalized. The primary costs that are included in the determination of the overhead rate are (i) employee benefits and payroll taxes associated with capitalized direct labor, (ii) direct variable costs associated with capitalizable activities, (iii) the cost of support personnel, such as care personnel and dispatchers, who assist with capitalizable installation activities, and (iv) indirect costs directly attributable to capitalizable activities.
While we believe our existing capitalization policies are appropriate, a significant change in the nature or extent of our operating practices could affect management’s judgment about the extent to which we should capitalize direct labor or overhead in the future. We monitor the appropriateness of our capitalization policies and perform updates to our internal studies on an ongoing basis to determine whether facts or circumstances warrant a change to our capitalization policies.
Valuation and impairment of franchises and goodwill
The carrying value of franchise intangibles as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024 was approximately $67.5 billion (representing 44% and 45% of total assets, respectively), and the carrying value of goodwill as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024 was approximately $29.7 billion (representing 19% and 20% of total assets, respectively).
Franchise rights represent the value attributed to agreements or authorizations with local and state authorities that allow access to homes in cable service areas. For valuation purposes, they are defined as the future economic benefits of the right to solicit and service potential customers (customer marketing rights), and the right to deploy and market new services to potential customers (service marketing rights).
Management estimates the fair value of franchise rights at the date of acquisition and determines if the franchise has a finite life or an indefinite life. We have concluded that all of our franchises qualify for indefinite life treatment given that there are no legal, regulatory, contractual, competitive, economic or other factors which limit the period over which these rights will contribute to our cash flows. We reassess this determination periodically or whenever events or substantive changes in circumstances occur.
All franchises are tested for impairment annually or more frequently as warranted by events or changes in circumstances. Franchises are aggregated into essentially inseparable units of accounting to conduct valuations. The franchise units of accounting are geographical clustering of cable systems into groups representing the highest and best use if sold to market participants. We performed a quantitative impairment analysis as of October 31, 2025 utilizing a multi-period excess earnings method, a discounted cash flow income approach which isolates discrete cash flows attributable to the franchise intangibles from the business enterprise cash flows. The income approach incorporated updated projections of the business enterprise cash flows, allocations of cash flows attributable to franchise intangibles, and current market assumptions for growth rates and discount rates. Based on our quantitative analysis, we concluded that the fair value of the franchises in each unit of accounting exceeds the carrying value of such assets by more than 10%.
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Goodwill is also tested for impairment annually or more frequently as warranted by events or changes in circumstances. We have determined that we have one reporting unit for purposes of the assessment of goodwill impairment. As with our franchise impairment testing, we elected to perform a quantitative goodwill impairment analysis as of October 31, 2025. We changed the annual goodwill impairment test date to October 31 from the November 30 date used in the prior year’s qualitative assessment to allow for sufficient time to complete the quantitative analysis in conjunction with the year-end financial reporting process. The quantitative analysis considers whether the carrying amount of a reporting unit exceeds its fair value of the reporting unit, in which case an impairment charge is recorded to the extent the reporting unit’s carrying value exceeds its fair value. As a result of that assessment, we concluded that goodwill is not impaired.
For more information, see Note 5 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Income taxes
We recognize deferred tax assets and liabilities for temporary differences between the financial reporting basis and the tax basis of our assets and liabilities and expected benefits of utilizing loss carryforwards, including indefinite lived carryovers such as the Section 163(j) interest limitation. Valuation allowances are established when management determines that it is more likely than not that some portion or the entire deferred tax asset will not be realized. In evaluating the need for a valuation allowance, management considers various factors, including the expected level of future taxable income, available tax planning strategies and reversals of existing taxable temporary differences. The impact on deferred taxes of changes in tax rates and tax law, if any, applied to the years during which temporary differences are expected to be settled, are reflected in the consolidated financial statements in the period of enactment. In determining our tax provision for financial reporting purposes, we establish a reserve for uncertain tax positions unless such positions are determined to be “more likely than not” of being sustained upon examination, based on their technical merits. There is considerable judgment involved in making such a determination. We recognize interest and penalties accrued on uncertain income tax positions as part of the income tax provision. See Note 17 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for additional discussion.
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Results of Operations
A discussion of changes in our results of operations during the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023 has been omitted from this Annual Report on Form 10-K, but may be found in “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, filed with the SEC on January 31, 2025, which is available free of charge on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and on Charter's investor relations website at ir.charter.com.
The following table sets forth the consolidated statements of operations for the periods presented (dollars in millions, except per share data):
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | |||||
| Revenues | $ | 54,774 | $ | 55,085 | ||
| Costs and Expenses: | ||||||
| Operating costs and expenses (exclusive of items shown separately below) | 32,739 | 33,167 | ||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 8,711 | 8,673 | ||||
| Other operating expenses, net | 416 | 127 | ||||
| 41,866 | 41,967 | |||||
| Income from operations | 12,908 | 13,118 | ||||
| Other Income (Expenses): | ||||||
| Interest expense, net | (5,042) | (5,229) | ||||
| Other expenses, net | (408) | (387) | ||||
| (5,450) | (5,616) | |||||
| Income before income taxes | 7,458 | 7,502 | ||||
| Income tax expense | (1,692) | (1,649) | ||||
| Consolidated net income | 5,766 | 5,853 | ||||
| Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests | (779) | (770) | ||||
| Net income attributable to Charter shareholders | $ | 4,987 | $ | 5,083 | ||
| EARNINGS PER COMMON SHARE ATTRIBUTABLE TO CHARTER SHAREHOLDERS: | ||||||
| Basic | $ | 36.90 | $ | 35.53 | ||
| Diluted | $ | 36.21 | $ | 34.97 | ||
| Weighted average common shares outstanding, basic | 135,155,309 | 143,061,337 | ||||
| Weighted average common shares outstanding, diluted | 137,743,676 | 145,363,771 |
Revenues. Total revenues decreased $311 million or 0.6% during the year ended December 31, 2025 as compared to 2024 primarily due to lower customers, higher seamless entertainment allocation and lower advertising sales, partly offset by mobile line growth and higher average revenue per customer.
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Revenues by service offering were as follows (dollars in millions; all percentages are calculated using whole numbers; minor differences may exist due to rounding):
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | Growth | ||||||||
| Internet | $ | 23,765 | $ | 23,360 | 1.7 | % | ||||
| Mobile service | 3,762 | 3,083 | 22.0 | % | ||||||
| Connectivity | 27,527 | 26,443 | 4.1 | % | ||||||
| Video | 13,703 | 15,129 | (9.4) | % | ||||||
| Voice | 1,350 | 1,437 | (6.0) | % | ||||||
| Residential revenue | 42,580 | 43,009 | (1.0) | % | ||||||
| Small business | 4,346 | 4,376 | (0.7) | % | ||||||
| Mid-market & large business | 2,969 | 2,878 | 3.2 | % | ||||||
| Commercial revenue | 7,315 | 7,254 | 0.9 | % | ||||||
| Advertising sales | 1,468 | 1,780 | (17.6) | % | ||||||
| Other | 3,411 | 3,042 | 12.1 | % | ||||||
| $ | 54,774 | $ | 55,085 | (0.6) | % |
The increase in Internet revenues from our residential customers was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2025 compared to 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase related to rate and product mix changes | $ | 785 |
| Decrease in average residential Internet customers | (380) | |
| $ | 405 |
The increase related to rate and product mix was primarily due to promotional rate step-ups, rate adjustments, and a favorable change in bundled revenue allocation. Residential Internet customers decreased by 393,000 in 2025 compared to 2024.
The increase in mobile service revenues from our residential customers is attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2025 compared to 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase in average residential mobile lines | $ | 714 |
| Decrease related to rate | (35) | |
| $ | 679 |
Residential mobile lines increased by 1.8 million in 2025 compared to 2024.
Video revenues consist primarily of revenues from video services provided to our residential customers, as well as franchise fees, equipment service fees and video installation revenue. The decrease in video revenues was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2025 compared to 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Decrease in average residential video customers | $ | (813) |
| Increase in seamless entertainment allocation | (322) | |
| Decrease related to rate and product mix changes | (291) | |
| $ | (1,426) |
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Residential video customers decreased by 255,000 in 2025 compared to 2024. The decrease related to rate and product mix was primarily due to a higher mix of lower priced video packages within our video customer base and more unfavorable bundled revenue allocation, partly offset by promotional rate step-ups and video rate adjustments that pass-through programming rate increases. Seamless entertainment allocation represents costs allocated to programmer streaming applications and netted within video revenue. The growth is due to more seamless entertainment applications and higher activations.
The decrease in voice revenues from our residential customers was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2025 compared to 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Decrease in average residential voice customers | $ | (230) |
| Increase related to rate adjustments | 143 | |
| $ | (87) |
Residential wireline voice customers decreased by 804,000 in 2025 compared to 2024.
The decrease in small business revenues is attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2025 compared to 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Decrease in average small business customers | $ | (17) |
| Decrease related to rate and product mix changes | (13) | |
| $ | (30) |
Small business customers decreased by 13,000 in 2025 compared to 2024.
Mid-market & large business revenues increased $91 million during the year ended December 31, 2025 as compared to the corresponding period in 2024 primarily due to an increase in Internet PSUs. Mid-market & large business PSUs increased by 17,000 in 2025 compared to 2024.
Advertising sales revenues consist primarily of revenues from commercial advertising customers, programmers and other vendors, as well as local cable and advertising on regional sports and news channels. Advertising sales revenues decreased $312 million during the year ended December 31, 2025 as compared to the corresponding period in 2024 primarily due to a decrease in political revenue.
Other revenues consist of revenue from mobile and video device sales, processing fees, regional sports and news channels (excluding intercompany charges or advertising sales on those channels), subsidy revenue, home shopping, wire maintenance fees and other miscellaneous revenues. Other revenues increased approximately $369 million during the year ended December 31, 2025 as compared to the corresponding period in 2024 primarily due to higher mobile device sales.
Operating costs and expenses. The decrease in our operating costs and expenses, exclusive of items shown separately in the consolidated statements of operations, was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2025 compared to 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Programming | $ | (831) |
| Other costs of revenue | 353 | |
| Field and technology operations | (18) | |
| Customer operations | (47) | |
| Marketing and residential sales | 192 | |
| Transition expenses | 19 | |
| Other | (96) | |
| $ | (428) |
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Programming costs were approximately $8.8 billion and $9.7 billion for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, representing 27% and 29% of total operating costs and expenses, respectively. Programming costs consist primarily of costs paid to programmers for basic, premium, video on demand, and pay-per-view programming. Programming costs decreased as a result of a higher mix of lower cost video packages within our video customer base and fewer video customers as well as costs allocated to seamless entertainment applications and netted within video revenue, partly offset by contractual rate adjustments, including renewals and increases in amounts paid for retransmission consent.
Other costs of revenue increased $353 million during the year ended December 31, 2025 compared to the corresponding period in 2024 primarily due to higher mobile service direct costs and mobile device sales due to an increase in mobile lines.
Marketing and residential sales increased $192 million during the year ended December 31, 2025 compared to the corresponding period in 2024 primarily due to a change in sales mix to higher cost sales channels.
Transition expenses represent incremental costs incurred to prepare for the integration of the Cox Transactions’ operations and to bring systems and processes into a uniform operating structure. See Note 3 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.” for more information.
Other expense decreased $96 million during the year ended December 31, 2025 compared to the corresponding period in 2024 primarily due to one-time favorable adjustments of $75 million.
Depreciation and amortization. Depreciation and amortization expense increased by $38 million during the year ended December 31, 2025 compared to the corresponding period in 2024 primarily due to an increase in depreciation as a result of more recent capital expenditures, partly offset by certain assets becoming fully depreciated.
Other operating expenses, net. Other operating expenses, net increased primarily due to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2025 compared to 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Special charges, net | $ | 18 |
| (Gain) loss on disposal of assets, net | 142 | |
| Merger and acquisition costs | 129 | |
| $ | 289 |
For more information, see Note 15 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Interest expense, net. Net interest expense decreased by $187 million in 2025 from 2024 primarily due to a decrease in weighted average interest rates and debt.
Other expenses, net. The increase in other expenses, net is attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2025 compared to 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Net periodic pension benefit (costs) (see Note 21) | $ | 27 |
| Loss on equity investments, net (see Note 6) | (26) | |
| Gain (loss) on extinguishment of debt, net (see Note 9) | (29) | |
| Loss on financial instruments, net (see Note 13) | 7 | |
| $ | (21) |
See Note 15 and the Notes referenced above to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Item 1. Financial Statements” for more information.
Income tax expense. We recognized income tax expense of $1.7 billion and $1.6 billion for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. For more information, see Note 17 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
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Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest. Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest for financial reporting purposes represents A/N’s portion of Charter Holdings’ net income based on its effective common unit ownership interest. For more information, see Note 12 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Net income attributable to Charter shareholders. Net income attributable to Charter shareholders was $5.0 billion and $5.1 billion for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively, primarily as a result of the factors described above.
Use of Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow
We use certain measures that are not defined by U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) to evaluate various aspects of our business. Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are non-GAAP financial measures and should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities reported in accordance with GAAP. These terms, as defined by us, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are reconciled to net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities, respectively, below.
Adjusted EBITDA eliminates the significant non-cash depreciation and amortization expense that results from the capital-intensive nature of our businesses as well as other non-cash or special items, and is unaffected by our capital structure or investment activities. However, this measure is limited in that it does not reflect the periodic costs of certain capitalized tangible and intangible assets used in generating revenues and our cash cost of financing. These costs are evaluated through other financial measures.
Free cash flow is defined as net cash flows from operating activities, less capital expenditures and changes in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures.
Management and the Board of Directors of Charter use Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow to assess our performance and our ability to service our debt, fund operations and make additional investments with internally generated funds. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA generally correlates to the leverage ratio calculation under our credit facilities or outstanding notes to determine compliance with the covenants contained in the facilities and notes (all such documents have been previously filed with the SEC). For the purpose of calculating compliance with leverage covenants, we use Adjusted EBITDA, as presented, excluding certain expenses paid by our operating subsidiaries to other Charter entities. Our debt covenants refer to these expenses as management fees, which fees were in the amount of $1.4 billion and $1.5 billion for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively.
A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow to net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities, respectively, is as follows (dollars in millions):
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | |||||
| Net income attributable to Charter shareholders | $ | 4,987 | $ | 5,083 | ||
| Plus: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest | 779 | 770 | ||||
| Interest expense, net | 5,042 | 5,229 | ||||
| Income tax expense | 1,692 | 1,649 | ||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 8,711 | 8,673 | ||||
| Stock compensation expense | 673 | 651 | ||||
| Other, net | 824 | 514 | ||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 22,708 | $ | 22,569 | ||
| Net cash flows from operating activities | $ | 16,077 | $ | 14,430 | ||
| Less: Purchases of property, plant and equipment | (11,659) | (11,269) | ||||
| Change in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures | 586 | 1,096 | ||||
| Free cash flow | $ | 5,004 | $ | 4,257 |
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Liquidity and Capital Resources
Overview
We have significant amounts of debt and require significant cash to fund principal and interest payments on our debt. The principal amount of our debt as of December 31, 2025 was $94.6 billion, consisting of $11.9 billion of credit facility debt, $55.4 billion of investment grade senior secured notes and $27.3 billion of high-yield senior unsecured notes. Our split credit rating allows us to access both the investment grade debt and the high yield debt markets. Additionally, our bankruptcy remote special purpose vehicle is the borrower of a senior secured revolving credit facility to finance the purchase of equipment installment plan receivables with a number of financial institutions (the “EIP Financing Facility”). As of December 31, 2025, the carrying value of the EIP Financing Facility was $1.4 billion. For more information on the EIP Financing Facility, see Note 10 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Our projected cash needs and projected sources of liquidity depend upon, among other things, our actual results, and the timing and amount of our expenditures. Free cash flow was $5.0 billion and $4.3 billion for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. See table below for factors impacting free cash flow during the year ended December 31, 2025 compared to 2024. As of December 31, 2025, the amount available under our credit facilities was approximately $4.4 billion and cash on hand was approximately $477 million. We expect to utilize free cash flow, cash on hand and availability under our credit facilities as well as future refinancing transactions to further extend the maturities of our obligations. The timing and terms of any refinancing transactions will be subject to market conditions among other considerations. Additionally, we may, from time to time, and depending on market conditions and other factors, use cash on hand and the proceeds from securities offerings or other borrowings to retire our debt through open market purchases, privately negotiated purchases, tender offers or redemption provisions. We believe we have sufficient liquidity from cash on hand, free cash flow and Charter Operating’s revolving credit facility as well as access to the capital markets to fund our projected cash needs.
We continue to evaluate the deployment of our cash on hand and anticipated future free cash flow, including investing in our business growth and other strategic opportunities, including expanding the capacity of our network, the expansion of our network through our rural broadband construction initiative, the build-out and deployment of our CBRS spectrum, and mergers and acquisitions as well as stock repurchases and dividends. Charter's leverage ratio of net debt to the last twelve months Adjusted EBITDA was 4.15 times as of December 31, 2025. Charter plans to maintain a leverage ratio, pro forma for the closing of the Liberty Broadband Combination near the midpoint of its stated range of 4.0 to 4.5 times Adjusted EBITDA in the period leading up to the Closing, and up to 3.5 times Adjusted EBITDA at the Charter Operating first lien level. Charter plans to adjust its long-term target leverage range after the Closing to 3.5 to 3.75 times Adjusted EBITDA. As Adjusted EBITDA grows, we expect to increase the total amount of our indebtedness to maintain leverage within Charter's target leverage range.
Excluding purchases from Liberty Broadband discussed below, during the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, Charter purchased in the public market approximately 12.3 million and 2.7 million shares, respectively, of Charter Class A common stock for approximately $3.8 billion and $822 million, respectively. Since the beginning of its buyback program in September 2016 through the year ended December 31, 2025, Charter has purchased in the public market approximately 179.7 million shares of Class A common stock and Charter Holdings common units for approximately $78.8 billion, including purchases from Liberty Broadband and A/N discussed below.
On November 12, 2024, Charter and Liberty Broadband entered into the Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment. The Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment sets forth, among other things, the terms of Liberty Broadband’s participation in Charter’s share repurchases during the period between the execution of the Merger Agreement and the effective time of the Merger. Pursuant to the Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment, each month during the pendency of the proposed transaction, Charter will repurchase shares of Charter Class A common stock from Liberty Broadband in an amount equal to the greater of (i) $100 million and (ii) the Liberty Broadband minimum liquidity threshold as set forth in the Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment, provided that if any repurchase would reduce Liberty Broadband’s equity interest in Charter below 25.25% after giving effect to such repurchase or if all or a portion of such repurchase is not permitted under applicable law, then Charter shall instead loan to Liberty Broadband an amount equal to the lesser of (x) the repurchase amount that cannot be repurchased and (y) the Liberty Broadband minimum liquidity threshold as set forth in the Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment less the repurchase amount that is repurchased, with such loan on the terms set forth in the Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment. From and after the date Liberty Broadband’s exchangeable debentures are no longer outstanding, the amount of monthly repurchases will be the lesser of (i) $100 million and (ii) an amount equal to the sum of (x) the amount needed, in the reasonable judgment of Charter, to maintain an unrestricted cash balance of Liberty Broadband and its subsidiaries (other than GCI Holdings, LLC, GCI Spinco (as defined in the Merger Agreement) and their respective
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subsidiaries) of $50 million plus (y) the aggregate outstanding principal amount of the Liberty Broadband margin loan. The purchase price payable by Charter to Liberty Broadband in connection with such monthly repurchases will equal (i) the average price paid by Charter for shares of Charter Class A common stock repurchased during the immediately preceding calendar month (excluding shares repurchased from A/N and certain other excluded repurchases) or (ii) if Charter has not engaged in any repurchases of shares of Charter Class A common stock during the immediately preceding calendar month (other than any repurchases from A/N and certain other excluded repurchases), a purchase price based on a Bloomberg volume-weighted average price methodology proposed by Charter and reasonably acceptable to Liberty Broadband. Liberty Broadband will apply the proceeds from any such repurchases or borrowings from Charter to repay certain of its outstanding indebtedness in accordance with the Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment. The Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment provides that Liberty Broadband will be exempt from the standstill restrictions and the ownership cap under the Existing Stockholders Agreement to the extent its ownership in Charter exceeds such ownership cap solely as a result of the repurchase provisions in the Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment. During the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, Charter purchased from Liberty Broadband 3.8 million and 1.0 million shares of Charter Class A common stock for approximately $1.2 billion and $335 million, respectively.
In December 2016, Charter and A/N entered into a letter agreement, as amended in December 2017 (the “Existing A/N Letter Agreement”), that requires A/N to sell to Charter or to Charter Holdings, on a monthly basis, a number of shares of Charter Class A common stock or Charter Holdings common units that represents a pro rata participation by A/N and its affiliates in any repurchases of shares of Charter Class A common stock from persons other than A/N effected by Charter during the immediately preceding calendar month, at a purchase price equal to the average price paid by Charter for the shares repurchased from persons other than A/N during such immediately preceding calendar month. In connection with the Cox Transactions, Charter, Charter Holdings and A/N entered into an amendment to the Existing A/N Repurchase Letter, dated as of May 16, 2025 (the “A/N Repurchase Letter Amendment”) which sets forth, among other things, the updated terms of A/N’s participation in Charter’s share repurchases going forward. The right to participate pro rata in repurchases on the terms and conditions set forth in the A/N Repurchase Letter Amendment is effective only from the earlier of the Closing and, in the event the Transaction Agreement is terminated in accordance with its terms, the date of such termination (such earlier date, the “Trigger Date”). Prior to the Trigger Date, the Existing A/N Letter Agreement will remain in full force and continue to govern A/N’s participation in Charter’s share repurchases, except for certain specific amendments set forth in the A/N Repurchase Letter Amendment which became effective upon execution of the A/N Repurchase Letter Amendment, including, in certain circumstances, where A/N elects not to participate in redemptions by Charter Holdings because such participation would cause A/N’s equity interest in Charter to be less than 11% prior to the Trigger Date, A/N may, subject to certain conditions, elect to receive a tax loan from Charter Holdings on the terms set forth in the A/N Repurchase Letter Amendment and in definitive documents in form and substance reasonably satisfactory to Charter and A/N. During the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, Charter Holdings purchased from A/N 1.0 million and 0.6 million Charter Holdings common units, respectively, for approximately $373 million and $189 million, respectively.
On August 4, 2025, Charter received a notice from A/N pursuant to the Existing Letter Agreement, whereby A/N notified Charter that A/N was suspending the standing share repurchase agreement between A/N and Charter (the “Suspension”). The Suspension took effect immediately after the first repurchase closing date under the Existing Letter Agreement to occur following the date of the notice. In the notice, A/N informed Charter that it intends for the Suspension to continue through the consummation of the closing of the Cox Transactions or the termination thereof, but reserved the right to end such Suspension before or after such time.
As of December 31, 2025, Charter had remaining board authority to purchase an additional $212 million of Charter’s Class A common stock and/or Charter Holdings common units, excluding purchases from Liberty Broadband. Although Charter expects to continue to buy back its common stock consistent with its leverage target range, Charter is not obligated to acquire any particular amount of common stock, and the timing of any purchases that may occur cannot be predicted and will largely depend on market conditions and other potential uses of capital. Purchases may include open market purchases, tender offers or negotiated transactions.
As possible acquisitions, swaps or dispositions arise, we actively review them against our objectives including, among other considerations, improving the operational efficiency, geographic clustering of assets, product development or technology capabilities of our business and achieving appropriate return targets, and we may participate to the extent we believe these possibilities present attractive opportunities. However, there can be no assurance that we will actually complete any acquisitions, including the Cox Transactions, dispositions or system swaps, or that any such transactions will be material to our operations or results.
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New Tax Legislation
On July 4, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (“OBBBA”) was enacted into law. The OBBBA contains numerous business tax provisions, including business extenders made permanent such as restoration of 100% bonus depreciation, IRC Section 174 expensing for US-based research, and the EBITDA-based business interest expense limitation under IRC Section 163(j). The OBBBA reduced cash paid for taxes during the year ended December 31, 2025.
Free Cash Flow
Free cash flow increased $747 million during the year ended December 31, 2025 compared to the corresponding prior period due to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2025 compared to 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Decrease in cash paid for taxes, net | $ | 669 |
| Changes in working capital, mobile devices | 398 | |
| Decrease in cash paid for interest, net | 347 | |
| Increase in Adjusted EBITDA | 139 | |
| Changes in working capital, excluding mobile devices | (455) | |
| Increase in capital expenditures | (390) | |
| Other, net | 39 | |
| $ | 747 |
Historical Operating, Investing, and Financing Activities
Cash and Cash Equivalents. We held $477 million and $459 million in cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. In addition, we held $121 million and $47 million in restricted cash included in prepaid and other current assets in our consolidated balance sheets as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively.
Operating Activities. Net cash provided by operating activities increased $1.6 billion during the year ended December 31, 2025 compared to the year ended December 31, 2024, primarily due to a decrease in cash paid for taxes and interest, increase in Adjusted EBITDA and the payment of litigation settlements in 2024.
Investing Activities. Net cash used in investing activities was $11.6 billion and $10.7 billion for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. The increase in cash used was primarily due to an increase in capital expenditures and changes in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures.
Financing Activities. Net cash used in financing activities increased $386 million during the year ended December 31, 2025 compared to the year ended December 31, 2024 primarily due to an increase in the purchase of treasury stock and noncontrolling interest and decrease in borrowings under the EIP Financing Facility, partly offset by an increase in the amount by which borrowings of long-term debt exceeded repayments.
Capital Expenditures
We have significant ongoing capital expenditure requirements. Capital expenditures were $11.7 billion and $11.3 billion for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. The increase was primarily driven by an increase in support capital, higher spend on network evolution and an increase in scalable infrastructure spend, partly offset by a decrease in line extensions. See the table below for more details.
We currently expect full year 2026 capital expenditures to total approximately $11.4 billion. The actual amount of capital expenditures in 2026 will depend on a number of factors including, but not limited to, the pace of our network evolution and expansion initiatives, supply chain timing and residential and business growth rates.
Our capital expenditures are funded primarily from cash flows from operating activities and borrowings on our credit facility. In addition, our accrued liabilities related to capital expenditures increased $586 million and $1.1 billion for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively.
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The following tables present our major capital expenditures categories in accordance with National Cable and Telecommunications Association (“NCTA”) disclosure guidelines for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024. These disclosure guidelines are not required disclosures under GAAP, nor do they impact our accounting for capital expenditures under GAAP (dollars in millions):
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | |||||
| Customer premise equipment (a) | $ | 2,260 | $ | 2,172 | ||
| Scalable infrastructure (b) | 1,536 | 1,422 | ||||
| Upgrade/rebuild (c) | 1,937 | 1,771 | ||||
| Support capital (d) | 1,986 | 1,688 | ||||
| Capital expenditures, excluding line extensions | 7,719 | 7,053 | ||||
| Subsidized rural construction line extensions | 2,202 | 2,144 | ||||
| Other line extensions | 1,738 | 2,072 | ||||
| Total line extensions (e) | 3,940 | 4,216 | ||||
| Total capital expenditures | $ | 11,659 | $ | 11,269 | ||
| Of which: | ||||||
| Commercial services | $ | 1,201 | $ | 1,437 | ||
| Subsidized rural construction initiative (f) | $ | 2,208 | $ | 2,152 | ||
| Mobile | $ | 267 | $ | 245 |
(a)Customer premise equipment includes equipment and devices located at the customer's premise used to deliver our Internet, video and voice services (e.g., modems, routers and set-top boxes), as well as installation costs.
(b)Scalable infrastructure includes costs, not related to customer premise equipment or our network, to secure growth of new customers or provide service enhancements (e.g., headend equipment).
(c)Upgrade/rebuild includes costs to modify or replace existing fiber/coaxial cable networks, including our network evolution initiative.
(d)Support capital includes costs associated with the replacement or enhancement of non-network assets (e.g., back-office systems, non-network equipment, land and buildings, vehicles, tools and test equipment).
(e)Line extensions include network costs associated with entering new service areas (e.g., fiber/coaxial cable, amplifiers, electronic equipment, make-ready and design engineering).
(f)The subsidized rural construction initiative subcategory includes projects for which we are receiving subsidies from federal, state and local governments, excluding customer premise equipment and installation.
Debt
As of December 31, 2025, the accreted value of our total debt was approximately $94.8 billion, as summarized below (dollars in millions):
| December 31, 2025 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Principal Amount | Accreted Value (a) | Interest Payment Dates | Maturity Date (b) | ||||||||
| CCO Holdings, LLC: | |||||||||||
| 5.500% senior notes due 2026 | $ | 750 | $ | 750 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2026 | |||||
| 5.125% senior notes due 2027 | 3,250 | 3,244 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2027 | |||||||
| 5.000% senior notes due 2028 | 2,500 | 2,491 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2028 | |||||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2029 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2029 | |||||||
| 6.375% senior notes due 2029 | 1,500 | 1,492 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 9/1/2029 | |||||||
| 4.750% senior notes due 2030 | 3,050 | 3,046 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2030 | |||||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2030 | 2,750 | 2,750 | 2/15 & 8/15 | 8/15/2030 | |||||||
| 4.250% senior notes due 2031 | 3,000 | 3,001 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2031 |
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| 7.375% senior notes due 2031 | 1,100 | 1,092 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2031 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.750% senior notes due 2032 | 1,200 | 1,192 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2032 | |||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2032 | 2,900 | 2,917 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2032 | |||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2033 | 1,750 | 1,735 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2033 | |||||
| 4.250% senior notes due 2034 | 2,000 | 1,987 | 1/15 & 7/15 | 1/15/2034 | |||||
| Charter Communications Operating, LLC: | |||||||||
| 3.750% senior notes due 2028 | 1,000 | 996 | 2/15 & 8/15 | 2/15/2028 | |||||
| 4.200% senior notes due 2028 | 1,250 | 1,247 | 3/15 & 9/15 | 3/15/2028 | |||||
| 2.250% senior notes due 2029 | 1,250 | 1,245 | 1/15 & 7/15 | 1/15/2029 | |||||
| 5.050% senior notes due 2029 | 1,250 | 1,246 | 3/30 & 9/30 | 3/30/2029 | |||||
| 6.100% senior notes due 2029 | 1,500 | 1,491 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2029 | |||||
| 2.800% senior notes due 2031 | 1,600 | 1,591 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2031 | |||||
| 2.300% senior notes due 2032 | 1,000 | 995 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2032 | |||||
| 4.400% senior notes due 2033 | 1,000 | 992 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2033 | |||||
| 6.650% senior notes due 2034 | 900 | 894 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2034 | |||||
| 6.550% senior notes due 2034 | 1,500 | 1,487 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2034 | |||||
| 6.384% senior notes due 2035 | 2,000 | 1,987 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2035 | |||||
| 5.850% senior notes due 2035 | 1,250 | 1,240 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 12/1/2035 | |||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2038 | 800 | 789 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2038 | |||||
| 3.500% senior notes due 2041 | 1,500 | 1,485 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2041 | |||||
| 3.500% senior notes due 2042 | 1,350 | 1,334 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2042 | |||||
| 6.484% senior notes due 2045 | 3,500 | 3,471 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2045 | |||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2047 | 2,500 | 2,505 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2047 | |||||
| 5.750% senior notes due 2048 | 2,450 | 2,397 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2048 | |||||
| 5.125% senior notes due 2049 | 1,250 | 1,241 | 1/1 & 7/1 | 7/1/2049 | |||||
| 4.800% senior notes due 2050 | 2,800 | 2,798 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2050 | |||||
| 3.700% senior notes due 2051 | 2,050 | 2,032 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2051 | |||||
| 3.900% senior notes due 2052 | 2,400 | 2,327 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2052 | |||||
| 5.250% senior notes due 2053 | 1,500 | 1,480 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2053 | |||||
| 6.834% senior notes due 2055 | 500 | 496 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2055 | |||||
| 6.700% senior notes due 2055 | 750 | 743 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 12/1/2055 | |||||
| 3.850% senior notes due 2061 | 1,850 | 1,812 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2061 | |||||
| 4.400% senior notes due 2061 | 1,400 | 1,389 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 12/1/2061 | |||||
| 3.950% senior notes due 2062 | 1,400 | 1,380 | 6/30 & 12/30 | 6/30/2062 | |||||
| 5.500% senior notes due 2063 | 1,000 | 986 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2063 | |||||
| Credit facilities | 11,949 | 11,901 | Varies | ||||||
| Time Warner Cable, LLC: | |||||||||
| 5.750% sterling senior notes due 2031 (c) | 842 | 874 | 6/2 | 6/2/2031 | |||||
| 6.550% senior debentures due 2037 | 1,500 | 1,632 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2037 | |||||
| 7.300% senior debentures due 2038 | 1,500 | 1,712 | 1/1 & 7/1 | 7/1/2038 | |||||
| 6.750% senior debentures due 2039 | 1,500 | 1,669 | 6/15 & 12/15 | 6/15/2039 | |||||
| 5.875% senior debentures due 2040 | 1,200 | 1,245 | 5/15 & 11/15 | 11/15/2040 | |||||
| 5.500% senior debentures due 2041 | 1,250 | 1,257 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 9/1/2041 | |||||
| 5.250% sterling senior notes due 2042 (d) | 876 | 850 | 7/15 | 7/15/2042 | |||||
| 4.500% senior debentures due 2042 | 1,250 | 1,160 | 3/15 & 9/15 | 9/15/2042 | |||||
| Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC: | |||||||||
| 8.375% senior debentures due 2033 | 1,000 | 1,183 | 1/15 & 7/15 | 7/15/2033 | |||||
| $ | 94,617 | $ | 94,756 |
(a)The accreted values presented in the table above represent the principal amount of the debt adjusted for original issue discount or premium at the time of sale, deferred financing costs, and, in regards to debt assumed in acquisitions, fair value premium adjustments as a result of applying acquisition accounting plus the accretion of those amounts to the balance sheet date. However, the amount that is currently payable if the debt becomes immediately due is equal to the principal amount of the debt. In regards to the Sterling Notes, the principal amount of the debt and any premium or discount is remeasured
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into US dollars as of each balance sheet date. We had availability under our credit facilities of approximately $4.4 billion as of December 31, 2025.
(b)In general, the obligors have the right to redeem all of the notes set forth in the above table in whole or in part at their option, beginning at various times prior to their stated maturity dates, subject to certain conditions, upon the payment of the outstanding principal amount (plus a specified redemption premium) and all accrued and unpaid interest.
(c)Principal amount includes £625 million valued at $842 million as of December 31, 2025 using the exchange rate as of December 31, 2025.
(d)Principal amount includes £650 million valued at $876 million as of December 31, 2025 using the exchange rate as of December 31, 2025.
In July 2025, Charter Operating and Charter Communications Operating Capital Corp. paid in full all of their outstanding 4.908% senior secured notes due 2025 at maturity.
In September 2025, Charter Operating and Charter Communications Operating Capital Corp. jointly issued $1.25 billion of 5.850% senior secured notes due December 2035 at a price of 99.932% of the aggregate principal amount and $750 million of 6.700% senior secured notes due December 2055 at a price of 99.832% of the aggregate principal amount. The net proceeds were used for general corporate purposes, including to repay certain indebtedness, including Charter Operating’s 6.150% senior secured notes due 2026, to fund potential buybacks of Charter Class A common stock and Charter Holdings common units, and to pay related fees and expenses.
In January 2026, CCO Holdings and CCO Holdings Capital Corp. jointly issued $1.75 billion aggregate principal amount of 7.000% senior notes due February 2033 at par and $1.25 billion aggregate principal amount of 7.375% senior notes due February 2036 at par. The net proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, including to repay certain indebtedness, including the call of $750 million of CCO Holdings 5.500% senior notes due 2026 and partial call of $2.25 billion of CCO Holdings 5.125% senior notes due 2027.
See Note 9 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for further details regarding our outstanding debt and other financing arrangements, including certain information about maturities, covenants and restrictions related to such debt and financing arrangements. The agreements and instruments governing our debt and financing arrangements are complicated and you should consult such agreements and instruments which are filed with the SEC for more detailed information. See also “Part I. Item 1A. Risk Factors — The agreements and instruments governing our debt contain restrictions and limitations that could significantly affect our ability to operate our business, as well as significantly affect our liquidity.”
Recently Issued Accounting Standards
See Note 22 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for a discussion of recently issued accounting standards.
MD&A history
Prior-year 10-K MD&A spans are extracted from SEC filings with the same bounded parser used for the latest filing. The latest 10-K appears above; prior years are below.
FY 2024 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0001091667-25-000034.
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Reference is made to “Part I. Item 1A. Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” which describe important factors that could cause actual results to differ from expectations and non-historical information contained herein. In addition, the following discussion should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes thereto of Charter included in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Overview
We are a leading broadband connectivity company and cable operator with services available to an estimated 57 million homes and businesses in 41 states through our Spectrum brand. Over an advanced communications network, we offer a full range of state-of-the-art residential and business services including Spectrum Internet, TV, Mobile and Voice. For small and medium-sized companies, Spectrum Business delivers the same suite of broadband products and services coupled with special features and applications to enhance productivity, while for larger businesses and government entities, Spectrum Enterprise provides highly customized, fiber-based solutions. Spectrum Reach delivers tailored advertising and production for the modern media landscape. We also distribute award-winning news coverage and sports programming to our customers through Spectrum Networks. See “Part I. Item 1. Business — Products and Services” for further description of these services, including customer statistics for different services.
During the year ended December 31, 2024, we lost 508,000 Internet customers while adding 2,117,000 mobile lines. Our Internet customer growth was challenged by the end of the FCC’s ACP, lower customer move rates and the competitive environment. While our retention programs for the customers impacted by the end of ACP subsidies have been successful in retaining the vast majority of ACP customers, the end of the ACP subsidy program has been disruptive to our business and resulted in customer losses during the year. In September, Spectrum launched a new brand platform, Life Unlimited, which emphasizes the power of Spectrum’s advanced network and cutting-edge connectivity products and services along with a new and simplified pricing and packaging strategy that better utilizes its seamless connectivity and entertainment products to offer lower promotional and persistent bundled pricing to drive growth. Additionally, Spectrum announced new customer commitments focused on reliable connectivity, transparency, exceptional service and a focus on always improving.
Our mobile line growth continued to benefit from our pricing and packaging strategy, including our Anytime Upgrade offering and Phone Balance Buyout program. Our Internet and mobile product bundles, including Spectrum One, provide a differentiated connectivity experience by bringing together Spectrum Internet, Advanced WiFi and Unlimited Spectrum Mobile to offer consumers fast, reliable and secure online connections on their favorite devices at home and on the go in high-value packages. Anytime Upgrade allows certain customers to upgrade their devices whenever they want, eliminating traditional wait times, upgrade fees and condition requirements. Our Phone Balance Buyout program makes switching mobile providers easier by helping customers pay off balances on ported lines.
We spent $2.2 billion on our subsidized rural construction initiative during the year ended December 31, 2024 and activated approximately 393,000 subsidized rural passings. We currently offer Spectrum Internet products with speeds up to 1 Gbps across our entire footprint. Our network evolution initiative is progressing. We are upgrading our network to deliver symmetrical and multi-gigabit speeds across our footprint and are now offering symmetrical speeds in all of our step 1 high split markets. In 2024, we began offering certain seamless entertainment applications including, among others, Max, Disney+, ESPN+, Paramount+, ViX Premium and Tennis Channel Plus to customers in certain packages and reached agreements with several other programmers that will add Discovery+, Peacock, AMC+ and BET+ in certain packages in 2025. We now have
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completed deals with every major programmer to deliver better flexibility and greater value to our customers by including seamless entertainment applications with our Spectrum TV services at no additional cost. We also continue to evolve our video product and are deploying Xumo stream boxes to new video customers. Xumo combines a live TV experience with access to hundreds of content applications, and features unified search and discovery, along with a curated content offering based on a customer’s interests and subscriptions. In September 2024, we launched our Life Unlimited brand platform which includes a new customer commitment that provides performance and service benchmarks and a new and simplified pricing structure designed to drive more value into our relationships.
By continually improving our product set and offering consumers the opportunity to save money by switching to our services, we believe we can continue to penetrate our expanding footprint and sell additional products to our existing customers. We see operational benefits from the targeted investments we made in employee wages and benefits to build employee skill sets and tenure, as well as the continued investments in digitization of our customer service platforms, all with the goal of improving the customer experience, reducing transactions and driving customer growth and retention.
We realized revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and income from operations during the periods presented as follows (in millions; all percentages are calculated using whole numbers; minor differences may exist due to rounding).
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Growth | ||||||||
| Revenues | $ | 55,085 | $ | 54,607 | 0.9 | % | ||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 22,569 | $ | 21,894 | 3.1 | % | ||||
| Income from operations | $ | 13,118 | $ | 12,559 | 4.5 | % |
Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income attributable to Charter shareholders plus net income attributable to noncontrolling interest, net interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock compensation expense, other income (expense), net and other operating (income) expenses, net, such as special charges and (gain) loss on sale or retirement of assets. See “—Use of Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow” for further information on Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.
Growth in total revenue was primarily due to mobile line growth and higher average revenue per customer, partly offset by lower customers. Adjusted EBITDA and income from operations growth was driven by growth in revenue and decreases in operating costs and expenses, primarily programming expense, partly offset by an increase in mobile device and other mobile direct costs.
Approximately 90% of our revenues for each of the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 are attributable to monthly subscription fees charged to customers for our Internet, video, mobile, voice and commercial services as well as regional sports and news channels. Generally, these customer subscriptions may be discontinued by the customer at any time subject to a fee for certain commercial customers. The remaining 10% of our revenue is derived primarily from advertising revenues, franchise and other regulatory fee revenues (which are collected by us but then paid to local authorities), sales of mobile and video devices, processing fees or reconnection fees charged to customers to commence or reinstate service, installation, VOD and pay-per-view programming, and commissions related to the sale of merchandise by home shopping services.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Certain of our accounting policies require our management to make difficult, subjective and/or complex judgments. Management has discussed these policies with the Audit Committee of Charter’s Board of Directors, and the Audit Committee has reviewed the following disclosure. We consider the following policies to be the most critical in understanding the estimates, assumptions and judgments that are involved in preparing our financial statements, and the uncertainties that could affect our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows:
•Capitalization of labor and overhead costs
•Income taxes
•Defined benefit pension plans
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Capitalization of labor and overhead costs
Costs associated with network construction or upgrades, placement of the customer drop to the dwelling and the placement of outlets within a dwelling along with the costs associated with the deployment of new customer premise equipment necessary to provide Internet, video or voice services, are capitalized. Costs capitalized include materials, direct labor and certain indirect costs. These indirect costs consist of compensation and overhead costs associated with support functions. While our capitalization is based on specific activities, once capitalized, we track these costs on a composite basis by fixed asset category at the cable system level, and not on a specific asset basis. For assets that are sold or retired, we remove the estimated applicable cost and accumulated depreciation. The costs of disconnecting service and removing customer premise equipment from a dwelling and the costs to reconnect a customer drop or to redeploy previously installed customer premise equipment are charged to operating expense as incurred. Costs for repairs and maintenance are charged to operating expense as incurred, while plant and equipment replacement, including replacement of certain components, betterments, and replacement of cable drops and outlets, are capitalized.
We make judgments regarding the installation and construction activities to be capitalized. We capitalized direct labor and overhead of $2.4 billion and $2.3 billion for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. We capitalize direct labor and overhead using standards developed from actual costs and applicable operational data. We calculate standards annually (or more frequently if circumstances dictate) for items such as the labor rates, overhead rates, and the actual amount of time required to perform a capitalizable activity. For example, the standard amounts of time required to perform capitalizable activities are based on studies of the time required to perform such activities. Overhead rates are established based on an analysis of the nature of costs incurred in support of capitalizable activities, and a determination of the portion of costs that is directly attributable to capitalizable activities. The impact of changes that resulted from these studies were not material in the periods presented.
Labor costs directly associated with capital projects are capitalized. Capitalizable activities performed in connection with installations include such activities as:
•dispatching a “truck roll” to the customer’s dwelling or business for service connection or placement of new equipment;
•costs to package and ship new equipment to a customer's home for self-installation;
•verification of serviceability to the customer’s dwelling or business (i.e., determining whether the customer’s dwelling is capable of receiving service by our cable network);
•customer premise activities performed by in-house field technicians and third-party contractors in connection with the installation, replacement and betterment of equipment and materials to enable Internet, video or voice services; and
•verifying the integrity of the customer’s network connection by initiating test signals downstream from the headend to the customer premise equipment, as well as testing signal levels at the utility pole or pedestal.
Judgment is required to determine the extent to which overhead costs incurred result from specific capital activities, and therefore should be capitalized. The primary costs that are included in the determination of the overhead rate are (i) employee benefits and payroll taxes associated with capitalized direct labor, (ii) direct variable costs associated with capitalizable activities, (iii) the cost of support personnel, such as care personnel and dispatchers, who assist with capitalizable installation activities, and (iv) indirect costs directly attributable to capitalizable activities.
While we believe our existing capitalization policies are appropriate, a significant change in the nature or extent of our operating practices could affect management’s judgment about the extent to which we should capitalize direct labor or overhead in the future. We monitor the appropriateness of our capitalization policies and perform updates to our internal studies on an ongoing basis to determine whether facts or circumstances warrant a change to our capitalization policies.
Income taxes
We recognize deferred tax assets and liabilities for temporary differences between the financial reporting basis and the tax basis of our assets and liabilities and expected benefits of utilizing loss carryforwards, including indefinite lived carryovers such as the Section 163(j) interest limitation. Valuation allowances are established when management determines that it is more likely than not that some portion or the entire deferred tax asset will not be realized. In evaluating the need for a valuation allowance, management takes into account various factors, including the expected level of future taxable income, available tax planning strategies and reversals of existing taxable temporary differences. The impact on deferred taxes of changes in tax rates and tax law, if any, applied to the years during which temporary differences are expected to be settled, are reflected in the consolidated financial statements in the period of enactment. In determining our tax provision for financial reporting purposes, we establish a
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reserve for uncertain tax positions unless such positions are determined to be “more likely than not” of being sustained upon examination, based on their technical merits. There is considerable judgment involved in making such a determination. We recognize interest and penalties accrued on uncertain income tax positions as part of the income tax provision. See Note 16 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for additional discussion.
Defined benefit pension plans
We sponsor qualified and unqualified defined benefit pension plans that provide pension benefits to a majority of employees who were employed by TWC before the merger with TWC. As of December 31, 2024, the accumulated benefit obligation and fair value of plan assets was $2.2 billion and $2.3 billion, respectively, and the net funded asset was recorded as a $125 million noncurrent asset, $3 million current liability and $15 million long-term liability. As of December 31, 2023, the accumulated benefit obligation and fair value of plan assets was $2.4 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively, and the net funded asset was recorded as a $149 million noncurrent asset, $3 million current liability and $19 million long-term liability. In June 2023, we purchased a buy-in group annuity contract from a highly rated insurer and in October 2023, we announced plans to fully terminate the qualified pension plan. The benefit obligation for the qualified pension plan is determined on a plan termination basis for which it is assumed that a portion of eligible active and deferred vested participants will elect lump sum payments.
Pension benefits are based on formulas that reflect the employees’ years of service and compensation during their employment period. Actuarial gains or losses are changes in the amount of either the benefit obligation or the fair value of plan assets resulting from experience different from that assumed or from changes in assumptions. We have elected to follow a mark-to-market pension accounting policy for recording the actuarial gains or losses annually during the fourth quarter, or earlier if a remeasurement event occurs during an interim period. We use a December 31 measurement date for our pension plans.
We recognized net periodic pension cost of $23 million and $216 million in 2024 and 2023, respectively. Net periodic pension benefit or cost is determined using certain assumptions, including the expected long-term rate of return on plan assets, discount rate and mortality assumptions. We determined the discount rate used to compute pension cost based on the yield of a large population of high-quality corporate bonds with cash flows sufficient in timing and amount to settle projected future defined benefit payments. In developing the expected long-term rate of return on assets, we considered the current pension portfolio’s composition, past average rate of earnings, and our asset allocation targets. We used a discount rate of 5.08% to determine the December 31, 2024 pension plan benefit obligation. A decrease in the discount rate of 25 basis points would result in a $68 million increase in our pension plan benefit obligation as of December 31, 2024 and net periodic pension cost recognized in 2024 under our mark-to-market accounting policy. The expected long-term rate of return on plan assets used to determine net periodic pension benefit for the year ended December 31, 2025 is expected to be 5.00%. A decrease in the expected long-term rate of return of 25 basis points to 4.75%, while holding all other assumptions constant, would result in an increase in our 2025 net periodic pension cost of approximately $6 million. See Note 20 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for additional discussion on these assumptions.
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Results of Operations
A discussion of changes in our results of operations during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022 has been omitted from this Annual Report on Form 10-K, but may be found in “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, filed with the SEC on February 2, 2024, which is available free of charge on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and on Charter's investor relations website at ir.charter.com.
The following table sets forth the consolidated statements of operations for the periods presented (dollars in millions, except per share data):
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | |||||
| Revenues | $ | 55,085 | $ | 54,607 | ||
| Costs and Expenses: | ||||||
| Operating costs and expenses (exclusive of items shown separately below) | 33,167 | 33,405 | ||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 8,673 | 8,696 | ||||
| Other operating (income) expense, net | 127 | (53) | ||||
| 41,967 | 42,048 | |||||
| Income from operations | 13,118 | 12,559 | ||||
| Other Income (Expense): | ||||||
| Interest expense, net | (5,229) | (5,188) | ||||
| Other expense, net | (387) | (517) | ||||
| (5,616) | (5,705) | |||||
| Income before income taxes | 7,502 | 6,854 | ||||
| Income tax expense | (1,649) | (1,593) | ||||
| Consolidated net income | 5,853 | 5,261 | ||||
| Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests | (770) | (704) | ||||
| Net income attributable to Charter shareholders | $ | 5,083 | $ | 4,557 | ||
| EARNINGS PER COMMON SHARE ATTRIBUTABLE TO CHARTER SHAREHOLDERS: | ||||||
| Basic | $ | 35.53 | $ | 30.54 | ||
| Diluted | $ | 34.97 | $ | 29.99 | ||
| Weighted average common shares outstanding, basic | 143,061,337 | 149,208,188 | ||||
| Weighted average common shares outstanding, diluted | 145,363,771 | 151,966,313 |
Revenues. Total revenues grew $478 million or 0.9% during the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to 2023 primarily due to growth in mobile lines, average revenue per customer and advertising sales, partly offset by lower customers.
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Revenues by service offering were as follows (dollars in millions; all percentages are calculated using whole numbers; minor differences may exist due to rounding):
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Growth | ||||||||
| Internet | $ | 23,360 | $ | 23,032 | 1.4 | % | ||||
| Video | 15,126 | 16,351 | (7.5) | % | ||||||
| Mobile service | 3,083 | 2,243 | 37.5 | % | ||||||
| Voice | 1,437 | 1,510 | (4.9) | % | ||||||
| Residential revenue | 43,006 | 43,136 | (0.3) | % | ||||||
| Small and medium business | 4,371 | 4,353 | 0.4 | % | ||||||
| Enterprise | 2,883 | 2,770 | 4.1 | % | ||||||
| Commercial revenue | 7,254 | 7,123 | 1.8 | % | ||||||
| Advertising sales | 1,780 | 1,551 | 14.8 | % | ||||||
| Other | 3,045 | 2,797 | 8.8 | % | ||||||
| $ | 55,085 | $ | 54,607 | 0.9 | % |
The increase in Internet revenues from our residential customers was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2024 compared to 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase related to rate and product mix changes | $ | 493 |
| Decrease in average residential Internet customers | (165) | |
| $ | 328 |
The increase related to rate and product mix was primarily due to promotional rate step-ups and rate adjustments, partly offset by retention offers extended to customers that previously received an ACP subsidy. Residential Internet customers decreased by 510,000 in 2024 compared to 2023.
Video revenues consist primarily of revenues from video services provided to our residential customers, as well as franchise fees, equipment service fees and video installation revenue. The decrease in video revenues was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2024 compared to 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Decrease in average residential video customers | $ | (1,418) |
| Increase related to rate and product mix changes | 193 | |
| $ | (1,225) |
Residential video customers decreased by 1,176,000 in 2024 compared to 2023. The increase related to rate and product mix was primarily due to promotional rate step-ups, video rate adjustments that pass-through programming rate increases and $63 million of customer credits related to the temporary loss of Disney programming in 2023, partly offset by a higher mix of lower priced video packages within our video customer base and costs required by accounting principles to be allocated to seamless entertainment applications and netted within video revenue.
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The increase in mobile service revenues from our residential customers is attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2024 compared to 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase in average residential mobile lines | $ | 758 |
| Increase related to rate | 82 | |
| $ | 840 |
Residential mobile lines increased by 2,049,000 in 2024 compared to 2023. The increase related to rate is primarily related to successful conversion of free lines to paying lines and success of our Unlimited Plus plan.
The decrease in voice revenues from our residential customers was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2024 compared to 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Decrease in average residential voice customers | $ | (219) |
| Increase related to rate adjustments | 146 | |
| $ | (73) |
Residential wireline voice customers decreased by 1,076,000 in 2024 compared to 2023.
The increase in SMB revenues is attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2024 compared to 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase related to rate and product mix changes | $ | 12 |
| Increase in average SMB customers | 6 | |
| $ | 18 |
SMB customers decreased by 7,000 in 2024 compared to 2023.
Enterprise revenues increased $113 million during the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the corresponding period in 2023 primarily due to an increase in Internet PSUs. Enterprise PSUs increased by 16,000 in 2024 compared to 2023.
Advertising sales revenues consist primarily of revenues from commercial advertising customers, programmers and other vendors, as well as local cable and advertising on regional sports and news channels. Advertising sales revenues increased $229 million during the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the corresponding period in 2023 primarily due to an increase in political ad revenue and advanced advertising partly offset by lower local and national ad revenue.
Other revenues consist of revenue from mobile and video device sales, processing fees, regional sports and news channels (excluding intercompany charges or advertising sales on those channels), subsidy revenue, home shopping, wire maintenance fees and other miscellaneous revenues. Other revenues increased approximately $248 million during the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the corresponding period in 2023 primarily due to higher mobile device sales.
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Operating costs and expenses. The decrease in our operating costs and expenses, exclusive of items shown separately in the consolidated statements of operations, was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2024 compared to 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Programming | $ | (985) |
| Other costs of revenue | 764 | |
| Field and technology operations | (30) | |
| Customer operations | (81) | |
| Sales and marketing | 61 | |
| Other | 33 | |
| $ | (238) |
Programming costs were approximately $9.7 billion and $10.6 billion for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, representing 29% and 32% of total operating costs and expenses, respectively. Programming costs consist primarily of costs paid to programmers for basic, premium, video on demand, and pay-per-view programming. Programming costs decreased as a result of fewer video customers and a higher mix of lower cost video packages within our video customer base as well as costs required by accounting principles to be allocated to seamless entertainment applications and netted within video revenue, partly offset by contractual rate adjustments, including renewals and increases in amounts paid for retransmission consent as well as a $61 million benefit related to the temporary loss of Disney programming during 2023.
Other costs of revenue increased $764 million during the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the corresponding period in 2023 primarily due to higher mobile service direct costs and mobile device sales due to an increase in mobile lines.
The increase in other expense was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2024 compared to 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Property tax and insurance | $ | 68 |
| Costs to sell and service bulk properties | 24 | |
| Stock compensation expense | (41) | |
| Advertising sales | (17) | |
| Other | (1) | |
| $ | 33 |
Property tax and insurance expense increased during the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the corresponding prior period primarily as a result of an adjustment in 2023 related to favorable development on prior year workers' compensation claims.
Depreciation and amortization. Depreciation and amortization expense decreased by $23 million during the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the corresponding period in 2023 primarily due to certain assets acquired in acquisitions becoming fully depreciated offset by an increase in depreciation as a result of more recent capital expenditures.
Other operating (income) expense, net. The change in other operating (income) expense, net was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2024 compared to 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Special charges, net | $ | (59) |
| (Gain) loss on disposal of assets, net | 239 | |
| $ | 180 |
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For more information, see Note 14 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Interest expense, net. Net interest expense increased by $41 million in 2024 from 2023 primarily due to an increase in weighted average interest rates, partly offset by a decrease in weighted average debt.
Other expense, net. The change in other expense, net is attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2024 compared to 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Net periodic pension benefit (cost) (see Note 20) | $ | 193 |
| Loss on equity investments, net (see Note 5) | 12 | |
| Gain (loss) on extinguishment of debt, net (see Note 8) | 4 | |
| Gain (loss) on financial instruments, net (see Note 12) | (79) | |
| $ | 130 |
See Note 14 and the Notes referenced above to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Item 1. Financial Statements” for more information.
Income tax expense. We recognized income tax expense of $1.6 billion for both the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023. For more information, see Note 16 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest. Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest for financial reporting purposes represents A/N’s portion of Charter Holdings’ net income based on its effective common unit ownership interest. For more information, see Note 11 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Net income attributable to Charter shareholders. Net income attributable to Charter shareholders was $5.1 billion and $4.6 billion for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively, primarily as a result of the factors described above.
Use of Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow
We use certain measures that are not defined by U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) to evaluate various aspects of our business. Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are non-GAAP financial measures and should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities reported in accordance with GAAP. These terms, as defined by us, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are reconciled to net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities, respectively, below.
Adjusted EBITDA eliminates the significant non-cash depreciation and amortization expense that results from the capital-intensive nature of our businesses as well as other non-cash or special items, and is unaffected by our capital structure or investment activities. However, this measure is limited in that it does not reflect the periodic costs of certain capitalized tangible and intangible assets used in generating revenues and our cash cost of financing. These costs are evaluated through other financial measures.
Free cash flow is defined as net cash flows from operating activities, less capital expenditures and changes in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures.
Management and Charter’s Board of Directors use Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow to assess our performance and our ability to service our debt, fund operations and make additional investments with internally generated funds. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA generally correlates to the leverage ratio calculation under our credit facilities or outstanding notes to determine compliance with the covenants contained in the facilities and notes (all such documents have been previously filed with the SEC). For the purpose of calculating compliance with leverage covenants, we use Adjusted EBITDA, as presented, excluding certain expenses paid by our operating subsidiaries to other Charter entities. Our debt covenants refer to these expenses as management fees, which fees were in the amount of $1.5 billion and $1.4 billion for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.
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A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow to net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities, respectively, is as follows (dollars in millions):
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | |||||
| Net income attributable to Charter shareholders | $ | 5,083 | $ | 4,557 | ||
| Plus: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest | 770 | 704 | ||||
| Interest expense, net | 5,229 | 5,188 | ||||
| Income tax expense | 1,649 | 1,593 | ||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 8,673 | 8,696 | ||||
| Stock compensation expense | 651 | 692 | ||||
| Other, net | 514 | 464 | ||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 22,569 | $ | 21,894 | ||
| Net cash flows from operating activities | $ | 14,430 | $ | 14,433 | ||
| Less: Purchases of property, plant and equipment | (11,269) | (11,115) | ||||
| Change in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures | 1,096 | 172 | ||||
| Free cash flow | $ | 4,257 | $ | 3,490 |
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Overview
We have significant amounts of debt and require significant cash to fund principal and interest payments on our debt. The principal amount of our debt as of December 31, 2024 was $93.8 billion, consisting of $10.3 billion of credit facility debt, $56.2 billion of investment grade senior secured notes and $27.3 billion of high-yield senior unsecured notes. Our split credit rating allows us to access both the investment grade debt and the high yield debt markets. In June 2024, our bankruptcy remote special purpose vehicle entered into a senior secured revolving credit facility to finance the purchase of equipment installment plan receivables with a number of financial institutions (the “EIP Financing Facility”). As of December 31, 2024, the carrying value of the EIP Financing Facility was $1.1 billion. For more information on the EIP Financing Facility, see Note 9 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Our projected cash needs and projected sources of liquidity depend upon, among other things, our actual results, and the timing and amount of our expenditures. Free cash flow was $4.3 billion and $3.5 billion for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. See table below for factors impacting free cash flow during the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to 2023. As of December 31, 2024, the amount available under our credit facilities was approximately $6.3 billion and cash on hand was approximately $459 million. We expect to utilize free cash flow, cash on hand and availability under our credit facilities as well as future refinancing transactions to further extend the maturities of our obligations. The timing and terms of any refinancing transactions will be subject to market conditions among other considerations. Additionally, we may, from time to time, and depending on market conditions and other factors, use cash on hand and the proceeds from securities offerings or other borrowings to retire our debt through open market purchases, privately negotiated purchases, tender offers or redemption provisions. We believe we have sufficient liquidity from cash on hand, free cash flow and Charter Operating’s revolving credit facility as well as access to the capital markets to fund our projected cash needs.
We continue to evaluate the deployment of our cash on hand and anticipated future free cash flow, including investing in our business growth and other strategic opportunities, including expanding the capacity of our network, the expansion of our network through our rural broadband construction initiative, the build-out and deployment of our CBRS spectrum, and mergers and acquisitions as well as stock repurchases and dividends. Charter's target leverage of net debt to the last twelve months Adjusted EBITDA remains at 4 to 4.5 times Adjusted EBITDA, and up to 3.5 times Adjusted EBITDA at the Charter Operating first lien level. Charter's leverage ratio was 4.13 times Adjusted EBITDA as of December 31, 2024. As Adjusted EBITDA grows, we expect to increase the total amount of our indebtedness to maintain leverage within Charter's target leverage range. Excluding purchases from Liberty Broadband discussed below, during the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, Charter purchased in the public market approximately 2.7 million and 6.9 million shares, respectively, of Charter Class A common stock for approximately $822 million and $2.7 billion, respectively. Since the beginning of its buyback program in September 2016 through the year ended December 31, 2024, Charter has purchased in the public market approximately 162.6 million
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shares of Class A common stock and Charter Holdings common units for approximately $73.4 billion, including purchases from Liberty Broadband and A/N discussed below.
In February 2021, Charter and Liberty Broadband entered into a letter agreement (the “Existing LBB Letter Agreement”), as amended by the Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment. The Existing LBB Letter Agreement implemented Liberty Broadband’s obligations under the Existing Stockholders Agreement to participate in share repurchases by Charter. Under the Existing LBB Letter Agreement, Liberty Broadband sold to Charter, generally on a monthly basis, a number of shares of Charter Class A common stock representing an amount sufficient for Liberty Broadband’s ownership of Charter to be reduced such that it did not exceed the ownership cap then applicable to Liberty Broadband under the Existing Stockholders Agreement at a purchase price per share equal to the volume weighted average price per share paid by Charter for shares repurchased during such immediately preceding calendar month other than (i) purchases from A/N, (ii) purchases in privately negotiated transactions or (iii) purchases for the withholding of shares of Charter Class A common stock pursuant to equity compensation programs of Charter. The Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment sets forth, among other things, the terms of Liberty Broadband’s participation in Charter’s share repurchases during the period between the execution of the merger agreement and the effective time of the merger agreement. Pursuant to the Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment, each month during the pendency of the proposed transaction, Charter will repurchase shares of Charter Class A common stock from Liberty Broadband in an amount equal to the greater of (i) $100 million and (ii) the Liberty Broadband minimum liquidity threshold as set forth in the Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment, provided that if any repurchase would reduce Liberty Broadband’s equity interest in Charter below 25.25% after giving effect to such repurchase or if all or a portion of such repurchase is not permitted under applicable law, then Charter shall instead loan to Liberty Broadband an amount equal to the lesser of (x) the repurchase amount that cannot be repurchased and (y) the Liberty Broadband minimum liquidity threshold as set forth in the Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment less the repurchase amount that is repurchased, with such loan on the terms set forth in the Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment. From and after the date Liberty Broadband’s exchangeable debentures are no longer outstanding, the amount of monthly repurchases will be the lesser of (i) $100 million and (ii) an amount equal to the sum of (x) the amount needed, in the reasonable judgment of Charter, to maintain an unrestricted cash balance of Liberty Broadband and its subsidiaries (other than GCI, GCI Spinco and their respective subsidiaries) of $50 million plus (y) the aggregate outstanding principal amount of the Liberty Broadband margin loan. The purchase price payable by Charter to Liberty Broadband in connection with such monthly repurchases will equal (i) the average price paid by Charter for shares of Charter Class A common stock repurchased during the immediately preceding calendar month (excluding shares repurchased from A/N and certain other excluded repurchases) or (ii) if Charter has not engaged in any repurchases of shares of Charter Class A common stock during the immediately preceding calendar month (other than any repurchases from A/N and certain other excluded repurchases), a purchase price based on a Bloomberg volume-weighted average price methodology proposed by Charter and reasonably acceptable to Liberty Broadband. Liberty Broadband will apply the proceeds from any such repurchases or borrowings from Charter to repay certain of its outstanding indebtedness in accordance with the Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment. The Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment provides that Liberty Broadband will be exempt from the standstill restrictions and the ownership cap under the Existing Stockholders Agreement to the extent its ownership in Charter exceeds such ownership cap solely as a result of the repurchase provisions in the Stockholders and Letter Agreement Amendment. Charter purchased from Liberty Broadband 1.0 million shares of Charter Class A common stock during each of the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 for approximately $335 million and $394 million, respectively.
In December 2016, Charter and A/N entered into a letter agreement, as amended in December 2017 (the “A/N Letter Agreement”), that requires A/N to sell to Charter or to Charter Holdings, on a monthly basis, a number of shares of Charter Class A common stock or Charter Holdings common units that represents a pro rata participation by A/N and its affiliates in any repurchases of shares of Charter Class A common stock from persons other than A/N effected by Charter during the immediately preceding calendar month, at a purchase price equal to the average price paid by Charter for the shares repurchased from persons other than A/N during such immediately preceding calendar month. A/N and Charter both have the right to terminate or suspend the pro rata repurchase arrangement on a prospective basis. During the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, Charter Holdings purchased from A/N 0.6 million and 1.1 million Charter Holdings common units, respectively, for approximately $189 million and $427 million, respectively.
As of December 31, 2024, Charter had remaining board authority to purchase an additional $961 million of Charter’s Class A common stock and/or Charter Holdings common units, excluding purchases from Liberty Broadband. Although Charter expects to continue to buy back its common stock consistent with its leverage target range, Charter is not obligated to acquire any particular amount of common stock, and the timing of any purchases that may occur cannot be predicted and will largely depend on market conditions and other potential uses of capital. Purchases may include open market purchases, tender offers or negotiated transactions.
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As possible acquisitions, swaps or dispositions arise, we actively review them against our objectives including, among other considerations, improving the operational efficiency, geographic clustering of assets, product development or technology capabilities of our business and achieving appropriate return targets, and we may participate to the extent we believe these possibilities present attractive opportunities. However, there can be no assurance that we will actually complete any acquisitions, dispositions or system swaps, or that any such transactions will be material to our operations or results.
Free Cash Flow
Free cash flow increased $767 million during the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the corresponding prior period due to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2024 compared to 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Changes in working capital, excluding mobile devices | $ | 1,156 |
| Increase in Adjusted EBITDA | 675 | |
| Increase in cash paid for interest, net | (311) | |
| Increase in capital expenditures | (154) | |
| Changes in working capital, mobile devices | (144) | |
| Increase in cash paid for taxes, net | (138) | |
| Other, net | (317) | |
| $ | 767 |
Other, net primarily includes the payment of a litigation settlement during the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the corresponding period in 2023.
Historical Operating, Investing, and Financing Activities
Cash and Cash Equivalents. We held $459 million and $709 million in cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. In addition, we held $47 million in restricted cash included in prepaid and other current assets in our consolidated balance sheets as of December 31, 2024.
Operating Activities. Net cash provided by operating activities decreased $3 million during the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023, primarily due to an increase in cash paid for interest and taxes and the payment of litigation settlements in 2024, partly offset by an increase in Adjusted EBITDA.
Investing Activities. Net cash used in investing activities was $10.7 billion and $11.1 billion for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The decrease in cash used was primarily due to changes in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures as a result of extended vendor payment terms in connection with our implementation of a supply chain financing program.
Financing Activities. Net cash used in financing activities increased $737 million during the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023 primarily due to an increase in the amount by which repayments of long-term debt exceeded borrowings, partly offset by a decrease in the purchase of treasury stock and noncontrolling interest and borrowings under the EIP Financing Facility.
Capital Expenditures
We have significant ongoing capital expenditure requirements. Capital expenditures were $11.3 billion and $11.1 billion for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The increase was primarily driven by an increase in line extensions in connection with our subsidized rural construction initiative, partly offset by a decrease in customer premise equipment. See the table below for more details.
We currently expect full year 2025 capital expenditures to total approximately $12 billion, including line extensions of approximately $4.2 billion and network evolution spend of approximately $1.5 billion. The actual amount of capital expenditures in 2025 will depend on a number of factors including, but not limited to, the pace of our network evolution and expansion initiatives, supply chain timing and growth rates in our residential and commercial businesses.
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Our capital expenditures are funded primarily from cash flows from operating activities and borrowings on our credit facility. In addition, our accrued liabilities related to capital expenditures increased $1.1 billion and $172 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.
The following tables present our major capital expenditures categories in accordance with National Cable and Telecommunications Association (“NCTA”) disclosure guidelines for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023. These disclosure guidelines are not required disclosures under GAAP, nor do they impact our accounting for capital expenditures under GAAP (dollars in millions):
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | |||||
| Customer premise equipment (a) | $ | 2,172 | $ | 2,286 | ||
| Scalable infrastructure (b) | 1,422 | 1,368 | ||||
| Upgrade/rebuild (c) | 1,771 | 1,719 | ||||
| Support capital (d) | 1,688 | 1,727 | ||||
| Capital expenditures, excluding line extensions | 7,053 | 7,100 | ||||
| Subsidized rural construction line extensions | 2,144 | 1,822 | ||||
| Other line extensions | 2,072 | 2,193 | ||||
| Total line extensions (e) | 4,216 | 4,015 | ||||
| Total capital expenditures | $ | 11,269 | $ | 11,115 | ||
| Of which: | ||||||
| Commercial services | $ | 1,437 | $ | 1,560 | ||
| Subsidized rural construction initiative (f) | $ | 2,152 | $ | 1,870 | ||
| Mobile | $ | 245 | $ | 314 |
(a)Customer premise equipment includes equipment and devices located at the customer's premise used to deliver our Internet, video and voice services (e.g., modems, routers and set-top boxes), as well as installation costs.
(b)Scalable infrastructure includes costs, not related to customer premise equipment or our network, to secure growth of new customers or provide service enhancements (e.g., headend equipment).
(c)Upgrade/rebuild includes costs to modify or replace existing fiber/coaxial cable networks, including our network evolution initiative.
(d)Support capital includes costs associated with the replacement or enhancement of non-network assets (e.g., back-office systems, non-network equipment, land and buildings, vehicles, tools and test equipment).
(e)Line extensions include network costs associated with entering new service areas (e.g., fiber/coaxial cable, amplifiers, electronic equipment, make-ready and design engineering).
(f)The subsidized rural construction initiative subcategory includes projects for which we are receiving subsidies from federal, state and local governments, excluding customer premise equipment and installation.
Debt
As of December 31, 2024, the accreted value of our total debt was approximately $93.9 billion, as summarized below (dollars in millions):
| December 31, 2024 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Principal Amount | Accreted Value (a) | Interest Payment Dates | Maturity Date (b) | ||||||||
| CCO Holdings, LLC: | |||||||||||
| 5.500% senior notes due 2026 | $ | 750 | $ | 749 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2026 | |||||
| 5.125% senior notes due 2027 | 3,250 | 3,240 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2027 | |||||||
| 5.000% senior notes due 2028 | 2,500 | 2,487 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2028 | |||||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2029 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2029 |
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| 6.375% senior notes due 2029 | 1,500 | 1,490 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 9/1/2029 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.750% senior notes due 2030 | 3,050 | 3,045 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2030 | |||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2030 | 2,750 | 2,750 | 2/15 & 8/15 | 8/15/2030 | |||||
| 4.250% senior notes due 2031 | 3,000 | 3,001 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2031 | |||||
| 7.375% senior notes due 2031 | 1,100 | 1,091 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2031 | |||||
| 4.750% senior notes due 2032 | 1,200 | 1,191 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2032 | |||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2032 | 2,900 | 2,920 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2032 | |||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2033 | 1,750 | 1,733 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2033 | |||||
| 4.250% senior notes due 2034 | 2,000 | 1,985 | 1/15 & 7/15 | 1/15/2034 | |||||
| Charter Communications Operating, LLC: | |||||||||
| 4.908% senior notes due 2025 | 1,800 | 1,799 | 1/23 & 7/23 | 7/23/2025 | |||||
| 6.150% senior notes due 2026 | 1,100 | 1,094 | 5/10 & 11/10 | 11/10/2026 | |||||
| 3.750% senior notes due 2028 | 1,000 | 995 | 2/15 & 8/15 | 2/15/2028 | |||||
| 4.200% senior notes due 2028 | 1,250 | 1,246 | 3/15 & 9/15 | 3/15/2028 | |||||
| 2.250% senior notes due 2029 | 1,250 | 1,244 | 1/15 & 7/15 | 1/15/2029 | |||||
| 5.050% senior notes due 2029 | 1,250 | 1,245 | 3/30 & 9/30 | 3/30/2029 | |||||
| 6.100% senior notes due 2029 | 1,500 | 1,489 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2029 | |||||
| 2.800% senior notes due 2031 | 1,600 | 1,589 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2031 | |||||
| 2.300% senior notes due 2032 | 1,000 | 994 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2032 | |||||
| 4.400% senior notes due 2033 | 1,000 | 991 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2033 | |||||
| 6.650% senior notes due 2034 | 900 | 893 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2034 | |||||
| 6.550% senior notes due 2034 | 1,500 | 1,486 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2034 | |||||
| 6.384% senior notes due 2035 | 2,000 | 1,986 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2035 | |||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2038 | 800 | 788 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2038 | |||||
| 3.500% senior notes due 2041 | 1,500 | 1,485 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2041 | |||||
| 3.500% senior notes due 2042 | 1,350 | 1,333 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2042 | |||||
| 6.484% senior notes due 2045 | 3,500 | 3,470 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2045 | |||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2047 | 2,500 | 2,506 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2047 | |||||
| 5.750% senior notes due 2048 | 2,450 | 2,396 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2048 | |||||
| 5.125% senior notes due 2049 | 1,250 | 1,241 | 1/1 & 7/1 | 7/1/2049 | |||||
| 4.800% senior notes due 2050 | 2,800 | 2,797 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2050 | |||||
| 3.700% senior notes due 2051 | 2,050 | 2,032 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2051 | |||||
| 3.900% senior notes due 2052 | 2,400 | 2,326 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2052 | |||||
| 5.250% senior notes due 2053 | 1,500 | 1,480 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2053 | |||||
| 6.834% senior notes due 2055 | 500 | 495 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2055 | |||||
| 3.850% senior notes due 2061 | 1,850 | 1,811 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2061 | |||||
| 4.400% senior notes due 2061 | 1,400 | 1,389 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 12/1/2061 | |||||
| 3.950% senior notes due 2062 | 1,400 | 1,380 | 6/30 & 12/30 | 6/30/2062 | |||||
| 5.500% senior notes due 2063 | 1,000 | 986 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2063 | |||||
| Credit facilities | 10,334 | 10,276 | Varies | ||||||
| Time Warner Cable, LLC: | |||||||||
| 5.750% sterling senior notes due 2031 (c) | 782 | 816 | 6/2 | 6/2/2031 | |||||
| 6.550% senior debentures due 2037 | 1,500 | 1,640 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2037 | |||||
| 7.300% senior debentures due 2038 | 1,500 | 1,724 | 1/1 & 7/1 | 7/1/2038 | |||||
| 6.750% senior debentures due 2039 | 1,500 | 1,677 | 6/15 & 12/15 | 6/15/2039 | |||||
| 5.875% senior debentures due 2040 | 1,200 | 1,247 | 5/15 & 11/15 | 11/15/2040 | |||||
| 5.500% senior debentures due 2041 | 1,250 | 1,257 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 9/1/2041 | |||||
| 5.250% sterling senior notes due 2042 (d) | 813 | 789 | 7/15 | 7/15/2042 | |||||
| 4.500% senior debentures due 2042 | 1,250 | 1,157 | 3/15 & 9/15 | 9/15/2042 | |||||
| Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC: | |||||||||
| 8.375% senior debentures due 2033 | 1,000 | 1,202 | 1/15 & 7/15 | 7/15/2033 | |||||
| $ | 93,779 | $ | 93,933 |
(a)The accreted values presented in the table above represent the principal amount of the debt adjusted for original issue discount or premium at the time of sale, deferred financing costs, and, in regards to debt assumed in acquisitions, fair value
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premium adjustments as a result of applying acquisition accounting plus the accretion of those amounts to the balance sheet date. However, the amount that is currently payable if the debt becomes immediately due is equal to the principal amount of the debt. In regards to the Sterling Notes, the principal amount of the debt and any premium or discount is remeasured into US dollars as of each balance sheet date. We had availability under our credit facilities of approximately $6.3 billion as of December 31, 2024.
(b)In general, the obligors have the right to redeem all of the notes set forth in the above table in whole or in part at their option, beginning at various times prior to their stated maturity dates, subject to certain conditions, upon the payment of the outstanding principal amount (plus a specified redemption premium) and all accrued and unpaid interest.
(c)Principal amount includes £625 million valued at $782 million as of December 31, 2024 using the exchange rate as of December 31, 2024.
(d)Principal amount includes £650 million valued at $813 million as of December 31, 2024 using the exchange rate as of December 31, 2024.
In May 2024, Charter Operating and Charter Communications Operating Capital Corp. jointly issued $1.5 billion of 6.100% senior secured notes due June 2029 at a price of 99.944% of the aggregate principal amount and $1.5 billion of 6.550% senior secured notes due June 2034 at a price of 99.755% of the aggregate principal amount. The net proceeds were used to fund a concurrent tender offer to repurchase $2.7 billion in aggregate principal amount of Charter Operating's 4.908% senior secured notes due July 2025, to prepay Charter Operating's outstanding Term B-1 Loan and to pay related fees and expenses.
In December 2024, Charter Operating entered into an amendment to its credit agreement to (i) establish a new Revolving Loan C (including by converting a portion of the existing Revolving Loan B commitments to Revolving Loan C commitments), (ii) convert a portion of the Term A-5 Loan to Term A-7 Loan and repay any remaining Term A-5 Loan that was not converted to Term A-7 Loan, and (iii) convert or replace a portion of the Term B-2 Loan with a new tranche of Term B-5 Loan and repay any remaining Term B-2 Loan that was not converted to Term B-5 Loan, among other amendments. After giving effect to the amendment, (i) the aggregate principal amount of Revolving Loan B commitments is approximately $960 million, with pricing unchanged and maturing on August 31, 2027, (ii) the aggregate principal amount of Revolving Loan C commitments is $5.5 billion, with a pricing of SOFR plus 1.25% and maturing on March 15, 2030, (iii) the aggregate principal amount of Term A-7 Loan is approximately $4.5 billion, with a pricing of SOFR plus 1.25% and maturing on March 15, 2030, and (iv) the aggregate principal amount of Term B-5 Loan is approximately $2.5 billion, with a pricing of SOFR plus 2.25% and maturing on December 15, 2031.
See Note 8 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for further details regarding our outstanding debt and other financing arrangements, including certain information about maturities, covenants and restrictions related to such debt and financing arrangements. The agreements and instruments governing our debt and financing arrangements are complicated and you should consult such agreements and instruments which are filed with the SEC for more detailed information. See also “Part I. Item 1A. Risk Factors — The agreements and instruments governing our debt contain restrictions and limitations that could significantly affect our ability to operate our business, as well as significantly affect our liquidity.”
Recently Issued Accounting Standards
See Note 21 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for a discussion of recently issued accounting standards.
FY 2023 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0001091667-24-000028.
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Reference is made to “Part I. Item 1A. Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” which describe important factors that could cause actual results to differ from expectations and non-historical information contained herein. In addition, the following discussion should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes thereto of Charter included in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Overview
We are a leading broadband connectivity company and cable operator serving more than 32 million customers in 41 states through our Spectrum brand. Over an advanced communications network, we offer a full range of state-of-the-art residential and business services including Spectrum Internet, TV, Mobile and Voice. For small and medium-sized companies, Spectrum Business delivers the same suite of broadband products and services coupled with special features and applications to enhance productivity, while for larger businesses and government entities, Spectrum Enterprise provides highly customized, fiber-based solutions. Spectrum Reach delivers tailored advertising and production for the modern media landscape. We also distribute award-winning news coverage and sports programming to our customers through Spectrum Networks. See “Part I. Item 1. Business — Products and Services” for further description of these services, including customer statistics for different services.
During the year ended December 31, 2023, we added 2,474,000 mobile lines and 155,000 Internet customers. We spent $1.9 billion on our subsidized rural construction initiative during the year ended December 31, 2023 and activated approximately 295,000 subsidized rural passings. Our mobile line and Internet customer additions were supported by our Spectrum One offering, which brings together Spectrum Internet, Advanced WiFi and Unlimited Spectrum Mobile to offer consumers fast, reliable and secure online connections on their favorite devices at home and on-the-go in a high-value package, and were further supported by growth in our legacy and new subsidized rural markets.
We continue to upgrade our network to provide higher Internet speeds and reliability and invest in our products and customer service platforms. We currently offer Spectrum Internet products with speeds up to 1 Gbps across our entire footprint and we are upgrading our network to provide multi-gigabit speeds. Our Advanced WiFi, a managed WiFi service that provides customers an optimized home network and greater control over connected devices with enhanced security and privacy, is available to all of our Internet customers. We continue to invest in our ability to provide a differentiated Internet connectivity experience for our mobile and fixed Internet customers with increasing availability of out-of-home WiFi access points across our footprint. In addition, we continue to work towards the construction of our own 5G mobile data-only network in targeted areas of our footprint leveraging our CBRS Priority Access Licenses.
We also continue to develop our video product. In September 2023, we entered into a new affiliation agreement with The Walt Disney Company ("Disney"), which provides a template for a new programming affiliation approach where we partner with content providers to provide access to both linear and app-based DTC content. In October 2023, we began deploying Xumo to new video customers. Xumo combines a live TV experience with access to hundreds of content applications, and features unified search and discovery along with a curated content offering based on the customer's interests and subscriptions. By continually improving our product set and offering consumers the opportunity to save money by switching to our services, we believe we can continue to penetrate our expanding footprint and sell additional products to our existing customers. We are also beginning to see operational benefits from the targeted investments we are making in employee wages and benefits to build employee skill sets and tenure, as well as the continued investments in digitization of our customer service platforms and
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proactive maintenance, all with the goal of improving the customer experience, reducing transactions and driving customer growth and retention.
We realized revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and income from operations during the periods presented as follows (in millions; all percentages are calculated using whole numbers; minor differences may exist due to rounding).
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Growth | ||||||||
| Revenues | $ | 54,607 | $ | 54,022 | 1.1 | % | ||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 21,894 | $ | 21,616 | 1.3 | % | ||||
| Income from operations | $ | 12,559 | $ | 11,962 | 5.0 | % |
Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income attributable to Charter shareholders plus net income attributable to noncontrolling interest, net interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock compensation expense, other income (expense), net and other operating (income) expenses, net, such as special charges and (gain) loss on sale or retirement of assets. See “—Use of Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow” for further information on Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.
Growth in total revenue was primarily due to growth in our residential Internet customers and residential mobile lines partly offset by lower residential video and advertising sales revenues. Adjusted EBITDA and income from operations growth was driven by growth in revenue and increases in operating costs and expenses, primarily mobile device and other mobile direct costs and costs to service customers, partly offset by a decrease in programming expense. Income from operations was also affected by a gain on the sale of towers and lower depreciation and amortization expense, partly offset by an increase in stock compensation expense.
Approximately 90% of our revenues for each of the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 are attributable to monthly subscription fees charged to customers for our Internet, video, voice, mobile and commercial services as well as regional sports and news channels. Generally, these customer subscriptions may be discontinued by the customer at any time subject to a fee for certain commercial customers. The remaining 10% of our revenue is derived primarily from advertising revenues, franchise and other regulatory fee revenues (which are collected by us but then paid to local authorities), sales of mobile and video devices, processing fees or reconnection fees charged to customers to commence or reinstate service, installation, VOD and pay-per-view programming, and commissions related to the sale of merchandise by home shopping services.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Certain of our accounting policies require our management to make difficult, subjective and/or complex judgments. Management has discussed these policies with the Audit Committee of Charter’s Board of Directors, and the Audit Committee has reviewed the following disclosure. We consider the following policies to be the most critical in understanding the estimates, assumptions and judgments that are involved in preparing our financial statements, and the uncertainties that could affect our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows:
•Capitalization of labor and overhead costs
•Income taxes
•Defined benefit pension plans
Capitalization of labor and overhead costs
Costs associated with network construction or upgrades, placement of the customer drop to the dwelling and the placement of outlets within a dwelling along with the costs associated with the deployment of new customer premise equipment necessary to provide Internet, video or voice services, are capitalized. Costs capitalized include materials, direct labor and certain indirect costs. These indirect costs consist of compensation and overhead costs associated with support functions. While our capitalization is based on specific activities, once capitalized, we track these costs on a composite basis by fixed asset category at the cable system level, and not on a specific asset basis. For assets that are sold or retired, we remove the estimated applicable cost and accumulated depreciation. The costs of disconnecting service and removing customer premise equipment from a dwelling and the costs to reconnect a customer drop or to redeploy previously installed customer premise equipment are charged to operating expense as incurred. Costs for repairs and maintenance are charged to operating expense as incurred,
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while plant and equipment replacement, including replacement of certain components, betterments, and replacement of cable drops and outlets, are capitalized.
We make judgments regarding the installation and construction activities to be capitalized. We capitalized direct labor and overhead of $2.3 billion and $1.8 billion for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. We capitalize direct labor and overhead using standards developed from actual costs and applicable operational data. We calculate standards annually (or more frequently if circumstances dictate) for items such as the labor rates, overhead rates, and the actual amount of time required to perform a capitalizable activity. For example, the standard amounts of time required to perform capitalizable activities are based on studies of the time required to perform such activities. Overhead rates are established based on an analysis of the nature of costs incurred in support of capitalizable activities, and a determination of the portion of costs that is directly attributable to capitalizable activities. The impact of changes that resulted from these studies were not material in the periods presented.
Labor costs directly associated with capital projects are capitalized. Capitalizable activities performed in connection with installations include such activities as:
•dispatching a “truck roll” to the customer’s dwelling or business for service connection or placement of new equipment;
•costs to package and ship new equipment to a customer's home for self-installation;
•verification of serviceability to the customer’s dwelling or business (i.e., determining whether the customer’s dwelling is capable of receiving service by our cable network);
•customer premise activities performed by in-house field technicians and third-party contractors in connection with the installation, replacement and betterment of equipment and materials to enable Internet, video or voice services; and
•verifying the integrity of the customer’s network connection by initiating test signals downstream from the headend to the customer premise equipment, as well as testing signal levels at the utility pole or pedestal.
Judgment is required to determine the extent to which overhead costs incurred result from specific capital activities, and therefore should be capitalized. The primary costs that are included in the determination of the overhead rate are (i) employee benefits and payroll taxes associated with capitalized direct labor, (ii) direct variable costs associated with capitalizable activities, (iii) the cost of support personnel, such as care personnel and dispatchers, who assist with capitalizable installation activities, and (iv) indirect costs directly attributable to capitalizable activities.
While we believe our existing capitalization policies are appropriate, a significant change in the nature or extent of our operating practices could affect management’s judgment about the extent to which we should capitalize direct labor or overhead in the future. We monitor the appropriateness of our capitalization policies, and perform updates to our internal studies on an ongoing basis to determine whether facts or circumstances warrant a change to our capitalization policies.
Income taxes
We recognize deferred tax assets and liabilities for temporary differences between the financial reporting basis and the tax basis of our assets and liabilities and expected benefits of utilizing loss carryforwards, including indefinite lived carryovers such as the Section 163(j) interest limitation. Valuation allowances are established when management determines that it is more likely than not that some portion or the entire deferred tax asset will not be realized. In evaluating the need for a valuation allowance, management takes into account various factors, including the expected level of future taxable income, available tax planning strategies and reversals of existing taxable temporary differences. The impact on deferred taxes of changes in tax rates and tax law, if any, applied to the years during which temporary differences are expected to be settled, are reflected in the consolidated financial statements in the period of enactment. In determining our tax provision for financial reporting purposes, we establish a reserve for uncertain tax positions unless such positions are determined to be “more likely than not” of being sustained upon examination, based on their technical merits. There is considerable judgment involved in making such a determination. We recognize interest and penalties accrued on uncertain income tax positions as part of the income tax provision.
Defined benefit pension plans
We sponsor qualified and unqualified defined benefit pension plans that provide pension benefits to a majority of employees who were employed by TWC before the merger with TWC. As of December 31, 2023, the accumulated benefit obligation and fair value of plan assets was $2.4 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively, and the net funded asset was recorded as a $149 million noncurrent asset, $3 million current liability and $19 million long-term liability. As of December 31, 2022, the accumulated benefit obligation and fair value of plan assets was $2.2 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively, and the net funded asset was
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recorded as a $362 million noncurrent asset, $5 million current liability and $17 million long-term liability. In June 2023, we purchased a buy-in group annuity contract from a highly rated insurer and in October 2023, we announced plans to fully terminate the qualified pension plan. The benefit obligation for the qualified pension plan as of December 31, 2023 of $2.4 billion was therefore determined on a plan termination basis for which it is assumed that a portion of eligible active and deferred vested participants will elect lump sum payments.
Pension benefits are based on formulas that reflect the employees’ years of service and compensation during their employment period. Actuarial gains or losses are changes in the amount of either the benefit obligation or the fair value of plan assets resulting from experience different from that assumed or from changes in assumptions. We have elected to follow a mark-to-market pension accounting policy for recording the actuarial gains or losses annually during the fourth quarter, or earlier if a remeasurement event occurs during an interim period. We use a December 31 measurement date for our pension plans.
We recognized net periodic pension cost of $216 million in 2023 and net periodic pension benefit of $254 million in 2022. Net periodic pension benefit or cost is determined using certain assumptions, including the expected long-term rate of return on plan assets, discount rate and mortality assumptions. We determined the discount rate used to compute pension cost based on the yield of a large population of high-quality corporate bonds with cash flows sufficient in timing and amount to settle projected future defined benefit payments. In developing the expected long-term rate of return on assets, we considered the current pension portfolio’s composition, past average rate of earnings, and our asset allocation targets. We used a discount rate of 4.65% to determine the December 31, 2023 pension plan benefit obligation. A decrease in the discount rate of 25 basis points would result in an $80 million increase in our pension plan benefit obligation as of December 31, 2023 and net periodic pension cost recognized in 2023 under our mark-to-market accounting policy. The expected long-term rate of return on plan assets used to determine net periodic pension benefit for the year ended December 31, 2024 is expected to be 5.00%. A decrease in the expected long-term rate of return of 25 basis points to 4.75%, while holding all other assumptions constant, would result in a decrease in our 2024 net periodic pension benefit of approximately $6 million. See Note 21 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for additional discussion on these assumptions.
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Results of Operations
A discussion of changes in our results of operations during the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021 has been omitted from this Annual Report on Form 10-K, but may be found in “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed with the SEC on January 27, 2023, which is available free of charge on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and on Charter's investor relations website at ir.charter.com.
The following table sets forth the consolidated statements of operations for the periods presented (dollars in millions, except per share data):
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | |||||
| Revenues | $ | 54,607 | $ | 54,022 | ||
| Costs and Expenses: | ||||||
| Operating costs and expenses (exclusive of items shown separately below) | 33,405 | 32,876 | ||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 8,696 | 8,903 | ||||
| Other operating (income) expense, net | (53) | 281 | ||||
| 42,048 | 42,060 | |||||
| Income from operations | 12,559 | 11,962 | ||||
| Other Income (Expense): | ||||||
| Interest expense, net | (5,188) | (4,556) | ||||
| Other income (expense), net | (517) | 56 | ||||
| (5,705) | (4,500) | |||||
| Income before income taxes | 6,854 | 7,462 | ||||
| Income tax expense | (1,593) | (1,613) | ||||
| Consolidated net income | 5,261 | 5,849 | ||||
| Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests | (704) | (794) | ||||
| Net income attributable to Charter shareholders | $ | 4,557 | $ | 5,055 | ||
| EARNINGS PER COMMON SHARE ATTRIBUTABLE TO CHARTER SHAREHOLDERS: | ||||||
| Basic | $ | 30.54 | $ | 31.30 | ||
| Diluted | $ | 29.99 | $ | 30.74 | ||
| Weighted average common shares outstanding, basic | 149,208,188 | 161,501,355 | ||||
| Weighted average common shares outstanding, diluted | 151,966,313 | 164,433,596 |
Revenues. Total revenues grew $585 million or 1.1% during the year ended December 31, 2023 as compared to 2022 primarily due to growth in residential Internet revenue, mobile device sales and residential mobile service revenues partly offset by lower residential video and advertising sales revenues as well as $68 million of total customer credits related to the temporary loss of Disney programming during 2023.
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Revenues by service offering were as follows (dollars in millions; all percentages are calculated using whole numbers; minor differences may exist due to rounding):
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Growth | ||||||||
| Internet | $ | 23,032 | $ | 22,222 | 3.6 | % | ||||
| Video | 16,351 | 17,460 | (6.4) | % | ||||||
| Voice | 1,510 | 1,559 | (3.1) | % | ||||||
| Mobile service | 2,243 | 1,698 | 32.1 | % | ||||||
| Residential revenue | 43,136 | 42,939 | 0.5 | % | ||||||
| Small and medium business | 4,353 | 4,350 | 0.1 | % | ||||||
| Enterprise | 2,770 | 2,677 | 3.5 | % | ||||||
| Commercial revenue | 7,123 | 7,027 | 1.4 | % | ||||||
| Advertising sales | 1,551 | 1,882 | (17.6) | % | ||||||
| Other | 2,797 | 2,174 | 28.7 | % | ||||||
| $ | 54,607 | $ | 54,022 | 1.1 | % |
The increase in Internet revenues from our residential customers was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2023 compared to 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase related to rate and product mix changes | $ | 632 |
| Increase in average residential Internet customers | 178 | |
| $ | 810 |
The increase related to rate and product mix was primarily due to promotional rate step-ups and rate adjustments, partly offset by lower bundled revenue allocation. Residential Internet customers grew by 132,000 in 2023 compared to 2022.
Video revenues consist primarily of revenues from video services provided to our residential customers, as well as franchise fees, equipment service fees and video installation revenue. The decrease in video revenues was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2023 compared to 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Decrease in average residential video customers | $ | (981) |
| Decrease related to rate and product mix changes | (128) | |
| $ | (1,109) |
Residential video customers decreased by 994,000 in 2023 compared to 2022. The decrease related to rate and product mix was primarily due to a higher mix of lower cost video packages within our video customer base and $63 million of customer credits related to the temporary loss of Disney programming in 2023, offset by the pass-through of programming cost increases and promotional rate step-ups.
The decrease in voice revenues from our residential customers was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2023 compared to 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Decrease in average residential voice customers | $ | (184) |
| Increase related to rate adjustments | 135 | |
| $ | (49) |
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Residential wireline voice customers decreased by 985,000 in 2023 compared to 2022.
The increase in mobile service revenues from our residential customers is attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2023 compared to 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase in average residential mobile lines | $ | 883 |
| Decrease related to rate | (338) | |
| $ | 545 |
Residential mobile lines increased by 2,403,000 in 2023 compared to 2022. The decrease related to rate is primarily related to the Spectrum One offering and is partly offset by higher bundled revenue allocation.
The increase in SMB revenues is attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2023 compared to 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase in SMB customers | $ | 76 |
| Decrease related to rate and product mix changes | (73) | |
| $ | 3 |
SMB customers grew by 15,000 in 2023 compared to 2022. The decrease related to rate and product mix changes were primarily due to a higher mix of lower priced video packages and a lower number of voice lines per SMB customer relationship.
Enterprise revenues increased $93 million during the year ended December 31, 2023 as compared to the corresponding period in 2022 primarily due to an increase in Internet PSUs partly offset by lower wholesale PSUs. Enterprise PSUs increased by 19,000 in 2023 compared to 2022.
Advertising sales revenues consist primarily of revenues from commercial advertising customers, programmers and other vendors, as well as local cable and advertising on regional sports and news channels. Advertising sales revenues decreased $331 million during the year ended December 31, 2023 as compared to the corresponding period in 2022 primarily due to a decrease in political revenue.
Other revenues consist of revenue from mobile and video device sales, processing fees, regional sports and news channels (excluding intercompany charges or advertising sales on those channels), subsidy revenue, home shopping, wire maintenance fees and other miscellaneous revenues. Other revenues increased approximately $623 million during the year ended December 31, 2023 as compared to the corresponding period in 2022 primarily due to higher mobile device sales partially offset by lower processing fees.
Operating costs and expenses. The increase in our operating costs and expenses, exclusive of items shown separately in the consolidated statements of operations, was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2023 compared to 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Programming | $ | (982) |
| Other costs of revenue | 783 | |
| Costs to service customers | 328 | |
| Sales and marketing | 68 | |
| Other | 332 | |
| $ | 529 |
Programming costs were approximately $10.6 billion and $11.6 billion for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, representing 32% and 35% of total operating costs and expenses, respectively. Programming costs consist primarily of costs paid to programmers for basic, premium, video on demand, and pay-per-view programming. Programming costs decreased as a
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result of a higher mix of lower cost video packages within our video customer base, fewer customers and a $61 million benefit related to the temporary loss of Disney programming during 2023, partly offset by contractual rate adjustments, including renewals and increases in amounts paid for retransmission consent.
Other costs of revenue increased $783 million during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the corresponding period in 2022 primarily due to higher mobile device sales and higher other mobile direct costs due to an increase in mobile lines, partially offset by lower regulatory pass-through fees and original content costs.
Costs to service customers increased $328 million during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the corresponding period in 2022 primarily due to adjustments to job structure, pay and benefits to build a more skilled and longer tenured workforce resulting in lower frontline employee attrition compared to 2022, and additional activity to support the accelerated growth of Spectrum Mobile.
Sales and marketing costs increased $68 million during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the corresponding period in 2022 primarily due to higher staffing across sales channels and the accelerated growth of Spectrum Mobile.
The increase in other expense was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2023 compared to 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Stock compensation expense | $ | 222 |
| Corporate costs | 84 | |
| Costs to sell and service bulk properties | 48 | |
| Enterprise | 24 | |
| Property tax and insurance | (35) | |
| Other | (11) | |
| $ | 332 |
Stock compensation expense increased during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the corresponding prior period primarily due to an increase in equity awards granted. Corporate, costs to sell and service bulk properties and enterprise costs increased primarily due to higher labor costs while property tax and insurance expense decreased during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the corresponding prior period primarily as a result of adjustments related to favorable development on prior year workers' compensation claims.
Depreciation and amortization. Depreciation and amortization expense decreased by $207 million during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the corresponding period in 2022 primarily due to certain assets acquired in acquisitions becoming fully depreciated offset by an increase in depreciation as a result of more recent capital expenditures.
Other operating (income) expense, net. The change in other operating (income) expense, net was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2023 compared to 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Special charges, net | $ | (75) |
| (Gain) loss on disposal of assets, net | (259) | |
| $ | (334) |
For more information, see Note 14 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Interest expense, net. Net interest expense increased by $632 million in 2023 from 2022 primarily due to an increase in weighted average interest rates as well as an increase in weighted average debt outstanding of approximately $2.2 billion.
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Other income (expense), net. The change in other income (expense), net is attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2023 compared to 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Gain (loss) on financial instruments, net (see Note 11) | $ | 140 |
| Net periodic pension benefit (cost) (see Note 21) | (470) | |
| Loss on equity investments, net (see Note 5) | (243) | |
| $ | (573) |
See Note 15 and the Notes referenced above to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Item 1. Financial Statements” for more information.
Income tax expense. We recognized income tax expense of $1.6 billion for both the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022. For more information, see Note 17 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest. Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest for financial reporting purposes represents A/N’s portion of Charter Holdings’ net income based on its effective common unit ownership interest. For more information, see Note 10 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Net income attributable to Charter shareholders. Net income attributable to Charter shareholders was $4.6 billion and $5.1 billion for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively, primarily as a result of the factors described above.
Use of Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow
We use certain measures that are not defined by U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) to evaluate various aspects of our business. Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are non-GAAP financial measures and should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities reported in accordance with GAAP. These terms, as defined by us, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are reconciled to net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities, respectively, below.
Adjusted EBITDA eliminates the significant non-cash depreciation and amortization expense that results from the capital-intensive nature of our businesses as well as other non-cash or special items, and is unaffected by our capital structure or investment activities. However, this measure is limited in that it does not reflect the periodic costs of certain capitalized tangible and intangible assets used in generating revenues and our cash cost of financing. These costs are evaluated through other financial measures.
Free cash flow is defined as net cash flows from operating activities, less capital expenditures and changes in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures.
Management and Charter’s Board of Directors use Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow to assess our performance and our ability to service our debt, fund operations and make additional investments with internally generated funds. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA generally correlates to the leverage ratio calculation under our credit facilities or outstanding notes to determine compliance with the covenants contained in the facilities and notes (all such documents have been previously filed with the SEC). For the purpose of calculating compliance with leverage covenants, we use Adjusted EBITDA, as presented, excluding certain expenses paid by our operating subsidiaries to other Charter entities. Our debt covenants refer to these expenses as management fees, which fees were in the amount of $1.4 billion for each of the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022.
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A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow to net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities, respectively, is as follows (dollars in millions):
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | |||||
| Net income attributable to Charter shareholders | $ | 4,557 | $ | 5,055 | ||
| Plus: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest | 704 | 794 | ||||
| Interest expense, net | 5,188 | 4,556 | ||||
| Income tax expense | 1,593 | 1,613 | ||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 8,696 | 8,903 | ||||
| Stock compensation expense | 692 | 470 | ||||
| Other, net | 464 | 225 | ||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 21,894 | $ | 21,616 | ||
| Net cash flows from operating activities | $ | 14,433 | $ | 14,925 | ||
| Less: Purchases of property, plant and equipment | (11,115) | (9,376) | ||||
| Change in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures | 172 | 553 | ||||
| Free cash flow | $ | 3,490 | $ | 6,102 |
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Overview
We have significant amounts of debt and require significant cash to fund principal and interest payments on our debt. The principal amount of our debt as of December 31, 2023 was $97.6 billion, consisting of $12.4 billion of credit facility debt, $57.9 billion of investment grade senior secured notes and $27.3 billion of high-yield senior unsecured notes. Our split credit rating allows us to access both the investment grade debt market and the high yield debt market.
Our projected cash needs and projected sources of liquidity depend upon, among other things, our actual results, and the timing and amount of our expenditures. As we continue to grow our market penetration of our mobile product, we will continue to experience negative working capital impacts from the timing of device-related cash flows when we sell devices to customers pursuant to equipment installment plans. Further, in 2022, Charter became a meaningful federal cash tax payer as the majority of our net operating losses had been utilized. Free cash flow was $3.5 billion and $6.1 billion for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. See table below for factors impacting free cash flow during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to 2022. As of December 31, 2023, the amount available under our credit facilities was approximately $5.2 billion and cash on hand was approximately $709 million. We expect to utilize free cash flow, cash on hand and availability under our credit facilities as well as future refinancing transactions to further extend the maturities of our obligations. The timing and terms of any refinancing transactions will be subject to market conditions among other considerations. Additionally, we may, from time to time, and depending on market conditions and other factors, use cash on hand and the proceeds from securities offerings or other borrowings to retire our debt through open market purchases, privately negotiated purchases, tender offers or redemption provisions. We believe we have sufficient liquidity from cash on hand, free cash flow and Charter Operating’s revolving credit facility as well as access to the capital markets to fund our projected cash needs.
We continue to evaluate the deployment of our cash on hand and anticipated future free cash flow, including investing in our business growth and other strategic opportunities, including expanding the capacity of our network, the expansion of our network through our rural broadband construction initiative, the build-out and deployment of our CBRS spectrum, and mergers and acquisitions as well as stock repurchases and dividends. Charter's target leverage of net debt to the last twelve months Adjusted EBITDA remains at 4 to 4.5 times Adjusted EBITDA, and up to 3.5 times Adjusted EBITDA at the Charter Operating first lien level. Charter's leverage ratio was 4.42 times Adjusted EBITDA as of December 31, 2023. As Adjusted EBITDA grows, we expect to increase the total amount of our indebtedness to maintain leverage within Charter's target leverage range. Excluding purchases from Liberty Broadband discussed below, during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, Charter purchased in the public market approximately 6.9 million and 14.5 million shares, respectively, of Charter Class A common stock for approximately $2.7 billion and $7.1 billion, respectively. Since the beginning of its buyback program in September 2016 through the year ended December 31, 2023, Charter has purchased in the public market approximately 158.3 million shares of Class A common stock and Charter Holdings common units for approximately $72.0 billion, including purchases from Liberty Broadband and A/N discussed below.
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In February 2021, Charter and Liberty Broadband entered into a letter agreement (the “LBB Letter Agreement”). The LBB Letter Agreement implements Liberty Broadband’s obligations under the Stockholders Agreement to participate in share repurchases by Charter. Under the LBB Letter Agreement, Liberty Broadband will sell to Charter, generally on a monthly basis, a number of shares of Charter Class A common stock representing an amount sufficient for Liberty Broadband’s ownership of Charter to be reduced such that it does not exceed the ownership cap then applicable to Liberty Broadband under the Stockholders Agreement at a purchase price per share equal to the volume weighted average price per share paid by Charter for shares repurchased during such immediately preceding calendar month other than (i) purchases from A/N, (ii) purchases in privately negotiated transactions or (iii) purchases for the withholding of shares of Charter Class A common stock pursuant to equity compensation programs of Charter. Charter purchased from Liberty Broadband 1.0 million and 6.2 million shares of Charter Class A common stock for approximately $394 million and $3.0 billion during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
In December 2016, Charter and A/N entered into a letter agreement, as amended in December 2017 (the "A/N Letter Agreement"), that requires A/N to sell to Charter or to Charter Holdings, on a monthly basis, a number of shares of Charter Class A common stock or Charter Holdings common units that represents a pro rata participation by A/N and its affiliates in any repurchases of shares of Charter Class A common stock from persons other than A/N effected by Charter during the immediately preceding calendar month, at a purchase price equal to the average price paid by Charter for the shares repurchased from persons other than A/N during such immediately preceding calendar month. A/N and Charter both have the right to terminate or suspend the pro rata repurchase arrangement on a prospective basis. During the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, Charter Holdings purchased from A/N 1.1 million and 3.2 million Charter Holdings common units, respectively, for approximately $427 million and $1.6 billion, respectively.
As of December 31, 2023, Charter had remaining board authority to purchase an additional $170 million of Charter’s Class A common stock and/or Charter Holdings common units, excluding purchases from Liberty Broadband. Although Charter expects to continue to buy back its common stock consistent with its leverage target range, Charter is not obligated to acquire any particular amount of common stock, and the timing of any purchases that may occur cannot be predicted and will largely depend on market conditions and other potential uses of capital. Purchases may include open market purchases, tender offers or negotiated transactions.
As possible acquisitions, swaps or dispositions arise, we actively review them against our objectives including, among other considerations, improving the operational efficiency, geographic clustering of assets, product development or technology capabilities of our business and achieving appropriate return targets, and we may participate to the extent we believe these possibilities present attractive opportunities. However, there can be no assurance that we will actually complete any acquisitions, dispositions or system swaps, or that any such transactions will be material to our operations or results.
Recent Events
In January and February 2024, Charter Operating and Charter Communications Operating Capital Corp. redeemed all of their outstanding senior secured floating rate notes due 2024 and paid in full all of their outstanding 4.500% senior secured notes due 2024 at maturity.
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Free Cash Flow
Free cash flow decreased $2.6 billion during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the corresponding prior period due to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2023 compared to 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase in capital expenditures | $ | (1,739) |
| Changes in working capital, excluding mobile devices | (772) | |
| Increase in cash paid for interest, net | (495) | |
| Changes in working capital, mobile devices | (184) | |
| Increase in cash paid for taxes, net | (108) | |
| Increase in Adjusted EBITDA | 278 | |
| Other, net | 408 | |
| $ | (2,612) |
Historical Operating, Investing, and Financing Activities
Cash and Cash Equivalents. We held $709 million and $645 million in cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
Operating Activities. Net cash provided by operating activities decreased $492 million during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022, primarily due to a negative change in working capital and an increase in cash paid for interest and taxes, partly offset by an increase in Adjusted EBITDA and the payment of litigation settlements in 2022.
Investing Activities. Net cash used in investing activities for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 was $11.1 billion and $9.1 billion, respectively. The increase in cash used was primarily due to an increase in capital expenditures and changes in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures.
Financing Activities. Net cash used in financing activities decreased $2.5 billion during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022 primarily due to a decrease in the purchase of treasury stock and noncontrolling interest partly offset by a decrease in the amount by which borrowings of long-term debt exceeded repayments.
Capital Expenditures
We have significant ongoing capital expenditure requirements. Capital expenditures were $11.1 billion and $9.4 billion for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The increase was primarily due to an increase in line extensions in connection with our subsidized rural construction initiative and continued residential and commercial network expansion. The increase in capital expenditures excluding line extensions was primarily driven by higher spend on network evolution, support capital and customer premise equipment, particularly Xumo. See the table below for more details.
We currently expect full year 2024 capital expenditures to total between $12.2 billion and $12.4 billion, including line extensions of approximately $4.5 billion and network evolution spend of approximately $1.6 billion. The actual amount of capital expenditures in 2024 will depend on a number of factors including, but not limited to, the pace of our network evolution and expansion initiatives, supply chain timing and growth rates in our residential and commercial businesses.
Our capital expenditures are funded primarily from cash flows from operating activities and borrowings on our credit facility. In addition, our accrued liabilities related to capital expenditures increased $172 million and $553 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
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The following tables present our major capital expenditures categories in accordance with National Cable and Telecommunications Association (“NCTA”) disclosure guidelines for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022. These disclosure guidelines are not required disclosures under GAAP, nor do they impact our accounting for capital expenditures under GAAP (dollars in millions):
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | |||||
| Customer premise equipment (a) | $ | 2,286 | $ | 2,207 | ||
| Scalable infrastructure (b) | 1,368 | 1,711 | ||||
| Upgrade/rebuild (c) | 1,719 | 938 | ||||
| Support capital (d) | 1,727 | 1,533 | ||||
| Capital expenditures, excluding line extensions | 7,100 | 6,389 | ||||
| Subsidized rural construction line extensions | 1,822 | 1,436 | ||||
| Other line extensions | 2,193 | 1,551 | ||||
| Total line extensions (e) | 4,015 | 2,987 | ||||
| Total capital expenditures | $ | 11,115 | $ | 9,376 | ||
| Of which: | ||||||
| Commercial services | $ | 1,560 | $ | 1,511 | ||
| Subsidized rural construction initiative (f) | $ | 1,870 | $ | 1,504 | ||
| Mobile | $ | 314 | $ | 376 |
(a)Customer premise equipment includes equipment and devices located at the customer's premise used to deliver our Internet, video and voice services (e.g., modems, routers and set-top boxes), as well as installation costs.
(b)Scalable infrastructure includes costs, not related to customer premise equipment or our network, to secure growth of new customers or provide service enhancements (e.g., headend equipment).
(c)Upgrade/rebuild includes costs to modify or replace existing fiber/coaxial cable networks, including our network evolution initiative which started in 2022.
(d)Support capital includes costs associated with the replacement or enhancement of non-network assets (e.g., back-office systems, non-network equipment, land and buildings, vehicles, tools and test equipment).
(e)Line extensions include network costs associated with entering new service areas (e.g., fiber/coaxial cable, amplifiers, electronic equipment, make-ready and design engineering).
(f)The subsidized rural construction initiative subcategory includes projects for which we are receiving subsidies from federal, state and local governments (for which separate reporting was initiated in 2022), excluding customer premise equipment and installation.
Debt
As of December 31, 2023, the accreted value of our total debt was approximately $97.8 billion, as summarized below (dollars in millions):
| December 31, 2023 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Principal Amount | Accreted Value (a) | Interest Payment Dates | Maturity Date (b) | ||||||||
| CCO Holdings, LLC: | |||||||||||
| 5.500% senior notes due 2026 | $ | 750 | $ | 748 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2026 | |||||
| 5.125% senior notes due 2027 | 3,250 | 3,236 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2027 | |||||||
| 5.000% senior notes due 2028 | 2,500 | 2,483 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2028 | |||||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2029 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2029 | |||||||
| 6.375% senior notes due 2029 | 1,500 | 1,488 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 9/1/2029 | |||||||
| 4.750% senior notes due 2030 | 3,050 | 3,044 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2030 | |||||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2030 | 2,750 | 2,750 | 2/15 & 8/15 | 8/15/2030 | |||||||
| 4.250% senior notes due 2031 | 3,000 | 3,001 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2031 |
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| 7.375% senior notes due 2031 | 1,100 | 1,090 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2031 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.750% senior notes due 2032 | 1,200 | 1,190 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2032 | |||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2032 | 2,900 | 2,922 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2032 | |||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2033 | 1,750 | 1,732 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2033 | |||||
| 4.250% senior notes due 2034 | 2,000 | 1,984 | 1/15 & 7/15 | 1/15/2034 | |||||
| Charter Communications Operating, LLC: | |||||||||
| Senior floating rate notes due 2024 | 900 | 900 | 2/1, 5/1, 8/1 & 11/1 | 2/1/2024 | |||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2024 | 1,100 | 1,100 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2024 | |||||
| 4.908% senior notes due 2025 | 4,500 | 4,491 | 1/23 & 7/23 | 7/23/2025 | |||||
| 6.150% senior notes due 2026 | 1,100 | 1,091 | 5/10 & 11/10 | 11/10/2026 | |||||
| 3.750% senior notes due 2028 | 1,000 | 993 | 2/15 & 8/15 | 2/15/2028 | |||||
| 4.200% senior notes due 2028 | 1,250 | 1,245 | 3/15 & 9/15 | 3/15/2028 | |||||
| 2.250% senior notes due 2029 | 1,250 | 1,243 | 1/15 & 7/15 | 1/15/2029 | |||||
| 5.050% senior notes due 2029 | 1,250 | 1,244 | 3/30 & 9/30 | 3/30/2029 | |||||
| 2.800% senior notes due 2031 | 1,600 | 1,588 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2031 | |||||
| 2.300% senior notes due 2032 | 1,000 | 993 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2032 | |||||
| 4.400% senior notes due 2033 | 1,000 | 991 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2033 | |||||
| 6.650% senior notes due 2034 | 900 | 892 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2034 | |||||
| 6.384% senior notes due 2035 | 2,000 | 1,985 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2035 | |||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2038 | 800 | 788 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2038 | |||||
| 3.500% senior notes due 2041 | 1,500 | 1,484 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2041 | |||||
| 3.500% senior notes due 2042 | 1,350 | 1,332 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2042 | |||||
| 6.484% senior notes due 2045 | 3,500 | 3,470 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2045 | |||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2047 | 2,500 | 2,506 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2047 | |||||
| 5.750% senior notes due 2048 | 2,450 | 2,394 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2048 | |||||
| 5.125% senior notes due 2049 | 1,250 | 1,241 | 1/1 & 7/1 | 7/1/2049 | |||||
| 4.800% senior notes due 2050 | 2,800 | 2,797 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2050 | |||||
| 3.700% senior notes due 2051 | 2,050 | 2,032 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2051 | |||||
| 3.900% senior notes due 2052 | 2,400 | 2,324 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2052 | |||||
| 5.250% senior notes due 2053 | 1,500 | 1,480 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2053 | |||||
| 6.834% senior notes due 2055 | 500 | 495 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2055 | |||||
| 3.850% senior notes due 2061 | 1,850 | 1,810 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2061 | |||||
| 4.400% senior notes due 2061 | 1,400 | 1,389 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 12/1/2061 | |||||
| 3.950% senior notes due 2062 | 1,400 | 1,380 | 6/30 & 12/30 | 6/30/2062 | |||||
| 5.500% senior notes due 2063 | 1,000 | 986 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2063 | |||||
| Credit facilities | 12,413 | 12,359 | Varies | ||||||
| Time Warner Cable, LLC: | |||||||||
| 5.750% sterling senior notes due 2031 (c) | 797 | 836 | 6/2 | 6/2/2031 | |||||
| 6.550% senior debentures due 2037 | 1,500 | 1,648 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2037 | |||||
| 7.300% senior debentures due 2038 | 1,500 | 1,735 | 1/1 & 7/1 | 7/1/2038 | |||||
| 6.750% senior debentures due 2039 | 1,500 | 1,685 | 6/15 & 12/15 | 6/15/2039 | |||||
| 5.875% senior debentures due 2040 | 1,200 | 1,249 | 5/15 & 11/15 | 11/15/2040 | |||||
| 5.500% senior debentures due 2041 | 1,250 | 1,257 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 9/1/2041 | |||||
| 5.250% sterling senior notes due 2042 (d) | 828 | 803 | 7/15 | 7/15/2042 | |||||
| 4.500% senior debentures due 2042 | 1,250 | 1,153 | 3/15 & 9/15 | 9/15/2042 | |||||
| Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC: | |||||||||
| 8.375% senior debentures due 2033 | 1,000 | 1,220 | 1/15 & 7/15 | 7/15/2033 | |||||
| $ | 97,588 | $ | 97,777 |
(a)The accreted values presented in the table above represent the principal amount of the debt adjusted for original issue discount or premium at the time of sale, deferred financing costs, and, in regards to debt assumed in acquisitions, fair value premium adjustments as a result of applying acquisition accounting plus the accretion of those amounts to the balance sheet date. However, the amount that is currently payable if the debt becomes immediately due is equal to the principal amount of the debt. In regards to the Sterling Notes, the principal amount of the debt and any premium or discount is remeasured
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into US dollars as of each balance sheet date. We had availability under our credit facilities of approximately $5.2 billion as of December 31, 2023.
(b)In general, the obligors have the right to redeem all of the notes set forth in the above table in whole or in part at their option, beginning at various times prior to their stated maturity dates, subject to certain conditions, upon the payment of the outstanding principal amount (plus a specified redemption premium) and all accrued and unpaid interest.
(c)Principal amount includes £625 million valued at $797 million as of December 31, 2023 using the exchange rate as of December 31, 2023.
(d)Principal amount includes £650 million valued at $828 million as of December 31, 2023 using the exchange rate as of December 31, 2023.
In 2023, CCO Holdings and CCO Holdings Capital Corp. jointly issued $1.1 billion aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured notes and Charter Operating and Charter Communications Operating Capital Corp. jointly issued $2.0 billion aggregate principal amount of senior secured notes. The notes were issued at varying rates, prices and maturity dates and the net proceeds were used to pay related fees and expenses and for general corporate purposes, including funding buybacks of Charter Class A common stock and Charter Holdings common units as well as repaying certain indebtedness.
In 2023, Charter Operating entered into amendments to its credit agreement to (i) replace London Interbank Offering Rate (“LIBOR”) as the benchmark rate applicable to the credit facilities with Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”), (ii) incur a new Term B-3 Loan and a new Term B-4 Loan; and (iii) concurrently cancel certain of Charter Operating's existing Term B-1 Loan (upon assignment to Charter Operating and conversion into Term B-4 Loan) and Term B-2 Loan (upon assignment to Charter Operating), among other amendments.
See Note 8 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for further details regarding our outstanding debt and other financing arrangements, including certain information about maturities, covenants and restrictions related to such debt and financing arrangements. The agreements and instruments governing our debt and financing arrangements are complicated and you should consult such agreements and instruments which are filed with the SEC for more detailed information.
At December 31, 2023, Charter Operating had a consolidated leverage ratio of approximately 3.0 to 1.0 and a consolidated first lien leverage ratio of 3.0 to 1.0. Both ratios are in compliance with the ratios required by the Charter Operating credit facilities of 5.0 to 1.0 consolidated leverage ratio and 4.0 to 1.0 consolidated first lien leverage ratio. A failure by Charter Operating to maintain the financial covenants would result in an event of default under the Charter Operating credit facilities and the debt of CCO Holdings. See “Part I. Item 1A. Risk Factors — The agreements and instruments governing our debt contain restrictions and limitations that could significantly affect our ability to operate our business, as well as significantly affect our liquidity.”
Recently Issued Accounting Standards
See Note 22 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for a discussion of recently issued accounting standards.
FY 2022 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0001091667-23-000024.
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Reference is made to “Part I. Item 1A. Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” which describe important factors that could cause actual results to differ from expectations and non-historical information contained herein. In addition, the following discussion should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes thereto of Charter included in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Overview
We are a leading broadband connectivity company and cable operator serving more than 32 million customers in 41 states through our Spectrum brand. Over an advanced high-capacity, two-way telecommunications network, we offer a full range of state-of-the-art residential and business services including Spectrum Internet, TV, Mobile and Voice. For small and medium-sized companies, Spectrum Business delivers the same suite of broadband products and services coupled with special features and applications to enhance productivity, while for larger businesses and government entities, Spectrum Enterprise provides highly customized, fiber-based solutions. Spectrum Reach delivers tailored advertising and production for the modern media landscape. We also distribute award-winning news coverage and sports programming to our customers through Spectrum Networks. See “Part I. Item 1. Business — Products and Services” for further description of these services, including customer statistics for different services.
During the year ended December 31, 2022, we added 1,728,000 mobile lines, 344,000 Internet customers and 126,000 residential and SMB customer relationships, which excludes mobile-only customers. We continue to see lower customer move rates and switching behavior among providers, which has reduced our selling opportunities. In October 2022, we introduced Spectrum One, which brings together Spectrum Internet, Advanced WiFi and Unlimited Spectrum Mobile, to offer consumers fast, reliable and secure online connections on their favorite devices at home and on-the-go in a high-value package which contributed to our increase in mobile lines in the fourth quarter. In 2022, we also made targeted investments in employee wages and benefits inside of our operations to build employee skill sets and tenure as well as continued to invest in digitization of our customer service platforms and proactive maintenance all with the goal of improving the customer experience, reducing transactions and driving customer growth.
We spent $1.8 billion on our rural construction initiative during the year ended December 31, 2022. We expect that over time, our rural construction initiative will support customer growth and in 2022, we constructed over 200,000 rural passings. In addition, we continue to evolve and upgrade our network to provide higher Internet speeds and reliability and invest in our products and customer service platforms. We currently offer Spectrum Internet products with speeds up to 1 Gbps across our entire footprint and over the next three years, we plan to upgrade our network to provide multi-gigabit speeds. Our Advanced WiFi, a managed WiFi service that provides customers an optimized home network while providing greater control of their connected devices with enhanced security and privacy, is available to nearly all Internet customers. We continue to invest in our ability to provide a differentiated Internet connectivity experience for our mobile and fixed Internet customers with the availability of over 500,000 out of home WiFi access points across our footprint. In addition, we continue to work towards the construction of our own 5G mobile data-only network leveraging our CBRS PALs. By continually improving our product set and offering consumers the opportunity to save money by switching to our services, we believe we can continue to penetrate our expanding footprint and attract more spend on additional products for our existing customers.
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In June 2022, we entered into a joint venture with Comcast to develop and offer a next-generation streaming platform, Xumo, on a variety of streaming devices and smart TVs. Our investment is approximately $981 million with $271 million paid in 2022 and with the remaining non-cancelable required contributions to be paid over multiple years.
We believe Spectrum-branded mobile services will drive higher sales of our core products, create longer customer lives and increase profitability and cash flow over time. During the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, our mobile product line increased revenues by $3.0 billion and $2.2 billion, respectively, reduced Adjusted EBITDA by approximately $343 million and $311 million, respectively, and reduced free cash flow by approximately $1.1 billion and $853 million, respectively. Mobile Adjusted EBITDA may continue to be negative primarily as a result of growth-related sales and marketing and other customer acquisition costs for mobile services, and depending on the pace of that growth. We also expect to continue to see negative free cash flow from the timing of device-related cash flows when we sell devices to customers pursuant to equipment installment plans and capital expenditures related to CBRS build-out.
We realized revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and income from operations during the periods presented as follows (in millions; all percentages are calculated using whole numbers; minor differences may exist due to rounding).
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Growth | ||||||||
| Revenues | $ | 54,022 | $ | 51,682 | 4.5 | % | ||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 21,616 | $ | 20,630 | 4.8 | % | ||||
| Income from operations | $ | 11,962 | $ | 10,526 | 13.6 | % |
Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income attributable to Charter shareholders plus net income attributable to noncontrolling interest, net interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock compensation expense, other income (expenses), net and other operating (income) expenses, net, such as special charges and (gain) loss on sale or retirement of assets. See “—Use of Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow” for further information on Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.
Growth in total revenue was primarily due to growth in our residential Internet, mobile and commercial customers, price adjustments and higher advertising sales. Adjusted EBITDA growth and changes in income from operations were impacted by growth in revenue and increases in operating costs and expenses, primarily mobile, costs to service customers and marketing.
Approximately 90% of our revenues for each of the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 are attributable to monthly subscription fees charged to customers for our Internet, video, voice, mobile and commercial services as well as regional sports and news channels. Generally, these customer subscriptions may be discontinued by the customer at any time subject to a fee for certain commercial customers. The remaining 10% of revenue is derived primarily from advertising revenues, franchise and other regulatory fee revenues (which are collected by us but then paid to local authorities), sales of mobile and video devices, processing fees or reconnection fees charged to customers to commence or reinstate service, installation, VOD and pay-per-view programming, and commissions related to the sale of merchandise by home shopping services.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Certain of our accounting policies require our management to make difficult, subjective and/or complex judgments. Management has discussed these policies with the Audit Committee of Charter’s board of directors, and the Audit Committee has reviewed the following disclosure. We consider the following policies to be the most critical in understanding the estimates, assumptions and judgments that are involved in preparing our financial statements, and the uncertainties that could affect our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows:
•Capitalization of labor and overhead costs
•Income taxes
•Defined benefit pension plans
Capitalization of labor and overhead costs
Costs associated with network construction or upgrades, placement of the customer drop to the dwelling and the placement of outlets within a dwelling along with the costs associated with the deployment of new customer premise equipment necessary to provide Internet, video or voice services, are capitalized. Costs capitalized include materials, direct labor and certain indirect
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costs. These indirect costs consist of compensation and overhead costs associated with support functions. While our capitalization is based on specific activities, once capitalized, we track these costs on a composite basis by fixed asset category at the cable system level, and not on a specific asset basis. For assets that are sold or retired, we remove the estimated applicable cost and accumulated depreciation. The costs of disconnecting service and removing customer premise equipment from a dwelling and the costs to reconnect a customer drop or to redeploy previously installed customer premise equipment are charged to operating expense as incurred. Costs for repairs and maintenance are charged to operating expense as incurred, while plant and equipment replacement, including replacement of certain components, betterments, and replacement of cable drops and outlets, are capitalized.
We make judgments regarding the installation and construction activities to be capitalized. We capitalized direct labor and overhead of $1.8 billion and $1.7 billion for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. We capitalize direct labor and overhead using standards developed from actual costs and applicable operational data. We calculate standards annually (or more frequently if circumstances dictate) for items such as the labor rates, overhead rates, and the actual amount of time required to perform a capitalizable activity. For example, the standard amounts of time required to perform capitalizable activities are based on studies of the time required to perform such activities. Overhead rates are established based on an analysis of the nature of costs incurred in support of capitalizable activities, and a determination of the portion of costs that is directly attributable to capitalizable activities. The impact of changes that resulted from these studies were not material in the periods presented.
Labor costs directly associated with capital projects are capitalized. Capitalizable activities performed in connection with installations include such activities as:
•dispatching a “truck roll” to the customer’s dwelling or business for service connection or placement of new equipment;
•costs to package and ship new equipment to a customer's home for self-installation;
•verification of serviceability to the customer’s dwelling or business (i.e., determining whether the customer’s dwelling is capable of receiving service by our cable network);
•customer premise activities performed by in-house field technicians and third-party contractors in connection with the installation, replacement and betterment of equipment and materials to enable Internet, video or voice services; and
•verifying the integrity of the customer’s network connection by initiating test signals downstream from the headend to the customer premise equipment, as well as testing signal levels at the utility pole or pedestal.
Judgment is required to determine the extent to which overhead costs incurred result from specific capital activities, and therefore should be capitalized. The primary costs that are included in the determination of the overhead rate are (i) employee benefits and payroll taxes associated with capitalized direct labor, (ii) direct variable costs associated with capitalizable activities, (iii) the cost of support personnel, such as care personnel and dispatchers, who assist with capitalizable installation activities, and (iv) indirect costs directly attributable to capitalizable activities.
While we believe our existing capitalization policies are appropriate, a significant change in the nature or extent of our operating practices could affect management’s judgment about the extent to which we should capitalize direct labor or overhead in the future. We monitor the appropriateness of our capitalization policies, and perform updates to our internal studies on an ongoing basis to determine whether facts or circumstances warrant a change to our capitalization policies.
Income taxes
Charter has federal tax net operating loss carryforwards that expire in 2035 resulting from the operations of Charter Communications Holding Company, LLC and its subsidiaries and from loss carryforwards received as a result of the merger with TWC. In addition, Charter has state tax net operating loss carryforwards that generally expire in the years 2023 through 2042. Such tax loss carryforwards can accumulate and be used to offset Charter’s future taxable income. Charter's federal tax loss carryforwards are subject to Section 382 and other restrictions. Charter also has indefinite life carryforwards as a result of Section 163(j) interest limitations.
In assessing the realizability of deferred tax assets, management considers whether it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will be realized. In evaluating the need for a valuation allowance, management takes into account various factors, including the expiration date (if any) of such carryforwards, the expected level of future taxable income, available tax planning strategies and reversals of existing taxable temporary differences.
Approximately $11 million of valuation allowance associated with federal capital loss carryforwards and approximately $29 million of valuation allowance associated with state tax loss carryforwards and other miscellaneous deferred tax assets is
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recorded on the December 31, 2022 consolidated balance sheet. No valuation allowance is deemed necessary as of December 31, 2022 related to the Section 163(j) interest limitation, based on the indefinite life carryforward, expected reversal of various deferred tax liabilities (primarily GAAP fixed asset depreciation), and a history of utilizing interest expense disallowance carryovers. We will continue to monitor this deferred tax asset and update the valuation allowance analysis as needed.
In determining our tax provision for financial reporting purposes, we establish a reserve for uncertain tax positions unless such positions are determined to be “more likely than not” of being sustained upon examination, based on their technical merits. In evaluating whether a tax position has met the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold, we presume the position will be examined by the appropriate taxing authority that has full knowledge of all relevant information. A tax position that meets the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold is measured to determine the amount of benefit to be recognized in our financial statements. The tax position is measured as the largest amount of benefit that has a greater than 50% likelihood of being realized when the position is ultimately resolved. There is considerable judgment involved in determining whether positions taken on the tax return are “more likely than not” of being sustained. We adjust our uncertain tax reserve estimates periodically because of ongoing examinations by, and settlements with, the various taxing authorities, as well as changes in tax laws, regulations and interpretations.
Charter is currently under examination by the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") for income tax purposes for 2016 and 2019. Charter's 2020 and 2021 tax years remain open for examination and assessment. Charter’s 2017 and 2018 tax years remain open solely for purposes of loss and credit carryforwards. Charter’s short period return dated May 17, 2016 (prior to the merger with TWC and acquisition of Bright House) and prior years remain open solely for purposes of examination of Charter’s loss and credit carryforwards. The IRS is currently examining Charter Holdings’ income tax returns for 2016, 2019 and 2021. Charter Holdings’ 2020 tax year remains open for examination and assessment, while 2017 and 2018 remain open solely for purposes of credit carryforwards. The IRS is currently examining TWC’s income tax returns for 2011 through 2015. Prior to TWC’s separation from Time Warner Inc. (“Time Warner”) in March 2009, TWC was included in the consolidated U.S. federal and certain state income tax returns of Time Warner. The IRS has examined Time Warner’s 2008 through 2010 income tax returns and the appeal results are being evaluated. We do not anticipate that these examinations will have a material impact on our consolidated financial position or results of operations. In addition, we are also subject to ongoing examinations of our tax returns by state and local tax authorities for various periods. Activity related to these state and local examinations did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial position or results of operations during the year ended December 31, 2022, nor do we anticipate a material impact in the future.
Defined benefit pension plans
We sponsor qualified and unqualified defined benefit pension plans that provide pension benefits to a majority of employees who were employed by TWC before the merger with TWC. As of December 31, 2022, the accumulated benefit obligation and fair value of plan assets was $2.2 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively, and the net funded asset was recorded as a $362 million noncurrent asset, $5 million current liability and $17 million long-term liability. As of December 31, 2021, the accumulated benefit obligation and fair value of plan assets was $3.4 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively, and the net funded asset was recorded as a $114 million noncurrent asset, $4 million current liability and $27 million long-term liability.
Pension benefits are based on formulas that reflect the employees’ years of service and compensation during their employment period. Actuarial gains or losses are changes in the amount of either the benefit obligation or the fair value of plan assets resulting from experience different from that assumed or from changes in assumptions. We have elected to follow a mark-to-market pension accounting policy for recording the actuarial gains or losses annually during the fourth quarter, or earlier if a remeasurement event occurs during an interim period. We use a December 31 measurement date for our pension plans.
We recognized net periodic pension benefit of $254 million and $305 million in 2022 and 2021, respectively. Net periodic pension benefit or expense is determined using certain assumptions, including the expected long-term rate of return on plan assets, discount rate and mortality assumptions. We determined the discount rate used to compute pension expense based on the yield of a large population of high-quality corporate bonds with cash flows sufficient in timing and amount to settle projected future defined benefit payments. In developing the expected long-term rate of return on assets, we considered the current pension portfolio’s composition, past average rate of earnings, and our asset allocation targets. We used a discount rate of 5.46% to determine the December 31, 2022 pension plan benefit obligation. A decrease in the discount rate of 25 basis points would result in an $83 million increase in our pension plan benefit obligation as of December 31, 2022 and net periodic pension expense recognized in 2022 under our mark-to-market accounting policy. The expected long-term rate of return on plan assets used to determine net periodic pension benefit for the year ended December 31, 2023 is expected to be 5.00%. A decrease in the expected long-term rate of return of 25 basis points to 4.75%, while holding all other assumptions constant, would result in
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a decrease in our 2023 net periodic pension benefit of approximately $6 million. See Note 21 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for additional discussion on these assumptions.
Results of Operations
A discussion of changes in our results of operations during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the year ended December 31, 2020 has been omitted from this Annual Report on Form 10-K, but may be found in “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, filed with the SEC on January 28, 2022, which is available free of charge on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and on our investor relations website at ir.charter.com.
The following table sets forth the consolidated statements of operations for the periods presented (dollars in millions, except per share data):
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||
| Revenues | $ | 54,022 | $ | 51,682 | ||
| Costs and Expenses: | ||||||
| Operating costs and expenses (exclusive of items shown separately below) | 32,876 | 31,482 | ||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 8,903 | 9,345 | ||||
| Other operating expenses, net | 281 | 329 | ||||
| 42,060 | 41,156 | |||||
| Income from operations | 11,962 | 10,526 | ||||
| Other Income (Expenses): | ||||||
| Interest expense, net | (4,556) | (4,037) | ||||
| Other income (expenses), net | 56 | (101) | ||||
| (4,500) | (4,138) | |||||
| Income before income taxes | 7,462 | 6,388 | ||||
| Income tax expense | (1,613) | (1,068) | ||||
| Consolidated net income | 5,849 | 5,320 | ||||
| Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests | (794) | (666) | ||||
| Net income attributable to Charter shareholders | $ | 5,055 | $ | 4,654 | ||
| EARNINGS PER COMMON SHARE ATTRIBUTABLE TO CHARTER SHAREHOLDERS: | ||||||
| Basic | $ | 31.30 | $ | 25.34 | ||
| Diluted | $ | 30.74 | $ | 24.47 | ||
| Weighted average common shares outstanding, basic | 161,501,355 | 183,669,369 | ||||
| Weighted average common shares outstanding, diluted | 164,433,596 | 193,042,948 |
Revenues. Total revenues grew $2.3 billion or 4.5% during the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to 2021 primarily due to increases in the number of residential Internet, mobile and commercial customers, price adjustments and higher advertising sales.
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Revenues by service offering were as follows (dollars in millions; all percentages are calculated using whole numbers; minor differences may exist due to rounding):
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Growth | ||||||||
| Internet | $ | 22,222 | $ | 21,094 | 5.3 | % | ||||
| Video | 17,460 | 17,630 | (1.0) | % | ||||||
| Voice | 1,559 | 1,598 | (2.5) | % | ||||||
| Residential revenue | 41,241 | 40,322 | 2.3 | % | ||||||
| Small and medium business | 4,301 | 4,170 | 3.1 | % | ||||||
| Enterprise | 2,677 | 2,573 | 4.0 | % | ||||||
| Commercial revenue | 6,978 | 6,743 | 3.5 | % | ||||||
| Advertising sales | 1,882 | 1,594 | 18.1 | % | ||||||
| Mobile | 3,042 | 2,178 | 39.7 | % | ||||||
| Other | 879 | 845 | 4.0 | % | ||||||
| $ | 54,022 | $ | 51,682 | 4.5 | % |
The increase in Internet revenues from our residential customers was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2022 compared to 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase related to rate and product mix changes | $ | 634 |
| Increase in average residential Internet customers | 494 | |
| $ | 1,128 |
The increase related to rate and product mix was primarily due to promotional roll-off and rate adjustments. Residential Internet customers grew by 275,000 in 2022 compared to 2021.
Video revenues consist primarily of revenues from basic and digital video services provided to our residential customers, as well as franchise fees, equipment service fees and video installation revenue. The decrease in video revenues was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2022 compared to 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Decrease in average residential video customers | $ | (621) |
| Increase related to rate and product mix changes | 451 | |
| $ | (170) |
Residential video customers decreased by 719,000 in 2022 compared to 2021. The increase related to rate and product mix was primarily due to price adjustments and promotional roll-off and was partly offset by a higher mix of lower cost video packages within our video customer base
The decrease in voice revenues from our residential customers was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2022 compared to 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Decrease in average residential voice customers | $ | (137) |
| Increase related to rate | 98 | |
| $ | (39) |
Residential wireline voice customers decreased by 924,000 in 2022 compared to 2021.
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The increase in SMB commercial revenues was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2022 compared to 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase in SMB customers | $ | 157 |
| Decrease related to rate and product mix changes | (26) | |
| $ | 131 |
SMB customers increased by 64,000 in 2022 compared to 2021.
Enterprise revenues increased $104 million during the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the corresponding period in 2021 primarily due to an increase in Internet PSUs offset by a $16 million one-time benefit incurred during the year ended December 31, 2021 as well as lower wholesale PSUs. Enterprise PSUs increased by 12,000 in 2022 compared to 2021.
Advertising sales revenues consist primarily of revenues from commercial advertising customers, programmers and other vendors, as well as local cable and advertising on regional sports and news channels. Advertising sales revenues increased $288 million during the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the corresponding period in 2021 primarily due to an increase in political revenue.
During the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, mobile revenues included approximately $1.3 billion and $909 million of device revenues, respectively, and approximately $1.7 billion and $1.3 billion of service revenues, respectively. The increases in revenues are a result of an increase of 1,728,000 lines from December 31, 2021 to December 31, 2022.
Other revenues consist of revenue from processing fees, regional sports and news channels (excluding intercompany charges or advertising sales on those channels), subsidy revenue, home shopping, video device sales, wire maintenance fees and other miscellaneous revenues. Other revenues increased approximately $34 million during the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the corresponding period in 2021 primarily due to subsidy revenue related to our rural construction initiative and an increase in processing fees offset by a decrease in sales of video devices.
Operating costs and expenses. The increase in our operating costs and expenses, exclusive of items shown separately in the consolidated statements of operations, was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2022 compared to 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Programming | $ | (224) |
| Regulatory, connectivity and produced content | (191) | |
| Costs to service customers | 379 | |
| Marketing | 268 | |
| Mobile | 896 | |
| Other | 266 | |
| $ | 1,394 |
Programming costs were approximately $11.6 billion and $11.8 billion for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, representing 35% and 38% of total operating costs and expenses, respectively. Programming costs consist primarily of costs paid to programmers for basic, digital, premium, video on demand, and pay-per-view programming. Programming costs decreased as a result of fewer customers and a higher mix of lower cost video packages within our video customer base offset by contractual rate adjustments, including renewals and increases in amounts paid for retransmission consent.
Regulatory, connectivity and produced content decreased $191 million during the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the corresponding period in 2021 primarily due to lower costs of video devices sold to customers and regulatory pass-through fees as well as lower sports rights costs as a result of more basketball games during 2021 as compared to 2022 as the prior period had additional games due to the delayed start of the 2020 - 2021 National Basketball Association ("NBA") season as a result of COVID-19.
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Costs to service customers increased $379 million during the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the corresponding period in 2021 primarily due to higher bad debt, adjustments to job structure, pay and benefits to build a more skilled and longer tenured workforce and fuel costs.
Mobile costs of $3.4 billion and $2.5 billion for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively, were comprised of mobile device, mobile service, customer acquisition and operating costs. The increase is attributable to an increase in the number of mobile lines.
The increase in other expense was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2022 compared to 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Advertising sales expense | $ | 84 |
| Corporate costs | 78 | |
| Enterprise | 43 | |
| Stock compensation expense | 40 | |
| Other | 21 | |
| $ | 266 |
Advertising sales expense increased during the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the corresponding prior period due to higher costs of sales fees driven by higher political revenue. Corporate costs increased primarily due to higher computer and software expense and labor costs.
Depreciation and amortization. Depreciation and amortization expense decreased by $442 million during the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the corresponding period in 2021 primarily due to certain assets acquired in acquisitions becoming fully depreciated offset by an increase in depreciation as a result of more recent capital expenditures.
Other operating expenses, net. The decrease in other operating expenses, net was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2022 compared to 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Special charges, net | $ | 24 |
| (Gain) loss on sale of assets, net | (72) | |
| $ | (48) |
For more information, see Note 14 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Interest expense, net. Net interest expense increased by $519 million in 2022 from 2021 primarily due to an increase in weighted average debt outstanding of approximately $8.3 billion as well as an increase in weighted average interest rates. The increase in weighted average debt outstanding is primarily due to the issuance of notes throughout 2021 and 2022.
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Other income (expenses), net. The change in other income (expenses), net is attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2022 compared to 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Loss on extinguishment of debt (see Note 8) | $ | 141 |
| Loss on financial instruments, net (see Note 11) | (9) | |
| Net periodic pension benefit (cost) (see Note 21) | (51) | |
| Loss on equity investments, net (see Note 5) | 76 | |
| $ | 157 |
See Note 15 and the Notes referenced above to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Item 1. Financial Statements” for more information.
Income tax expense. We recognized income tax expense of $1.6 billion and $1.1 billion for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. Income tax expense increased during the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the corresponding period in 2021 primarily as a result of an increase in pretax income, lower benefit from state tax rate changes and decreased recognition of excess tax benefits resulting from share-based compensation during 2021. For more information, see Note 17 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest. Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest for financial reporting purposes represents A/N’s portion of Charter Holdings’ net income based on its effective common unit ownership interest and the preferred dividend of $70 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. For more information, see Note 10 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Net income attributable to Charter shareholders. Net income attributable to Charter shareholders was $5.1 billion and $4.7 billion for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively, primarily as a result of the factors described above.
Use of Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow
We use certain measures that are not defined by U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) to evaluate various aspects of our business. Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are non-GAAP financial measures and should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities reported in accordance with GAAP. These terms, as defined by us, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are reconciled to net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities, respectively, below.
Adjusted EBITDA eliminates the significant non-cash depreciation and amortization expense that results from the capital-intensive nature of our businesses as well as other non-cash or special items, and is unaffected by our capital structure or investment activities. However, this measure is limited in that it does not reflect the periodic costs of certain capitalized tangible and intangible assets used in generating revenues and our cash cost of financing. These costs are evaluated through other financial measures.
Free cash flow is defined as net cash flows from operating activities, less capital expenditures and changes in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures.
Management and Charter’s board of directors use Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow to assess our performance and our ability to service our debt, fund operations and make additional investments with internally generated funds. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA generally correlates to the leverage ratio calculation under our credit facilities or outstanding notes to determine compliance with the covenants contained in the facilities and notes (all such documents have been previously filed with the SEC). For the purpose of calculating compliance with leverage covenants, we use Adjusted EBITDA, as presented, excluding certain expenses paid by our operating subsidiaries to other Charter entities. Our debt covenants refer to these expenses as management fees, which fees were in the amount of $1.4 billion and $1.3 billion for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively.
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A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow to net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities, respectively, is as follows (dollars in millions):
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||
| Net income attributable to Charter shareholders | $ | 5,055 | $ | 4,654 | ||
| Plus: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest | 794 | 666 | ||||
| Interest expense, net | 4,556 | 4,037 | ||||
| Income tax expense | 1,613 | 1,068 | ||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 8,903 | 9,345 | ||||
| Stock compensation expense | 470 | 430 | ||||
| Other expenses, net | 225 | 430 | ||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 21,616 | $ | 20,630 | ||
| Net cash flows from operating activities | $ | 14,925 | $ | 16,239 | ||
| Less: Purchases of property, plant and equipment | (9,376) | (7,635) | ||||
| Change in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures | 553 | 80 | ||||
| Free cash flow | $ | 6,102 | $ | 8,684 |
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Overview
We have significant amounts of debt. The principal amount of our debt as of December 31, 2022 was $97.4 billion, consisting of $13.9 billion of credit facility debt, $56.8 billion of investment grade senior secured notes and $26.7 billion of high-yield senior unsecured notes. Our business requires significant cash to fund principal and interest payments on our debt. As of December 31, 2022, $70.7 billion of our debt was rated investment grade and $26.7 billion was rated high yield debt. This split rating allows us to access both the investment grade debt market and the high yield debt market.
Our projected cash needs and projected sources of liquidity depend upon, among other things, our actual results, and the timing and amount of our expenditures. As we continue to grow our market penetration of our mobile product, we will continue to experience negative working capital impacts from the timing of device-related cash flows when we sell devices to customers pursuant to equipment installment plans. Further, in 2022, Charter has become a meaningful federal cash tax payer as the majority of our net operating losses have been utilized. Free cash flow was $6.1 billion and $8.7 billion for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. See table below for factors impacting free cash flow during the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to 2021. As of December 31, 2022, the amount available under our credit facilities was approximately $4.0 billion and cash on hand was approximately $645 million. We expect to utilize free cash flow, cash on hand and availability under our credit facilities as well as future refinancing transactions to further extend the maturities of our obligations. The timing and terms of any refinancing transactions will be subject to market conditions among other considerations. Additionally, we may, from time to time, and depending on market conditions and other factors, use cash on hand and the proceeds from securities offerings or other borrowings to retire our debt through open market purchases, privately negotiated purchases, tender offers or redemption provisions. We believe we have sufficient liquidity from cash on hand, free cash flow and Charter Operating’s revolving credit facility as well as access to the capital markets to fund our projected cash needs.
We continue to evaluate the deployment of our cash on hand and anticipated future free cash flow including to invest in our business growth and other strategic opportunities, including expanding the capacity of our network, the expansion of our network through our rural broadband construction initiative, the build-out and deployment of our CBRS spectrum, and mergers and acquisitions as well as stock repurchases and dividends. Charter's target leverage of net debt to the last twelve months Adjusted EBITDA remains at 4 to 4.5 times Adjusted EBITDA, and up to 3.5 times Adjusted EBITDA at the Charter Operating first lien level. Our leverage ratio was 4.47 times Adjusted EBITDA as of December 31, 2022. As Adjusted EBITDA grows, we expect to increase the total amount of our indebtedness to maintain leverage within Charter's target leverage range. Excluding purchases from Liberty Broadband discussed below, during the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, Charter purchased in the public market approximately 14.5 million and 15.9 million shares, respectively, of Charter Class A common stock for approximately $7.1 billion and $10.9 billion, respectively. Since the beginning of its buyback program in September 2016 through the year ended December 31, 2022, Charter has purchased in the public market approximately 149.4 million
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shares of Class A common stock and Charter Holdings common units for approximately $68.5 billion, including purchases from Liberty Broadband and A/N discussed below.
In February 2021, Charter and Liberty Broadband entered into a letter agreement (the “LBB Letter Agreement”). The LBB Letter Agreement implements Liberty Broadband’s obligations under the Stockholders Agreement to participate in share repurchases by Charter. Under the LBB Letter Agreement, Liberty Broadband will sell to Charter, generally on a monthly basis, a number of shares of Charter Class A common stock representing an amount sufficient for Liberty Broadband’s ownership of Charter to be reduced such that it does not exceed the ownership cap then applicable to Liberty Broadband under the Stockholders Agreement at a purchase price per share equal to the volume weighted average price per share paid by Charter for shares repurchased during such immediately preceding calendar month other than (i) purchases from A/N, (ii) purchases in privately negotiated transactions or (iii) purchases for the withholding of shares of Charter Class A common stock pursuant to equity compensation programs of Charter. Charter purchased from Liberty Broadband 6.2 million and 6.1 million shares of Charter Class A common stock for approximately $3.0 billion and $4.2 billion during the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. In January 2023, Charter purchased from Liberty Broadband an additional 0.1 million shares of Charter Class A common stock for approximately $42 million.
In December 2016, Charter and A/N entered into a letter agreement, as amended in December 2017 (the "A/N Letter Agreement"), that requires A/N to sell to Charter or to Charter Holdings, on a monthly basis, a number of shares of Charter Class A common stock or Charter Holdings common units that represents a pro rata participation by A/N and its affiliates in any repurchases of shares of Charter Class A common stock from persons other than A/N effected by Charter during the immediately preceding calendar month, at a purchase price equal to the average price paid by Charter for the shares repurchased from persons other than A/N during such immediately preceding calendar month. A/N and Charter both have the right to terminate or suspend the pro rata repurchase arrangement on a prospective basis. During the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, Charter Holdings purchased from A/N 3.2 million and 3.3 million Charter Holdings common units, respectively, for approximately $1.6 billion and $2.2 billion, respectively.
As of December 31, 2022, Charter had remaining board authority to purchase an additional $414 million of Charter’s Class A common stock and/or Charter Holdings common units, excluding purchases from Liberty Broadband. Although Charter expects to continue to buy back its common stock consistent with its leverage target range, Charter is not obligated to acquire any particular amount of common stock, and the timing of any purchases that may occur cannot be predicted and will largely depend on market conditions and other potential uses of capital. Purchases may include open market purchases, tender offers or negotiated transactions.
As possible acquisitions, swaps or dispositions arise, we actively review them against our objectives including, among other considerations, improving the operational efficiency, geographic clustering of assets, product development or technology capabilities of our business and achieving appropriate return targets, and we may participate to the extent we believe these possibilities present attractive opportunities. However, there can be no assurance that we will actually complete any acquisitions, dispositions or system swaps, or that any such transactions will be material to our operations or results.
Free Cash Flow
Free cash flow decreased $2.6 billion during the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the corresponding prior period due to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2022 compared to 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase in capital expenditures | $ | (1,741) |
| Increase in cash paid for taxes, net | (1,168) | |
| Increase in cash paid for interest, net | (460) | |
| Increase in Adjusted EBITDA | 986 | |
| Change in working capital, excluding change in accrued interest and taxes | 188 | |
| Other, net | (387) | |
| $ | (2,582) |
Free cash flow was reduced by $1.1 billion and $853 million during the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively, due to mobile impacts negatively affecting working capital, capital expenditures and Adjusted EBITDA. The increase in capital expenditures is primarily due to the rural construction initiative of $1.8 billion during the year ended December 31, 2022. Cash
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paid for taxes, net increased as Charter has become a meaningful federal cash tax payer in 2022. Other, net for the year ended December 31, 2022 includes the payment of litigation settlements including the payment of a previously recorded litigation settlement with Sprint Communications Company L.P. and T-Mobile USA, Inc. See Note 14 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Historical Operating, Investing, and Financing Activities
Cash and Cash Equivalents. We held $645 million and $601 million in cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively.
Operating Activities. Net cash provided by operating activities decreased $1.3 billion during the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021, primarily due to an increase in cash paid for taxes, higher cash paid for interest and the payment of litigation settlements offset by an increase in Adjusted EBITDA of $986 million.
Investing Activities. Net cash used in investing activities for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 was $9.1 billion and $7.8 billion, respectively. The increase in cash used was primarily due to an increase in capital expenditures, offset by changes in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures that increased by $473 million.
Financing Activities. Net cash used in financing activities decreased $3.1 billion during the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021 primarily due to a decrease in the purchase of treasury stock and noncontrolling interest offset by a decrease in the amount by which borrowings of long-term debt exceeded repayments.
Capital Expenditures
We have significant ongoing capital expenditure requirements. Capital expenditures were $9.4 billion and $7.6 billion for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. The increase was primarily due to an increase in line extensions and customer premise equipment. The increase in line extensions was primarily due to the rural construction initiative. See the table below for more details.
We currently expect full year 2023 capital expenditures, excluding line extensions, to be between $6.5 billion and $6.8 billion. We expect 2023 line extensions capital expenditures to approximate $4 billion. The actual amount of capital expenditures in 2023 will depend on a number of factors including, but not limited to, the pace of our network evolution and rural construction initiatives, supply chain timing and growth rates in our residential and commercial businesses.
Our capital expenditures are funded primarily from cash flows from operating activities and borrowings on our credit facility. In addition, our accrued liabilities related to capital expenditures increased $553 million and $80 million for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively.
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The following tables present our major capital expenditures categories in accordance with National Cable and Telecommunications Association (“NCTA”) disclosure guidelines for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021. These disclosure guidelines are not required disclosures under GAAP, nor do they impact our accounting for capital expenditures under GAAP (dollars in millions):
| Year ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | |||||
| Customer premise equipment (a) | $ | 2,209 | $ | 1,967 | ||
| Scalable infrastructure (b) | 1,791 | 1,677 | ||||
| Line extensions (c) | 2,990 | 1,642 | ||||
| Upgrade/rebuild (d) | 845 | 706 | ||||
| Support capital (e) | 1,541 | 1,643 | ||||
| Total capital expenditures | $ | 9,376 | $ | 7,635 | ||
| Capital expenditures included in total related to: | ||||||
| Capital expenditures, excluding line extensions | $ | 6,386 | $ | 5,993 | ||
| Line extensions (c) | 2,990 | 1,642 | ||||
| Total capital expenditures | $ | 9,376 | $ | 7,635 | ||
| Of which: Commercial services | $ | 1,511 | $ | 1,445 | ||
| Of which: Mobile | $ | 376 | $ | 482 | ||
| Of which: Rural construction initiative (f) | $ | 1,791 | $ | — |
(a)Customer premise equipment includes costs incurred at the customer residence to secure new customers and revenue generating units, including customer installation costs and customer premise equipment (e.g., digital receivers and cable modems).
(b)Scalable infrastructure includes costs not related to customer premise equipment, to secure growth of new customers and revenue generating units, or provide service enhancements (e.g., headend equipment).
(c)Line extensions include network costs associated with entering new service areas (e.g., fiber/coaxial cable, amplifiers, electronic equipment, make-ready and design engineering).
(d)Upgrade/rebuild includes costs to modify or replace existing fiber/coaxial cable networks, including betterments.
(e)Support capital includes costs associated with the replacement or enhancement of non-network assets due to technological and physical obsolescence (e.g., non-network equipment, land, buildings and vehicles).
(f)The rural construction initiative subcategory includes expenditures associated with our Rural Construction Initiative (for which separate reporting was initiated in 2022), excluding customer premise equipment and installation.
Debt
As of December 31, 2022, the accreted value of our total debt was approximately $97.6 billion, as summarized below (dollars in millions):
| December 31, 2022 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Principal Amount | Accreted Value (a) | Interest Payment Dates | Maturity Date (b) | ||||||||
| CCO Holdings, LLC: | |||||||||||
| 4.000% senior notes due 2023 | $ | 500 | $ | 500 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2023 | |||||
| 5.500% senior notes due 2026 | 750 | 748 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2026 | |||||||
| 5.125% senior notes due 2027 | 3,250 | 3,232 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2027 | |||||||
| 5.000% senior notes due 2028 | 2,500 | 2,479 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2028 | |||||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2029 | 1,500 | 1,501 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2029 | |||||||
| 6.375% senior notes due 2029 | 1,500 | 1,487 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 9/1/2029 | |||||||
| 4.750% senior notes due 2030 | 3,050 | 3,043 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2030 | |||||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2030 | 2,750 | 2,750 | 2/15 & 8/15 | 8/15/2030 | |||||||
| 4.250% senior notes due 2031 | 3,000 | 3,001 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2031 |
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| 4.750% senior notes due 2032 | 1,200 | 1,189 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2032 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.500% senior notes due 2032 | 2,900 | 2,924 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2032 | |||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2033 | 1,750 | 1,730 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2033 | |||||
| 4.250% senior notes due 2034 | 2,000 | 1,983 | 1/15 & 7/15 | 1/15/2034 | |||||
| Charter Communications Operating, LLC: | |||||||||
| Senior floating rate notes due 2024 | 900 | 901 | 2/1, 5/1, 8/1 & 11/1 | 2/1/2024 | |||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2024 | 1,100 | 1,098 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2024 | |||||
| 4.908% senior notes due 2025 | 4,500 | 4,486 | 1/23 & 7/23 | 7/23/2025 | |||||
| 3.750% senior notes due 2028 | 1,000 | 992 | 2/15 & 8/15 | 2/15/2028 | |||||
| 4.200% senior notes due 2028 | 1,250 | 1,244 | 3/15 & 9/15 | 3/15/2028 | |||||
| 2.250% senior notes due 2029 | 1,250 | 1,241 | 1/15 & 7/15 | 1/15/2029 | |||||
| 5.050% senior notes due 2029 | 1,250 | 1,243 | 3/30 & 9/30 | 3/30/2029 | |||||
| 2.800% senior notes due 2031 | 1,600 | 1,586 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2031 | |||||
| 2.300% senior notes due 2032 | 1,000 | 993 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2032 | |||||
| 4.400% senior notes due 2033 | 1,000 | 990 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2033 | |||||
| 6.384% senior notes due 2035 | 2,000 | 1,985 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2035 | |||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2038 | 800 | 787 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2038 | |||||
| 3.500% senior notes due 2041 | 1,500 | 1,483 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2041 | |||||
| 3.500% senior notes due 2042 | 1,350 | 1,332 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2042 | |||||
| 6.484% senior notes due 2045 | 3,500 | 3,469 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2045 | |||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2047 | 2,500 | 2,506 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2047 | |||||
| 5.750% senior notes due 2048 | 2,450 | 2,393 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2048 | |||||
| 5.125% senior notes due 2049 | 1,250 | 1,240 | 1/1 & 7/1 | 7/1/2049 | |||||
| 4.800% senior notes due 2050 | 2,800 | 2,797 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2050 | |||||
| 3.700% senior notes due 2051 | 2,050 | 2,031 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2051 | |||||
| 3.900% senior notes due 2052 | 2,400 | 2,323 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2052 | |||||
| 5.250% senior notes due 2053 | 1,500 | 1,479 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2053 | |||||
| 6.834% senior notes due 2055 | 500 | 495 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2055 | |||||
| 3.850% senior notes due 2061 | 1,850 | 1,810 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2061 | |||||
| 4.400% senior notes due 2061 | 1,400 | 1,389 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 12/1/2061 | |||||
| 3.950% senior notes due 2062 | 1,400 | 1,379 | 6/30 & 12/30 | 6/30/2062 | |||||
| 5.500% senior notes due 2063 | 1,000 | 986 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2063 | |||||
| Credit facilities | 13,877 | 13,823 | Varies | ||||||
| Time Warner Cable, LLC: | |||||||||
| 5.750% sterling senior notes due 2031 (c) | 755 | 797 | 6/2 | 6/2/2031 | |||||
| 6.550% senior debentures due 2037 | 1,500 | 1,655 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2037 | |||||
| 7.300% senior debentures due 2038 | 1,500 | 1,745 | 1/1 & 7/1 | 7/1/2038 | |||||
| 6.750% senior debentures due 2039 | 1,500 | 1,693 | 6/15 & 12/15 | 6/15/2039 | |||||
| 5.875% senior debentures due 2040 | 1,200 | 1,250 | 5/15 & 11/15 | 11/15/2040 | |||||
| 5.500% senior debentures due 2041 | 1,250 | 1,257 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 9/1/2041 | |||||
| 5.250% sterling senior notes due 2042 (d) | 786 | 760 | 7/15 | 7/15/2042 | |||||
| 4.500% senior debentures due 2042 | 1,250 | 1,150 | 3/15 & 9/15 | 9/15/2042 | |||||
| Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC: | |||||||||
| 8.375% senior debentures due 2023 | 1,000 | 1,010 | 3/15 & 9/15 | 3/15/2023 | |||||
| 8.375% senior debentures due 2033 | 1,000 | 1,238 | 7/15 & 1/15 | 7/15/2033 | |||||
| $ | 97,368 | $ | 97,603 |
(a)The accreted values presented in the table above represent the principal amount of the debt adjusted for original issue discount or premium at the time of sale, deferred financing costs, and, in regards to debt assumed in acquisitions, fair value premium adjustments as a result of applying acquisition accounting plus the accretion of those amounts to the balance sheet date. However, the amount that is currently payable if the debt becomes immediately due is equal to the principal amount of the debt. In regards to the Sterling Notes, the principal amount of the debt and any premium or discount is remeasured into US dollars as of each balance sheet date. We have availability under our credit facilities of approximately $4.0 billion as of December 31, 2022.
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(b)In general, the obligors have the right to redeem all of the notes set forth in the above table in whole or in part at their option, beginning at various times prior to their stated maturity dates, subject to certain conditions, upon the payment of the outstanding principal amount (plus a specified redemption premium) and all accrued and unpaid interest.
(c)Principal amount includes £625 million valued at $755 million as of December 31, 2022 using the exchange rate as of December 31, 2022.
(d)Principal amount includes £650 million valued at $786 million as of December 31, 2022 using the exchange rate as of December 31, 2022.
In 2022, Charter Operating entered into an amendment to its credit agreement. Also in 2022, CCO Holdings and CCO Holdings Capital Corp. jointly issued $2.7 billion aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured notes and Charter Operating and Charter Communications Operating Capital Corp. jointly issued $3.5 billion aggregate principal amount of senior secured notes. The notes were issued at varying rates, prices and maturity dates and the net proceeds were used to pay related fees and expenses and for general corporate purposes, including funding buybacks of Charter Class A common stock and Charter Holdings common units as well as repaying certain indebtedness.
See Note 8 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for further details regarding our outstanding debt and other financing arrangements, including certain information about maturities, covenants and restrictions related to such debt and financing arrangements. The agreements and instruments governing our debt and financing arrangements are complicated and you should consult such agreements and instruments which are filed with the SEC for more detailed information.
At December 31, 2022, Charter Operating had a consolidated leverage ratio of approximately 3.0 to 1.0 and a consolidated first lien leverage ratio of 3.0 to 1.0. Both ratios are in compliance with the ratios required by the Charter Operating credit facilities of 5.0 to 1.0 consolidated leverage ratio and 4.0 to 1.0 consolidated first lien leverage ratio. A failure by Charter Operating to maintain the financial covenants would result in an event of default under the Charter Operating credit facilities and the debt of CCO Holdings. See “Part I. Item 1A. Risk Factors — The agreements and instruments governing our debt contain restrictions and limitations that could significantly affect our ability to operate our business, as well as significantly affect our liquidity.”
Recently Issued Accounting Standards
See Note 22 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for a discussion of recently issued accounting standards.
FY 2021 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0001091667-22-000024.
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Reference is made to “Part I. Item 1A. Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” which describe important factors that could cause actual results to differ from expectations and non-historical information contained herein. In addition, the following discussion should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes thereto of Charter included in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Overview
We are a leading broadband connectivity company and cable operator serving more than 32 million customers in 41 states through our Spectrum brand. Over an advanced high-capacity, two-way telecommunications network, we offer a full range of state-of-the-art residential and business services including Spectrum Internet, TV, Mobile and Voice. For small and medium-sized companies, Spectrum Business delivers the same suite of broadband products and services coupled with special features and applications to enhance productivity, while for larger businesses and government entities, Spectrum Enterprise provides highly customized, fiber-based solutions. Spectrum Reach delivers tailored advertising and production for the modern media landscape. We also distribute award-winning news coverage, sports and high-quality original programming to our customers through Spectrum Networks and Spectrum Originals. See “Part I. Item 1. Business — Products and Services” for further description of these services, including customer statistics for different services.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted how our customers use our products and services, how they interact with us, and how our employees provide services to our customers. Customer activity levels remain below normal which contributed to lower operating expense from reduced service transactions and lower bad debt in 2021 along with lower growth in customer relationships. We cannot predict when trends return to pre-COVID-19 levels as the economy returns to normal activities.
Although the ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be predicted, we remain focused on driving customer relationship growth by deploying superior products and services with attractive pricing. In October 2021, we announced and implemented new Spectrum Mobile multi-line pricing designed to drive more mobile line sales per customer, and in turn, drive more broadband sales and the associated retention benefits. Further, we expect to continue to drive customer relationship growth through sales of Internet connectivity services and improving customer retention despite the expectation for continued losses of video and wireline voice customers.
Our Spectrum Mobile service is offered to customers subscribing to our Internet service and runs on Verizon's mobile network combined with Spectrum WiFi. We continue to explore ways to drive even more mobile traffic to our network. We intend to use CBRS PALs we purchased in 2020, along with unlicensed CBRS spectrum, to build our own 5G mobile data-only network on our existing infrastructure in targeted geographies where there is high outdoor cellular traffic volume. This effort, in combination with our expanding WiFi network and continued 5G enhancements within the Verizon MVNO partnership agreement, should position our mobile product for continued customer experience and cost structure improvements.
We believe Spectrum-branded mobile services will drive higher sales of our core products, create longer customer lives and increase profitability and cash flow over time. As a result of growth costs associated with our new mobile product line, we cannot be certain that we will be able to grow revenues or maintain our margins at recent historical rates. During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, our mobile product line increased revenues by $2.2 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively, reduced Adjusted EBITDA by approximately $311 million and $401 million, respectively, and reduced free cash flow by approximately $853 million and $1.1 billion, respectively. We expect mobile Adjusted EBITDA will continue to be negative primarily as a result of growth-related sales and marketing and other customer acquisition costs for mobile services, and
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depending on the pace of that growth. We also expect to continue to see negative free cash flow from the timing of device-related cash flows when we sell devices to customers pursuant to equipment installment plans and capital expenditures related to retail store and CBRS build-out.
We realized revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and income from operations during the periods presented as follows (in millions; all percentages are calculated using whole numbers. Minor differences may exist due to rounding).
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | 2021 vs. 2020 Growth | ||||||||||
| Revenues | $ | 51,682 | $ | 48,097 | 7.5 | % | ||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 20,630 | $ | 18,518 | 11.4 | % | ||||||
| Income from operations | $ | 10,526 | $ | 8,405 | 25.2 | % |
Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income attributable to Charter shareholders plus net income attributable to noncontrolling interest, net interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock compensation expense, other income (expenses), net and other operating (income) expenses, net, such as special charges and (gain) loss on sale or retirement of assets. See “—Use of Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow” for further information on Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.
Growth in total revenue was primarily due to growth in our residential Internet, mobile and commercial customers and price adjustments. Adjusted EBITDA and income from operations growth was impacted by growth in revenue and increases in operating costs and expenses, primarily mobile, programming and regulatory, connectivity and produced content costs.
Approximately 91% of our revenues for each of the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 are attributable to monthly subscription fees charged to customers for our Internet, video, voice, mobile and commercial services as well as regional sports and news channels. Generally, these customer subscriptions may be discontinued by the customer at any time subject to a fee for certain commercial customers. The remaining 9% of revenue is derived primarily from advertising revenues, franchise and other regulatory fee revenues (which are collected by us but then paid to local authorities), sales of mobile and video devices, processing fees or reconnection fees charged to customers to commence or reinstate service, installation, VOD and pay-per-view programming, and commissions related to the sale of merchandise by home shopping services.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Certain of our accounting policies require our management to make difficult, subjective and/or complex judgments. Management has discussed these policies with the Audit Committee of Charter’s board of directors, and the Audit Committee has reviewed the following disclosure. We consider the following policies to be the most critical in understanding the estimates, assumptions and judgments that are involved in preparing our financial statements, and the uncertainties that could affect our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows:
•Capitalization of labor and overhead costs
•Valuation and impairment of franchises and goodwill
•Income taxes
•Defined benefit pension plans
Capitalization of labor and overhead costs
Costs associated with network construction or upgrades, placement of the customer drop to the dwelling and the placement of outlets within a dwelling along with the costs associated with the deployment of new customer premise equipment necessary to provide Internet, video or voice services, are capitalized. Costs capitalized include materials, direct labor and certain indirect costs. These indirect costs consist of compensation and overhead costs associated with support functions. While our capitalization is based on specific activities, once capitalized, we track these costs on a composite basis by fixed asset category at the cable system level, and not on a specific asset basis. For assets that are sold or retired, we remove the estimated applicable cost and accumulated depreciation. The costs of disconnecting service and removing customer premise equipment from a dwelling and the costs to reconnect a customer drop or to redeploy previously installed customer premise equipment are charged to operating expense as incurred. Costs for repairs and maintenance are charged to operating expense as incurred,
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while plant and equipment replacement, including replacement of certain components, betterments, and replacement of cable drops and outlets, are capitalized.
We make judgments regarding the installation and construction activities to be capitalized. We capitalized direct labor and overhead of $1.7 billion and $1.6 billion for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. We capitalize direct labor and overhead using standards developed from actual costs and applicable operational data. We calculate standards annually (or more frequently if circumstances dictate) for items such as the labor rates, overhead rates, and the actual amount of time required to perform a capitalizable activity. For example, the standard amounts of time required to perform capitalizable activities are based on studies of the time required to perform such activities. Overhead rates are established based on an analysis of the nature of costs incurred in support of capitalizable activities, and a determination of the portion of costs that is directly attributable to capitalizable activities. The impact of changes that resulted from these studies were not material in the periods presented.
Labor costs directly associated with capital projects are capitalized. Capitalizable activities performed in connection with installations include such activities as:
•dispatching a “truck roll” to the customer’s dwelling or business for service connection or placement of new equipment;
•costs to package and ship new equipment to a customer's home for self-installation;
•verification of serviceability to the customer’s dwelling or business (i.e., determining whether the customer’s dwelling is capable of receiving service by our cable network);
•customer premise activities performed by in-house field technicians and third-party contractors in connection with the installation, replacement and betterment of equipment and materials to enable Internet, video or voice services; and
•verifying the integrity of the customer’s network connection by initiating test signals downstream from the headend to the customer premise equipment, as well as testing signal levels at the utility pole or pedestal.
Judgment is required to determine the extent to which overhead costs incurred result from specific capital activities, and therefore should be capitalized. The primary costs that are included in the determination of the overhead rate are (i) employee benefits and payroll taxes associated with capitalized direct labor, (ii) direct variable costs associated with capitalizable activities, (iii) the cost of support personnel, such as care personnel and dispatchers, who assist with capitalizable installation activities, and (iv) indirect costs directly attributable to capitalizable activities.
While we believe our existing capitalization policies are appropriate, a significant change in the nature or extent of our operating practices could affect management’s judgment about the extent to which we should capitalize direct labor or overhead in the future. We monitor the appropriateness of our capitalization policies, and perform updates to our internal studies on an ongoing basis to determine whether facts or circumstances warrant a change to our capitalization policies.
Valuation and impairment of franchises
The net carrying value of franchises as of both December 31, 2021 and 2020 was approximately $67.3 billion (representing 47% of total assets). Franchise assets are aggregated into essentially inseparable units of accounting to conduct valuations. The units of accounting generally represent geographical clustering of our cable systems into groups. For more information and a complete discussion of how we value and test franchise assets for impairment, see Note 5 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
We perform an impairment assessment of franchise assets annually or more frequently as warranted by events or changes in circumstances. We performed a qualitative assessment in 2021. Our assessment included consideration of a multitude of factors that affect the fair value of our franchise assets. Examples of such factors include environmental and competitive changes within our operating footprint, actual and projected operating performance, the consistency of our operating margins, equity and debt market trends, including changes in our market capitalization, and changes in our regulatory and political landscape, among other factors. Based on our assessment, we concluded that it was more likely than not that the estimated fair values of our franchise assets equals or exceeds their carrying values and that a quantitative impairment test is not required.
Valuation and impairment of goodwill
The net carrying value of goodwill as of both December 31, 2021 and 2020 was approximately $29.6 billion (representing 21% and 20% of total assets, respectively). We have determined that we have one reporting unit for purposes of the assessment of goodwill impairment. For more information and a complete discussion on how we test goodwill for impairment, see Note 5 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary
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Data.” We perform our impairment assessment of goodwill annually as of November 30. As with our franchise impairment testing, we elected to perform a qualitative assessment of goodwill in 2021. Given the completion of the assessment and absence of significant adverse changes in factors impacting our fair value estimates, we concluded that it is more likely than not that our goodwill is not impaired.
Income taxes
As of December 31, 2021, Charter had approximately $714 million of federal tax net operating loss carryforwards resulting in a gross deferred tax asset of approximately $150 million. These losses resulted from the operations of Charter Communications Holding Company, LLC ("Charter Holdco") and its subsidiaries and from loss carryforwards received as a result of the merger with TWC. Federal tax net operating loss carryforwards expire in the years 2034 through 2035. In addition, as of December 31, 2021, Charter had state tax net operating loss carryforwards, resulting in a gross deferred tax asset (net of federal tax benefit) of approximately $175 million. State tax net operating loss carryforwards generally expire in the years 2022 through 2041. Such tax loss carryforwards can accumulate and be used to offset Charter’s future taxable income. After December 31, 2021, $714 million of Charter's federal tax loss carryforwards are subject to Section 382 and other restrictions. Pursuant to these restrictions, Charter estimates that approximately $229 million annually over each of the next three years of federal tax loss carryforwards, should become unrestricted and available for Charter’s use. Charter’s state tax loss carryforwards are subject to similar but varying restrictions.
In assessing the realizability of deferred tax assets, management considers whether it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will be realized. In evaluating the need for a valuation allowance, management takes into account various factors, including the expected level of future taxable income, available tax planning strategies and reversals of existing taxable temporary differences. Approximately $13 million of valuation allowance associated with federal capital loss carryforwards and approximately $23 million of valuation allowance associated with state tax loss carryforwards and other miscellaneous deferred tax assets remains on the December 31, 2021 consolidated balance sheet.
In determining our tax provision for financial reporting purposes, we establish a reserve for uncertain tax positions unless such positions are determined to be “more likely than not” of being sustained upon examination, based on their technical merits. In evaluating whether a tax position has met the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold, we presume the position will be examined by the appropriate taxing authority that has full knowledge of all relevant information. A tax position that meets the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold is measured to determine the amount of benefit to be recognized in our financial statements. The tax position is measured as the largest amount of benefit that has a greater than 50% likelihood of being realized when the position is ultimately resolved. There is considerable judgment involved in determining whether positions taken on the tax return are “more likely than not” of being sustained. We adjust our uncertain tax reserve estimates periodically because of ongoing examinations by, and settlements with, the various taxing authorities, as well as changes in tax laws, regulations and interpretations.
Charter is currently under examination by the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") for income tax purposes for 2019. Charter's 2016, 2018 and 2020 tax years remain open for examination and assessment. Charter’s 2017 tax year remains open solely for purposes of loss and credit carryforwards. Charter’s short period return dated May 17, 2016 (prior to the merger with TWC and acquisition of Bright House) and prior years remain open solely for purposes of examination of Charter’s loss and credit carryforwards. The IRS is currently examining Charter Holdings’ income tax return for 2016 and 2019. Charter Holdings’ 2018 and 2020 tax years remain open for examination and assessment, while 2017 remains open solely for purposes of credit carryforwards. The IRS is currently examining TWC’s income tax returns for 2011 through 2014. TWC’s tax year 2015 remains subject to examination and assessment. Prior to TWC’s separation from Time Warner Inc. (“Time Warner”) in March 2009, TWC was included in the consolidated U.S. federal and certain state income tax returns of Time Warner. The IRS has examined Time Warner’s 2008 through 2010 income tax returns and the results are under appeal. We do not anticipate that these examinations will have a material impact on our consolidated financial position or results of operations. In addition, we are also subject to ongoing examinations of our tax returns by state and local tax authorities for various periods. Activity related to these state and local examinations did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial position or results of operations during the year ended December 31, 2021, nor do we anticipate a material impact in the future.
Defined benefit pension plans
We sponsor qualified and unqualified defined benefit pension plans that provide pension benefits to a majority of employees who were employed by TWC before the merger with TWC. As of December 31, 2021, the accumulated benefit obligation and fair value of plan assets was $3.4 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively, and the net funded asset was recorded as a $114 million noncurrent asset, $4 million current liability and $27 million long-term liability. As of December 31, 2020, the accumulated
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benefit obligation and fair value of plan assets was $3.7 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively, and the net underfunded liability was recorded as a $1 million noncurrent asset, $5 million current liability and $222 million long-term liability.
Pension benefits are based on formulas that reflect the employees’ years of service and compensation during their employment period. Actuarial gains or losses are changes in the amount of either the benefit obligation or the fair value of plan assets resulting from experience different from that assumed or from changes in assumptions. We have elected to follow a mark-to-market pension accounting policy for recording the actuarial gains or losses annually during the fourth quarter, or earlier if a remeasurement event occurs during an interim period. We use a December 31 measurement date for our pension plans.
We recognized net periodic pension benefit of $305 million and net periodic pension cost of $66 million in 2021 and 2020, respectively. Net periodic pension benefit or expense is determined using certain assumptions, including the expected long-term rate of return on plan assets, discount rate and mortality assumptions. We determined the discount rate used to compute pension expense based on the yield of a large population of high-quality corporate bonds with cash flows sufficient in timing and amount to settle projected future defined benefit payments. In developing the expected long-term rate of return on assets, we considered the current pension portfolio’s composition, past average rate of earnings, and our asset allocation targets. We used a discount rate of 3.01% to determine the December 31, 2021 pension plan benefit obligation. A decrease in the discount rate of 25 basis points would result in a $155 million increase in our pension plan benefit obligation as of December 31, 2021 and net periodic pension expense recognized in 2021 under our mark-to-market accounting policy. The expected long-term rate of return on plan assets used to determine net periodic pension benefit for the year ended December 31, 2022 is expected to be 5.00%. A decrease in the expected long-term rate of return of 25 basis points to 4.75%, while holding all other assumptions constant, would result in an increase in our 2022 net periodic pension expense of approximately $8 million. See Note 23 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for additional discussion on these assumptions.
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Results of Operations
A discussion of changes in our results of operations during the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019 has been omitted from this Annual Report on Form 10-K, but may be found in “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, filed with the SEC on January 29, 2021, which is available free of charge on the SECs website at www.sec.gov and on our investor relations website at ir.charter.com.
The following table sets forth the consolidated statements of operations for the periods presented (dollars in millions, except per share data):
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | |||||
| Revenues | $ | 51,682 | $ | 48,097 | ||
| Costs and Expenses: | ||||||
| Operating costs and expenses (exclusive of items shown separately below) | 31,482 | 29,930 | ||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 9,345 | 9,704 | ||||
| Other operating expenses, net | 329 | 58 | ||||
| 41,156 | 39,692 | |||||
| Income from operations | 10,526 | 8,405 | ||||
| Other Income (Expenses): | ||||||
| Interest expense, net | (4,037) | (3,848) | ||||
| Other expenses, net | (101) | (255) | ||||
| (4,138) | (4,103) | |||||
| Income before income taxes | 6,388 | 4,302 | ||||
| Income tax expense | (1,068) | (626) | ||||
| Consolidated net income | 5,320 | 3,676 | ||||
| Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests | (666) | (454) | ||||
| Net income attributable to Charter shareholders | $ | 4,654 | $ | 3,222 | ||
| EARNINGS PER COMMON SHARE ATTRIBUTABLE TO CHARTER SHAREHOLDERS: | ||||||
| Basic | $ | 25.34 | $ | 15.85 | ||
| Diluted | $ | 24.47 | $ | 15.40 | ||
| Weighted average common shares outstanding, basic | 183,669,369 | 203,316,483 | ||||
| Weighted average common shares outstanding, diluted | 193,042,948 | 209,273,247 |
Revenues. Total revenues grew $3.6 billion or 7.5% during the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to 2020 primarily due to increases in the number of residential Internet, mobile and commercial customers and price adjustments.
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Revenues by service offering were as follows (dollars in millions; all percentages are calculated using whole numbers. Minor differences may exist due to rounding):
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | % Growth | ||||||||||
| Internet | $ | 21,094 | $ | 18,521 | 13.9 | % | ||||||
| Video | 17,630 | 17,432 | 1.1 | % | ||||||||
| Voice | 1,598 | 1,806 | (11.5) | % | ||||||||
| Residential revenue | 40,322 | 37,759 | 6.8 | % | ||||||||
| Small and medium business | 4,170 | 3,964 | 5.2 | % | ||||||||
| Enterprise | 2,573 | 2,468 | 4.3 | % | ||||||||
| Commercial revenue | 6,743 | 6,432 | 4.9 | % | ||||||||
| Advertising sales | 1,594 | 1,699 | (6.2) | % | ||||||||
| Mobile | 2,178 | 1,364 | 59.6 | % | ||||||||
| Other | 845 | 843 | 0.2 | % | ||||||||
| $ | 51,682 | $ | 48,097 | 7.5 | % |
The increase in Internet revenues from our residential customers was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2021 compared to 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase related to rate, product mix and bundle allocation changes | $ | 1,490 |
| Increase in average residential Internet customers | 1,083 | |
| $ | 2,573 |
The increase related to rate, product mix and bundle allocation changes was primarily due to price adjustments, promotional roll-off and higher bundled revenue allocation as well as $34 million of credits related to prior year's Keep Americans Connected ("KAC") Pledge and certain state-mandated programs which reduced revenue during the year ended December 31, 2020. Residential Internet customers grew by 1,114,000 in 2021 compared to 2020.
Video revenues consist primarily of revenues from basic and digital video services provided to our residential customers, as well as franchise fees, equipment service fees and video installation revenue. The increase in video revenues was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2021 compared to 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Customer credits due to COVID-19 | $ | 223 |
| Increase related to rate, product mix and bundle allocation changes | 283 | |
| Decrease in average residential video customers | (250) | |
| Decrease in video on demand and pay-per-view | (44) | |
| Decrease in installation | (14) | |
| $ | 198 |
We recorded $39 million and $218 million of estimated customer credits related to canceled sporting events during the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, and $44 million of credits related to prior year's KAC program which reduced revenue during the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase related to rate, product mix and bundle allocation changes was primarily due to price adjustments and promotional roll-off and was partly offset by a higher mix of lower cost video packages within our video customer base and lower bundled revenue allocation. Residential video customers decreased by 423,000 in 2021 compared to 2020.
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The decrease in voice revenues from our residential customers was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2021 compared to 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Decrease related to rate and bundle allocation changes | $ | (132) |
| Decrease in average residential voice customers | (76) | |
| $ | (208) |
The decrease related to rate and bundle allocation changes was impacted by value-based pricing and changes in bundled revenue allocations. Residential wireline voice customers decreased by 594,000 in 2021 compared to 2020.
The increase in SMB commercial revenues was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2021 compared to 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase in SMB customers | $ | 209 |
| Increase related to COVID-19 programs which reduced prior year revenue | 36 | |
| Decrease related to rate and product mix changes | (39) | |
| $ | 206 |
SMB customers increased by 92,000 in 2021 compared to 2020. The decrease related to rate and product mix changes during the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to 2020 was primarily due to value-based pricing related to SPP net of promotional roll-off and price adjustments.
Enterprise revenues increased $105 million during the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to the corresponding period in 2020 primarily due to an increase in Internet PSUs, $18 million of impacts from COVID-19 related programs which reduced revenues in the year ended December 31, 2020 as well as a $16 million one-time benefit incurred during the year ended December 31, 2021 offset by lower wholesale PSUs. Enterprise PSUs increased by 13,000 in 2021 compared to 2020.
Advertising sales revenues consist primarily of revenues from commercial advertising customers, programmers and other vendors, as well as local cable and advertising on regional sports and news channels. Advertising sales revenues decreased $105 million during the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to the corresponding period in 2020 primarily due to a decrease in political offset by an increase in advanced advertising revenues and local and national advertising revenues as well as the impacts of COVID-19 that lowered revenues in 2020.
During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, mobile revenues included approximately $909 million and $658 million of device revenues, respectively, and approximately $1.3 billion and $706 million of service revenues, respectively. The increases in revenues are a result of an increase of 1,189,000 lines from December 31, 2020 to December 31, 2021.
Other revenues consist of revenue from regional sports and news channels (excluding intercompany charges or advertising sales on those channels), home shopping, late payment fees, video device sales, wire maintenance fees and other miscellaneous revenues. Other revenues remained relatively consistent during the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to the corresponding period in 2020.
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Operating costs and expenses. The increase in our operating costs and expenses, exclusive of items shown separately in the consolidated statements of operations, was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2021 compared to 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Programming | $ | 443 |
| Regulatory, connectivity and produced content | 311 | |
| Costs to service customers | (79) | |
| Marketing | 40 | |
| Mobile | 724 | |
| Other | 113 | |
| $ | 1,552 |
Programming costs were approximately $11.8 billion and $11.4 billion for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, representing 38% of operating costs and expenses. Programming costs consist primarily of costs paid to programmers for basic, digital, premium, video on demand, and pay-per-view programming. Programming costs increased as a result of $124 million of more rebates in 2020 than 2021 from sports programming networks as a result of canceled sporting events due to COVID-19, as well as contractual rate adjustments, including renewals and increases in amounts paid for retransmission consent offset by fewer customers and a higher mix of lower cost video packages within our video customer base. We expect programming rates per customer will continue to increase due to a variety of factors, including annual increases imposed by programmers with additional selling power as a result of media and broadcast station groups consolidation, increased demands by owners of broadcast stations for payment for retransmission consent or linking carriage of other services to retransmission consent, and additional programming. We have been unable to fully pass these increases on to our customers and do not expect to be able to do so in the future without a potential loss of customers.
Regulatory, connectivity and produced content increased $311 million during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the corresponding period in 2020 primarily due to higher sports rights costs as a result of more National Basketball Association ("NBA") and Major League Baseball ("MLB") games during 2021 as compared to the corresponding period in 2020 as the prior period had cancelation of MLB games and the current period had additional games due to the delayed start of the 2020 - 2021 NBA season as a result of COVID-19.
Costs to service customers decreased $79 million during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the corresponding period in 2020 despite 3.0% customer growth primarily due to fewer transactions and a decrease in bad debt expense partly driven by government stimulus packages offset by the higher labor costs associated with our commitment to a minimum $20 per hour wage in 2022.
Mobile costs of $2.5 billion and $1.8 billion for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, were comprised of mobile device costs and mobile service, customer acquisition and operating costs. The increase is attributable to an increase in the number of mobile lines.
The increase in other expense was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2021 compared to 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Stock compensation expense | $ | 79 |
| Enterprise | 21 | |
| Corporate costs | 20 | |
| Property tax and insurance | 17 | |
| Advertising sales expense | (21) | |
| Other | (3) | |
| $ | 113 |
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Stock compensation expense increased primarily due to changes in certain equity award provisions that result in additional expense at the time of grant.
Depreciation and amortization. Depreciation and amortization expense decreased by $359 million during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the corresponding period in 2020 primarily due to certain assets acquired in acquisitions becoming fully depreciated offset by an increase in depreciation as a result of more recent capital expenditures.
Other operating expenses, net. The increase in other operating expenses, net was attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2021 compared to 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Special charges, net | $ | 159 |
| (Gain) loss on sale of assets, net | 112 | |
| $ | 271 |
For more information, see Note 15 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Interest expense, net. Net interest expense increased by $189 million in 2021 from 2020 primarily due to an increase in weighted average debt outstanding of approximately $7.1 billion primarily as a result of the issuance of notes in 2020 and 2021 for general corporate purposes including stock buybacks and debt repayments offset by a decrease in weighted average interest rates.
Other expenses, net. The decrease in other expenses, net is attributable to the following (dollars in millions):
| 2021 compared to 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Loss on extinguishment of debt (see Note 9) | $ | (1) |
| Loss on financial instruments, net (see Note 12) | (71) | |
| Net periodic pension benefit (cost) (see Note 23) | 371 | |
| Loss on equity investments, net (see Note 6) | (145) | |
| $ | 154 |
See Note 16 and the Notes referenced above to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Item 1. Financial Statements” for more information.
Income tax expense. We recognized income tax expense of $1.1 billion and $626 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. Income tax expense increased during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the corresponding period in 2020 primarily as a result of higher pretax income. For more information, see Note 18 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest. Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest for financial reporting purposes represents A/N’s portion of Charter Holdings’ net income based on its effective common unit ownership interest and the preferred dividend of $70 million and $150 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. For more information, see Note 11 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
Net income attributable to Charter shareholders. Net income attributable to Charter shareholders was $4.7 billion and $3.2 billion for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, primarily as a result of the factors described above.
Use of Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow
We use certain measures that are not defined by U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) to evaluate various aspects of our business. Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are non-GAAP financial measures and should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities
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reported in accordance with GAAP. These terms, as defined by us, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are reconciled to net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities, respectively, below.
Adjusted EBITDA eliminates the significant non-cash depreciation and amortization expense that results from the capital-intensive nature of our businesses as well as other non-cash or special items, and is unaffected by our capital structure or investment activities. However, this measure is limited in that it does not reflect the periodic costs of certain capitalized tangible and intangible assets used in generating revenues and our cash cost of financing. These costs are evaluated through other financial measures.
Free cash flow is defined as net cash flows from operating activities, less capital expenditures and changes in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures.
Management and Charter’s board of directors use Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow to assess our performance and our ability to service our debt, fund operations and make additional investments with internally generated funds. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA generally correlates to the leverage ratio calculation under our credit facilities or outstanding notes to determine compliance with the covenants contained in the facilities and notes (all such documents have been previously filed with the SEC). For the purpose of calculating compliance with leverage covenants, we use Adjusted EBITDA, as presented, excluding certain expenses paid by our operating subsidiaries to other Charter entities. Our debt covenants refer to these expenses as management fees, which fees were in the amount of $1.3 billion for each of the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020.
A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow to net income attributable to Charter shareholders and net cash flows from operating activities, respectively, is as follows (dollars in millions).
| Years ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | |||||
| Net income attributable to Charter shareholders | $ | 4,654 | $ | 3,222 | ||
| Plus: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest | 666 | 454 | ||||
| Interest expense, net | 4,037 | 3,848 | ||||
| Income tax expense | 1,068 | 626 | ||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 9,345 | 9,704 | ||||
| Stock compensation expense | 430 | 351 | ||||
| Other expenses, net | 430 | 313 | ||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 20,630 | $ | 18,518 | ||
| Net cash flows from operating activities | $ | 16,239 | $ | 14,562 | ||
| Less: Purchases of property, plant and equipment | (7,635) | (7,415) | ||||
| Change in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures | 80 | (77) | ||||
| Free cash flow | $ | 8,684 | $ | 7,070 |
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Overview
We have significant amounts of debt. The principal amount of our debt as of December 31, 2021 was $91.2 billion, consisting of $10.7 billion of credit facility debt, $56.5 billion of investment grade senior secured notes and $24.0 billion of high-yield senior unsecured notes. Our business requires significant cash to fund principal and interest payments on our debt.
Our projected cash needs and projected sources of liquidity depend upon, among other things, our actual results, and the timing and amount of our expenditures. As we continue to grow our mobile services, we expect an initial funding period to grow a new product as well as negative working capital impacts from the timing of device-related cash flows when we sell devices to customers pursuant to equipment installment plans. Further, in 2022, Charter expects to become a meaningful federal cash tax payer as the majority of net operating losses will have been utilized. Free cash flow was $8.7 billion and $7.1 billion for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. See table below for factors impacting free cash flow during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to 2020. As of December 31, 2021, the amount available under our credit facilities was
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approximately $3.9 billion and cash on hand was approximately $601 million. We expect to utilize free cash flow, cash on hand and availability under our credit facilities as well as future refinancing transactions to further extend the maturities of our obligations. The timing and terms of any refinancing transactions will be subject to market conditions among other considerations. Additionally, we may, from time to time, and depending on market conditions and other factors, use cash on hand and the proceeds from securities offerings or other borrowings to retire our debt through open market purchases, privately negotiated purchases, tender offers or redemption provisions. We believe we have sufficient liquidity from cash on hand, free cash flow and Charter Operating’s revolving credit facility as well as access to the capital markets to fund our projected cash needs.
We continue to evaluate the deployment of our cash on hand and anticipated future free cash flow including to invest in our business growth and other strategic opportunities, including expanding the capacity of our network, the expansion of our network through our rural broadband construction project, the build-out and deployment of our CBRS spectrum, and mergers and acquisitions as well as stock repurchases and dividends. Charter's target leverage of net debt to the last twelve months Adjusted EBITDA remains at 4 to 4.5 times Adjusted EBITDA, and up to 3.5 times Adjusted EBITDA at the consolidated first lien level. Our leverage ratio was 4.4 times Adjusted EBITDA as of December 31, 2021. As Adjusted EBITDA grows, we expect to increase the total amount of our indebtedness to maintain leverage within Charter's target leverage range. Excluding purchases from Liberty Broadband discussed below, during the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, Charter purchased in the public market approximately 15.9 million and 18.4 million shares, respectively, of Charter Class A common stock for approximately $10.9 billion and $10.6 billion, respectively. Since the beginning of its buyback program in September 2016 through the year ended December 31, 2021, Charter has purchased in the public market approximately 125.6 million shares of Class A common stock and Charter Holdings common units for approximately $56.8 billion, including purchases from Liberty Broadband discussed below.
In February 2021, Charter and Liberty Broadband entered into a letter agreement (the “LBB Letter Agreement”). The LBB Letter Agreement implements Liberty Broadband’s obligations under the Stockholders Agreement to participate in share repurchases by Charter. Under the LBB Letter Agreement, Liberty Broadband will sell to Charter, generally on a monthly basis, a number of shares of Charter Class A common stock representing an amount sufficient for Liberty Broadband’s ownership of Charter to be reduced such that it does not exceed the ownership cap then applicable to Liberty Broadband under the Stockholders Agreement at a purchase price per share equal to the volume weighted average price per share paid by Charter for shares repurchased during such immediately preceding calendar month other than (i) purchases from A/N, (ii) purchases in privately negotiated transactions or (iii) purchases for the withholding of shares of Charter Class A common stock pursuant to equity compensation programs of Charter. Charter purchased from Liberty Broadband 6.1 million shares of Charter Class A common stock for approximately $4.2 billion during the year ended December 31, 2021. In January 2022, Charter purchased from Liberty Broadband an additional 0.5 million shares of Charter Class A common stock for approximately $341 million.
In December 2016, Charter and A/N entered into a letter agreement, as amended in December 2017 (the "A/N Letter Agreement"), that requires A/N to sell to Charter or to Charter Holdings, on a monthly basis, a number of shares of Charter Class A common stock or Charter Holdings common units that represents a pro rata participation by A/N and its affiliates in any repurchases of shares of Charter Class A common stock from persons other than A/N effected by Charter during the immediately preceding calendar month, at a purchase price equal to the average price paid by Charter for the shares repurchased from persons other than A/N during such immediately preceding calendar month. A/N and Charter both have the right to terminate or suspend the pro rata repurchase arrangement on a prospective basis. During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, Charter Holdings purchased from A/N 3.3 million and 2.6 million Charter Holdings common units, respectively, for approximately $2.2 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively.
As of December 31, 2021, Charter had remaining board authority to purchase an additional $1.9 billion of Charter’s Class A common stock and/or Charter Holdings common units, excluding purchases from Liberty Broadband. Although Charter expects to continue to buy back its common stock consistent with its leverage target range, Charter is not obligated to acquire any particular amount of common stock, and the timing of any purchases that may occur cannot be predicted and will largely depend on market conditions and other potential uses of capital. Purchases may include open market purchases, tender offers or negotiated transactions.
As possible acquisitions, swaps or dispositions arise, we actively review them against our objectives including, among other considerations, improving the operational efficiency, geographic clustering of assets, product development or technology capabilities of our business and achieving appropriate return targets, and we may participate to the extent we believe these possibilities present attractive opportunities. However, there can be no assurance that we will actually complete any acquisitions, dispositions or system swaps, or that any such transactions will be material to our operations or results.
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Recent Events
In January 2022, CCO Holdings, LLC ("CCO Holdings") and CCO Holdings Capital Corp. jointly issued $1.2 billion of 4.750% senior unsecured notes due February 2032 at par. The net proceeds were used for general corporate purposes, including to fund buybacks of Charter Class A common stock and Charter Holdings common units, to repay certain indebtedness and to pay related fees and expenses.
In addition to the debt issued in January 2022 as described above, CCO Holdings and CCO Holdings Capital Corp. jointly issued $3.75 billion aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured notes in 2021 at varying rates, prices and maturity dates, and Charter Operating and Charter Communications Operating Capital Corp. jointly issued $9.8 billion aggregate principal amount of senior secured notes in 2021 at varying rates, prices and maturity dates. The net proceeds were used to pay related fees and expenses and for general corporate purposes, including funding buybacks of Charter Class A common stock and Charter Holdings common units as well as repaying certain indebtedness.
Free Cash Flow
Free cash flow increased $1.6 billion during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the corresponding prior period due to the following (dollars in millions).
| 2021 compared to 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Increase in Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 2,112 |
| Increase in capital expenditures | (220) | |
| Increase in cash paid for interest, net | (193) | |
| Change in working capital, excluding change in accrued interest | (109) | |
| Other, net | 24 | |
| $ | 1,614 |
Free cash flow was reduced by $853 million and $1.1 billion during the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, due to mobile with impacts negatively affecting working capital, capital expenditures and Adjusted EBITDA.
Historical Operating, Investing, and Financing Activities
Cash and Cash Equivalents. We held $601 million and $1.0 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Operating Activities. Net cash provided by operating activities increased $1.7 billion during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the year ended December 31, 2020, primarily due to an increase in Adjusted EBITDA of $2.1 billion offset by changes in working capital, excluding the change in accrued interest and accrued expenses related to capital expenditures, that used $266 million more cash and $193 million higher cash paid for interest.
Investing Activities. Net cash used in investing activities for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 was $7.8 billion and $8.2 billion, respectively. The decrease in cash used was primarily due the purchase of spectrum wireless licenses in 2020 offset by an increase in capital expenditures in 2021.
Financing Activities. Net cash used in financing activities decreased $68 million during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the year ended December 31, 2020 primarily due to an increase in the amount by which borrowings of long-term debt exceeded repayments offset by an increase in the purchase of treasury stock and noncontrolling interest and a decrease in equity exercises.
Capital Expenditures
We have significant ongoing capital expenditure requirements. Capital expenditures were $7.6 billion and $7.4 billion for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The increase was primarily due to an increase in scalable infrastructure driven by augmentation of network capacity for customer growth and usage, with incremental spending to reclaim network headroom maintained prior to COVID-19. See the table below for more details.
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We currently expect full year 2022 cable capital expenditures, excluding capital expenditures associated with our rural construction initiative, to be between $7.1 billion and $7.3 billion. The actual amount of our capital expenditures in 2022 will depend on a number of factors including further spend related to product development and growth rates of both our residential and commercial businesses as well as the pace of rural construction.
Our capital expenditures are funded primarily from cash flows from operating activities and borrowings on our credit facility. In addition, our accrued liabilities related to capital expenditures increased $80 million and decreased $77 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
The following tables present our major capital expenditures categories in accordance with National Cable and Telecommunications Association (“NCTA”) disclosure guidelines for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020. These disclosure guidelines are not required disclosures under GAAP, nor do they impact our accounting for capital expenditures under GAAP (dollars in millions):
| Year ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | |||||
| Customer premise equipment (a) | $ | 1,967 | $ | 2,002 | ||
| Scalable infrastructure (b) | 1,677 | 1,478 | ||||
| Line extensions (c) | 1,642 | 1,641 | ||||
| Upgrade/rebuild (d) | 706 | 615 | ||||
| Support capital (e) | 1,643 | 1,679 | ||||
| Total capital expenditures | $ | 7,635 | $ | 7,415 | ||
| Capital expenditures included in total related to: | ||||||
| Commercial services | $ | 1,445 | $ | 1,325 | ||
| Mobile | $ | 482 | $ | 508 |
(a)Customer premise equipment includes costs incurred at the customer residence to secure new customers and revenue generating units, including customer installation costs and customer premise equipment (e.g., digital receivers and cable modems).
(b)Scalable infrastructure includes costs not related to customer premise equipment, to secure growth of new customers and revenue generating units, or provide service enhancements (e.g., headend equipment).
(c)Line extensions include network costs associated with entering new service areas (e.g., fiber/coaxial cable, amplifiers, electronic equipment, make-ready and design engineering).
(d)Upgrade/rebuild includes costs to modify or replace existing fiber/coaxial cable networks, including betterments.
(e)Support capital includes costs associated with the replacement or enhancement of non-network assets due to technological and physical obsolescence (e.g., non-network equipment, land, buildings and vehicles).
Debt
As of December 31, 2021, the accreted value of our total debt was approximately $91.6 billion, as summarized below (dollars in millions):
| December 31, 2021 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Principal Amount | Accreted Value (a) | Interest Payment Dates | Maturity Date (b) | ||||||||
| CCO Holdings, LLC: | |||||||||||
| 4.000% senior notes due 2023 | $ | 500 | $ | 499 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2023 | |||||
| 5.500% senior notes due 2026 | 750 | 747 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2026 | |||||||
| 5.125% senior notes due 2027 | 3,250 | 3,228 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2027 | |||||||
| 5.000% senior notes due 2028 | 2,500 | 2,475 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2028 | |||||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2029 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2029 | |||||||
| 4.750% senior notes due 2030 | 3,050 | 3,043 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2030 | |||||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2030 | 2,750 | 2,750 | 2/15 & 8/15 | 8/15/2030 | |||||||
| 4.250% senior notes due 2031 | 3,000 | 3,002 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2031 |
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| 4.500% senior notes due 2032 | 2,900 | 2,927 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2032 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.500% senior notes due 2033 | 1,750 | 1,729 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2033 | |||||
| 4.250% senior notes due 2034 | 2,000 | 1,982 | 1/15 & 7/15 | 1/15/2034 | |||||
| Charter Communications Operating, LLC: | |||||||||
| 4.464% senior notes due 2022 | 3,000 | 2,997 | 1/23 & 7/23 | 7/23/2022 | |||||
| Senior floating rate notes due 2024 | 900 | 901 | 2/1, 5/1, 8/1 & 11/1 | 2/1/2024 | |||||
| 4.500% senior notes due 2024 | 1,100 | 1,096 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2024 | |||||
| 4.908% senior notes due 2025 | 4,500 | 4,480 | 1/23 & 7/23 | 7/23/2025 | |||||
| 3.750% senior notes due 2028 | 1,000 | 990 | 2/15 & 8/15 | 2/15/2028 | |||||
| 4.200% senior notes due 2028 | 1,250 | 1,242 | 3/15 & 9/15 | 3/15/2028 | |||||
| 2.250% senior notes due 2029 | 1,250 | 1,240 | 1/15 & 7/15 | 1/15/2029 | |||||
| 5.050% senior notes due 2029 | 1,250 | 1,242 | 3/30 & 9/30 | 3/30/2029 | |||||
| 2.800% senior notes due 2031 | 1,600 | 1,585 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2031 | |||||
| 2.300% senior notes due 2032 | 1,000 | 992 | 2/1 & 8/1 | 2/1/2032 | |||||
| 6.384% senior notes due 2035 | 2,000 | 1,984 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2035 | |||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2038 | 800 | 787 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2038 | |||||
| 3.500% senior notes due 2041 | 1,500 | 1,483 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2041 | |||||
| 3.500% senior notes due 2042 | 1,350 | 1,331 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2042 | |||||
| 6.484% senior notes due 2045 | 3,500 | 3,468 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2045 | |||||
| 5.375% senior notes due 2047 | 2,500 | 2,506 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2047 | |||||
| 5.750% senior notes due 2048 | 2,450 | 2,393 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2048 | |||||
| 5.125% senior notes due 2049 | 1,250 | 1,240 | 1/1 & 7/1 | 7/1/2049 | |||||
| 4.800% senior notes due 2050 | 2,800 | 2,797 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 3/1/2050 | |||||
| 3.700% senior notes due 2051 | 2,050 | 2,031 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2051 | |||||
| 3.900% senior notes due 2052 | 2,400 | 2,322 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 6/1/2052 | |||||
| 6.834% senior notes due 2055 | 500 | 495 | 4/23 & 10/23 | 10/23/2055 | |||||
| 3.850% senior notes due 2061 | 1,850 | 1,809 | 4/1 & 10/1 | 4/1/2061 | |||||
| 4.400% senior notes due 2061 | 1,400 | 1,389 | 6/1 & 12/1 | 12/1/2061 | |||||
| 3.950% senior notes due 2062 | 1,400 | 1,379 | 6/30 & 12/30 | 6/30/2062 | |||||
| Credit facilities | 10,723 | 10,668 | Varies | ||||||
| Time Warner Cable, LLC: | |||||||||
| 5.750% sterling senior notes due 2031 (c) | 846 | 897 | 6/2 | 6/2/2031 | |||||
| 6.550% senior debentures due 2037 | 1,500 | 1,662 | 5/1 & 11/1 | 5/1/2037 | |||||
| 7.300% senior debentures due 2038 | 1,500 | 1,754 | 1/1 & 7/1 | 7/1/2038 | |||||
| 6.750% senior debentures due 2039 | 1,500 | 1,700 | 6/15 & 12/15 | 6/15/2039 | |||||
| 5.875% senior debentures due 2040 | 1,200 | 1,252 | 5/15 & 11/15 | 11/15/2040 | |||||
| 5.500% senior debentures due 2041 | 1,250 | 1,257 | 3/1 & 9/1 | 9/1/2041 | |||||
| 5.250% sterling senior notes due 2042 (d) | 879 | 850 | 7/15 | 7/15/2042 | |||||
| 4.500% senior debentures due 2042 | 1,250 | 1,148 | 3/15 & 9/15 | 9/15/2042 | |||||
| Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC: | |||||||||
| 8.375% senior debentures due 2023 | 1,000 | 1,058 | 3/15 & 9/15 | 3/15/2023 | |||||
| 8.375% senior debentures due 2033 | 1,000 | 1,254 | 7/15 & 1/15 | 7/15/2033 | |||||
| $ | 91,198 | $ | 91,561 |
(a)The accreted values presented in the table above represent the principal amount of the debt adjusted for original issue discount or premium at the time of sale, deferred financing costs, and, in regards to debt assumed in acquisitions, fair value premium adjustments as a result of applying acquisition accounting plus the accretion of those amounts to the balance sheet date. However, the amount that is currently payable if the debt becomes immediately due is equal to the principal amount of the debt. In regards to the Sterling Notes, the principal amount of the debt and any premium or discount is remeasured into US dollars as of each balance sheet date. We have availability under our credit facilities of approximately $3.9 billion as of December 31, 2021.
(b)In general, the obligors have the right to redeem all of the notes set forth in the above table in whole or in part at their option, beginning at various times prior to their stated maturity dates, subject to certain conditions, upon the payment of the outstanding principal amount (plus a specified redemption premium) and all accrued and unpaid interest.
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(c)Principal amount includes £625 million valued at $846 million as of December 31, 2021 using the exchange rate as of December 31, 2021.
(d)Principal amount includes £650 million valued at $879 million as of December 31, 2021 using the exchange rate as of December 31, 2021.
See Note 9 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for further details regarding our outstanding debt and other financing arrangements, including certain information about maturities, covenants and restrictions related to such debt and financing arrangements. The agreements and instruments governing our debt and financing arrangements are complicated and you should consult such agreements and instruments which are filed with the SEC for more detailed information.
At December 31, 2021, Charter Operating had a consolidated leverage ratio of approximately 3.0 to 1.0 and a consolidated first lien leverage ratio of 2.9 to 1.0. Both ratios are in compliance with the ratios required by the Charter Operating credit facilities of 5.0 to 1.0 consolidated leverage ratio and 4.0 to 1.0 consolidated first lien leverage ratio. A failure by Charter Operating to maintain the financial covenants would result in an event of default under the Charter Operating credit facilities and the debt of CCO Holdings. See “Part I. Item 1A. Risk Factors — The agreements and instruments governing our debt contain restrictions and limitations that could significantly affect our ability to operate our business, as well as significantly affect our liquidity.”
Recently Issued Accounting Standards
See Note 24 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for a discussion of recently issued accounting standards.