Charter has confirmed the loss of 320,000 video customers in the third quarter of 2023, citing the temporary loss of Disney programming as one of the reasons.
The carriage dispute between Charter and Disney first begun on August 31 and continued through until a new deal was agreed on September 11, 2023. During this period, Spectrum TV customers were without access to many popular Disney-owned channels.
According to Charter’s Q3 2023 earnings report, the loss of these channels contributed to a loss of 320,000 video customers during the quarter. Considering Charter lost 211,000 in the third quarter of 2022, and 189,000 in the second quarter of 2023, Disney is unlikely to have been the only reason why video customers were lost during the third quarter.
Following the latest losses, Charter ended the third quarter of the year with 13.8 million residential video customers, down from the 14.1 million reported at the end of the second quarter of this year, and down from the 14.6 million reported at the end of the third quarter of 2022.
Charter also appeared to attribute some loss of internet customers to the Disney dispute as well. Specifically, Charter saw an increase of 57,000 residential Internet customers during the third quarter and this compared to 70,000 during the second quarter of this year, and 61,000 during the third quarter of 2022.
Lastly, the company’s latest earnings report confirmed that $63 million of residential customer credits were issued in response to the temporary loss of Disney programming in September. An amount which negatively impacted Charter’s year-over-year revenue growth.
The $63 million in customer credits also contributed to lower monthly residential revenue per residential customer, and lower residential revenue in general, in the third quarter.
