CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS, INC. /MO/ Q4 FY2025 earnings call

• In 2025, competed for customers by delivering great products, video product improvements had impact, Internet customer losses improved year over year. - In 2026, aim to win in residential and business connectivity marketplace, nearly complete rural build-out, upgrade spectrum network to symmetrical and multi-gig service, work with content owners in Silicon Valley, have structural and strategic mobile reselling agreement with Verizon, launch additional MVNO for business with T-Mobile, video product and platform is a killer app, invest in technology including AI, guarantee Internet service with invincible Wi-Fi product, guarantee savings, expand to Cox following regulatory approval, plan to introduce spectrum pricing and packaging, grow mobile, return to Internet growth, expect synergies from b to b combination. - Jessica mentioned reporting changes to customer and financial data, customer results including Internet, mobile, video, wireline voice, rural, revenue details, operating expenses, EBITDA, net income, capital expenditures, free cash flow, cash taxes, debt, share repurchases, balance sheet strategy.

In 2025, revenue was down about 0.5% due to customer losses and challenging political advertising comparison, while EBITDA grew by about half a percent. In customer results: Residential and small business - lost 119,000 Internet customers in Q4, added 428,000 mobile lines with lower net adds due to big telco competition, video customers grew by 44,000 vs loss of 123,000 in 2024 Q4, wireline voice customers declined by 140,000. Rural saw 46,000 net customer additions. Residential revenue declined by 2.4%, commercial total revenue grew by 0.3% with mid-market and large business up 2.6%, small business down 1.3%, advertising revenue down 20% excluding political was flat, other revenue grew by 7.3%. Operating expenses: Total operating expenses decreased by 3.1% year over year, programming costs declined by 8.4%, other costs of revenue increased by 2.4%, cost to service customers decreased 3.9%, marketing and residential sales expense was flat, transition expenses related to Cox transaction totaled $15M, adjusted EBITDA declined by 1.2% in Q4, full year 2025 EBITDA grew by 0.6%, planning slight EBITDA growth in 2026 excluding transition costs. Fourth quarter capital expenditures totaled $3.3B, 2025 capital expenditures totaled $11.66B, expected 2026 capital expenditures to reach $11.4B, free cash flow in Q4 totaled $773M, cash taxes in Q4 totaled $139M, year 2026 cash tax payments expected between $500M - $800M, debt principal at end of Q4 was $95B, weighted average cost of debt 5.2%, repurchased 2.9M shares totaling $760M.

• Expect operating plan to deliver EBITDA growth in 2026, excluding transition costs. - First half 2026 EBITDA more challenged than second half due to one-time benefits in 1Q 2025 and political advertising expected in 2026. - Expect total capital spending to be on downward trajectory after 2026, run rate capital expenditures below $8B per year after evolution and expansion initiatives conclude. - Current expectations for capital spending through 2029 including line extension spending associated with Bead program, outlook for 2025 - 2028 in line with January 2025 provided, added 2029 with similar spend as 2028. - Post transaction target leverage moved to low end of 3.5 to 3.75 times range, expect to achieve within three years following Cox deal close, continue to generate significant free cash flow and have ongoing capital returns to shareholders.

• Competitive environment with high competition for new customers, low move rates, higher mobile substitution, expanded cell phone Internet competition and fiber overlap growth. - Political advertising comparison challenges. - Impact of macro environment on housing, low moves, and introduction of new competitors with expanding footprint through phone, Internet, or fixed wireless access. - Overbuild impact on Internet penetration in new overbuilt vintage. - Programming costs continue to go up, particularly retrans. - Risks related to regulatory approval of Cox transaction. - Impact of competitor subsidy activity on mobile net adds.

• Q: About wireless agreement and strand mount/offload strategy, A: Amended and modernized MVNO agreement with Verizon, offload rate around 89% and on steady climb, continue to roll out CBRS in opportunistic pace. - Q: Assess position of Spectrum Mobile in market, A: Conversion strategy working, brand awareness increasing, reputation improving, savings recognition and word-of-mouth improving but more work to do, product capability has upside. - Q: Market share trend against fiber operators and EBITDA growth, A: Competed well against fiber for years, overbuild impact limited to few percentage points, EBITDA growth goal is to overcome broadband subscriber declines with mobile growth, changing mix, operational improvements, expense management and political advertising. - Q: Sustainability of video sub gains and Silicon Valley endeavors, A: Video sub gains not the goal, focus on supporting broadband acquisition and retention, Silicon Valley goal is to get software developers to develop to Charter's ubiquitously deployed network with low latency and local edge compute capabilities. - Q: Balancing operating expense growth with investment and efficiencies, A: Made investments to have ability to innovate and develop new products while increasing efficiency, cost to service customers expected slightly down, marketing and resi sales expense growth expected slower due to prior investment and message driving changes. - Q: Pricing strategies, A: Introduced new pricing and packaging, been able to maintain or grow customer relationship ARPU, expect Internet ARPU to grow slowly in 2026, mobile ARPU has been declining but may have bottomed out, video ARPU continues to decline due to various factors. - Q: Fiber competitive environment and promotional activity, A: Competitors may not focused on traditional financial returns, natural throttling mechanism in fiber overbuilds due to lower density, $40 gig offer has impact on gig uptake, pleased with everyday pricing strategy. - Q: Price locks and wireless penetration at Cox, A: Price locks likely to stay as working and giving customer comfort, expect faster mobile penetration at Cox than early Spectrum mobile penetration due to better platforms, sales channel, marketing and brand awareness now.