Charter Communications continues to move fast in its quest to transition from a provider of fast-fading traditional linear video to a go-to, UX-friendly aggregator of streaming choice and convenience.
The cable operator has announced key new self-service features in its customer-facing digital portals that allow both pay TV and internet-only customers to tap into and make adjustments to its fast-growing list of premium streaming service options. With a major part of its revamped video strategy centered around the inclusion of ad-supported SVOD apps in pay TV packages at no extra cost, Charter has also come through on an earlier-made promise to allow Spectrum Select TV subscribers to easily upgrade to the ad-free versions of its content partners’ apps and pay only the retail price difference. In addition, Charter’s internet-only customers can use the same tools to add streaming apps to their Spectrum plan on an a la carte basis.
- Users of Charter’s Spectrum.net online customer service portal and its My Spectrum mobile app will now have access to a full range of “Seamless Entertainment” tools which enable the following:
Customers can sign up for the Spectrum Select pay TV service, which pairs more than 150 linear channels with over $100 a month worth of ad-supported SVOD services — Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+ and Peacock, among others included. (And the streaming version of ESPN, Hulu with Ads and Fox’s upcoming SVOD launch also soon to be included.)
- Charter’s TV customers whose plans include free access to ad-supported SVODs can now choose sans-commercials versions of these popular streaming services, with the price differential between the premium and basic tiers simply added to their monthly bills (although Charter noted customers can choose a preferred billing option).
- Internet-only subscribers can now use self-service digital tools to purchase through Charter the same popular SVODs a-la-carte — both ad-supported and ad-free versions. These options include choices like the Disney Bundle, and all billing can be consolidated on the customer’s monthly Spectrum bill.
- Spectrum subscribers can also lease the Xumo Stream Box, the streaming device developed by Charter’s connected TV joint venture with Comcast.
The roots of Charter’s current video strategy date back 23 months, when out of a tough carriage negotiation with Disney, it carved out the right to deploy the most basic version of programmer’s flagship streaming service, Disney+, at no additional cost to subscribers of its most popular linear video tiers. Similar agreements have since been made with Paramount Global, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal and TelevisaUnivision, among other media companies.
Late last year, Charter, which had largely marginalized video as a service offering steadily migrating into obsolescence, returned the offering to its main marketing focus, bundled alongside high-speed internet and mobile. Results had been steadily encouraging until last week, when the cable operator reported a five-fold decrease in pay TV subscriber losses in the second quarter — a result one analyst called “eye-popping.”
Of course, losing only 80,000 video customers in Q2 is better than bleeding out more than 400,000, but the fact remains that Charter is still ending each quarter with fewer pay TV subscribers than when it started the period. Video revenue in Q2, meanwhile, was down 9.9% to $3.5 billion.
Conversely, keeping video around benefits Charter as a marketer of home and mobile connectivity, with the streaming of HD and 4K video remaining a top “use case” to sell high-speed internet access to customers.