CCI Form 10-K
UNITED
STATES
SECURITIES
AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington,
D.C. 20549
FORM
10-K
(Mark
One)
|
[X]
|
|
ANNUAL
REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES
EXCHANGE
ACT
OF 1934
|
|
|
|
For
the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006
|
or
|
|
|
|
[ ]
|
|
TRANSITION
REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE
SECURITIES
EXCHANGE
ACT OF 1934
|
For
the Transition Period From
to
Commission
File Number: 000-27927
Charter
Communications, Inc.
(Exact
name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware
|
|
43-1857213
|
(State
or other jurisdiction of incorporation or
organization)
|
|
(I.R.S.
Employer Identification Number)
|
|
|
|
12405
Powerscourt Drive
|
|
|
St.
Louis, Missouri 63131
|
|
(314) 965-0555
|
(Address
of principal executive offices including zip code)
|
|
(Registrant’s
telephone number, including area
code)
|
Securities
registered pursuant to section 12(b) of the Act:
Class A
Common Stock, $.001 Par Value
Securities
registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate
by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined
in
Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes
þ
No
o
Indicate
by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to
Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes o
No
þ
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to
be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the
registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to
such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes þ
No
o
Indicate
by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of
Regulation S-K (§ 229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and
will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive
proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this
Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. o
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an
accelerated filer, or a non-accelerated filer. See definition of “accelerated
filer and large accelerated filer” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check
one):
Large
accelerated filer o Accelerated
filer þ Non-accelerated
filer
o
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule
12b-2 of the Act). Yes oNo
þ
The
aggregate market value of the registrant of outstanding Class A Common
Stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant at June 30, 2006 was
approximately $459 million, computed based on the closing sale price as quoted
on the NASDAQ Global Market
on
that date. For purposes of this calculation only, directors, executive officers
and the principal controlling shareholder or entities controlled by such
controlling shareholder of the registrant are deemed to be affiliates of the
registrant.
There
were 408,024,799 shares of Class A Common Stock outstanding as of January
31, 2007. There were 50,000 shares of Class B Common Stock outstanding as
of the same date.
Documents
Incorporated By Reference
Portions
of the Proxy Statement for the annual meeting of stockholders to be held on
June
12, 2007 are incorporated by reference into Part III.
CHARTER
COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
FORM
10-K — FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2006
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
|
|
|
|
Page
No.
|
PART
I
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Item 1
|
|
Business
|
|
1
|
Item
1A
|
|
Risk
Factors
|
|
21
|
Item
1B
|
|
Unresolved
Staff Comments
|
|
33
|
Item 2
|
|
Properties
|
|
33
|
Item 3
|
|
Legal
Proceedings
|
|
34
|
Item 4
|
|
Submission
of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
|
|
34
|
|
|
|
|
|
PART
II
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Item 5
|
|
Market
for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer
Purchases of Equity Securities
|
|
35
|
Item 6
|
|
Selected
Financial Data
|
|
37
|
Item 7
|
|
Management's
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations
|
|
38
|
Item 7A
|
|
Quantitative
and Qualitative Disclosure About Market Risk
|
|
68
|
Item 8
|
|
Financial
Statements and Supplementary Data
|
|
69
|
Item 9
|
|
Changes
in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial
Disclosure
|
|
69
|
Item
9A
|
|
Controls
and Procedures
|
|
69
|
Item
9B
|
|
Other
Information
|
|
70
|
|
|
|
|
|
PART
III
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Item 10
|
|
Directors,
Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
|
|
71
|
Item 11
|
|
Executive
Compensation
|
|
71
|
Item 12
|
|
Security
Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related
Stockholder Matters
|
|
71
|
Item 13
|
|
Certain
Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director
Independence
|
|
71
|
Item 14
|
|
Principal
Accounting Fees and Services
|
|
71
|
|
|
|
|
|
PART
IV
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Item 15
|
|
Exhibits
and Financial Statement Schedules
|
|
72
|
|
|
|
|
|
Signatures
|
|
73
|
|
|
|
|
|
Exhibit
Index
|
|
74
|
This
annual report on Form 10-K is for the year ended December 31, 2006.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) allows us to “incorporate by
reference” information that we file with the SEC, which means that we can
disclose important information to you by referring you directly to those
documents. Information incorporated by reference is considered to be part of
this annual report. In addition, information that we file with the SEC in the
future will automatically update and supersede information contained in this
annual report. In this annual report, “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Charter
Communications, Inc., Charter Communications Holding Company, LLC and their
subsidiaries.
CAUTIONARY
STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This
annual report includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section
27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") and Section
21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"),
regarding, among other things, our plans, strategies and prospects, both
business and financial, including, without limitation, the forward-looking
statements set forth in Part I. Item 1. under the heading "Business - Focus
for 2007," and in Part II. Item 7. under the heading "Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in
this annual report. Although we believe that our plans, intentions and
expectations reflected in or suggested by these forward-looking statements
are
reasonable, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or realize these plans,
intentions or expectations. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject
to
risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, without limitation, the factors
described in Part I. Item 1A. under the heading "Risk Factors" and in Part
II.
Item 7. under the heading "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of
Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in this annual report. Many of
the forward-looking statements contained in this annual report may be identified
by the use of forward-looking words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate,"
"should," "planned," "will," "may," "intend," "estimated," "aim," "on track,"
"target," "opportunity" and "potential," among others. Important factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking
statements we make in this annual report are set forth in this annual report
and
in other reports or documents that we file from time to time with the SEC,
and
include, but are not limited to:
|
·
|
the
availability, in general, of funds to meet interest payment obligations
under our debt and to fund our operations and necessary capital
expenditures, either through cash flows from operating activities,
further
borrowings or other sources and, in particular, our ability to be
able to
provide under the applicable debt instruments such funds (by dividend,
investment or otherwise) to the applicable obligor of such
debt;
|
|
·
|
our
ability to comply with all covenants in our indentures and credit
facilities, any violation of which could trigger a default of our
other
obligations under cross-default provisions;
|
|
·
|
our
ability to pay or refinance debt prior to or when it becomes due
and/or to
take advantage of market opportunities and market windows to refinance
that debt through new issuances, exchange offers or otherwise, including
restructuring our balance sheet and leverage
position;
|
|
· |
competition
from other video programming distributors, including incumbent telephone
companies, direct broadcast satellite operators, wireless broadband
providers and DSL providers; |
|
· |
unforeseen difficulties we may encounter in our
continued
introduction of our telephone services such as our ability to meet
heightened customer expectations for the reliability of voice services
compared to other services we provide and our ability to meet heightened
demand for installations and customer
service; |
|
·
|
our
ability to sustain and grow revenues and cash flows from operating
activities by offering video, high-speed Internet, telephone and
other
services and to maintain and grow a stable customer base, particularly
in
the face of increasingly aggressive competition from other service
providers;
|
|
·
|
our
ability to obtain programming at reasonable prices or to pass programming
cost increases on to our customers;
|
|
·
|
general
business conditions, economic uncertainty or slowdown;
and
|
|
·
|
the
effects of governmental regulation, including but not limited to
local
franchise authorities, on our business.
|
All
forward-looking statements attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf
are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. We
are
under no duty or obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements
after the date of this annual report.
PART
I
Introduction
Charter
Communications, Inc. ("Charter") is a broadband communications company operating
in the United States, with approximately 5.73 million customers at December
31,
2006. Through our hybrid fiber and coaxial cable network, we offer our customers
traditional cable video programming (analog and digital, which we refer to
as
"video" service), high-speed Internet access, advanced broadband cable services
(such as Charter OnDemandTM
video service ("OnDemand"), high definition television service,
and
digital video recorder (“DVR”) service) and, in many of our markets, telephone
service. See "Item
1.
Business —
Products and Services"
for
further description of these terms, including "customers."
At
December 31, 2006, we served approximately 5.43 million analog video customers,
of which approximately 2.81 million were also digital video customers. We also
served approximately 2.40 million high-speed Internet customers (including
approximately 268,900 who received only high-speed Internet services). We also
provided telephone service to approximately 445,800 customers (including
approximately 27,200 who received only telephone service).
At
December 31, 2006, our investment in cable properties, long-term debt,
accumulated deficit and total shareholders’ deficit were $14.4 billion, $19.1
billion, $11.5 billion and $6.2 billion, respectively. Our working capital
deficit was $959 million at December 31, 2006. For the year ended
December 31, 2006, our revenues, net loss applicable to common stock, and
net loss per common share were approximately $5.5 billion, $1.4 billion, and
$4.13, respectively.
We
have a
history of net losses. Further, we expect to continue to report net losses
for
the foreseeable future. Our net losses are principally attributable to
insufficient revenue to cover the combination of operating expenses and interest
expenses we incur because of our high level of debt and depreciation expenses
that we incur resulting from the capital investments we have made and continue
to make in our cable properties. We expect that these expenses will remain
significant.
Charter
was organized as a Delaware corporation in 1999 and completed an initial public
offering of its Class A common stock in November 1999. Charter is a holding
company whose principal assets are an approximate 55% equity interest (52%
for
accounting purposes) and a 100% voting interest in Charter Communications
Holding Company, LLC (“Charter Holdco”), the direct parent of CCHC, LLC
(“CCHC”), which is the direct parent of Charter Communications Holdings, LLC
("Charter Holdings"). Charter also holds certain preferred equity and
indebtedness of Charter Holdco that mirror the terms of securities issued by
Charter. Charter's only business is to act as the sole manager of Charter Holdco
and its subsidiaries. As sole manager, Charter controls the affairs of Charter
Holdco and its limited liability company subsidiaries.
Paul
G.
Allen controls Charter through an as-converted common equity interest of
approximately 49% and a voting control interest of 91% as of December 31, 2006.
He also owns 45% of Charter Holdco through affiliated entities. His membership
units in Charter Holdco are convertible at any time for shares of our Class
B
common stock on a one-for-one basis, which shares are in turn convertible into
Class A common stock. Each share of Class A common stock is entitled to one
vote. Mr. Allen is entitled to ten votes for each share of Class B common stock
and for each membership unit in Charter Holdco held by him and his affiliates.
Our
principal executive offices are located at Charter Plaza, 12405 Powerscourt
Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63131. Our telephone number is (314) 965-0555 and
we
have a website accessible at www.charter.com. Since January 1, 2002, our
annual reports, quarterly reports and current reports on Form 8-K, and all
amendments thereto, have been made available on our website free of charge
as
soon as reasonably practicable after they have been filed. The information
posted on our website is not incorporated into this annual report.
Certain
Significant Developments in 2006
We
continue to pursue opportunities to improve our liquidity. Our
efforts in this regard have resulted in the completion of a number of financing
and asset sales transactions in 2006, as follows:
|
·
|
the
January 2006 sale by our subsidiaries, CCH II, LLC ("CCH II") and
CCH II
Capital Corp., of an additional $450 million principal amount of
their
10.250% senior notes due 2010;
|
|
·
|
the
April 2006 refinancing of our credit
facilities;
|
|
·
|
the
September 2006 exchange by our subsidiaries, Charter Holdings, CCH
I, LLC
(“CCH I”), CCH I Capital Corp., CCH II and CCH II Capital Corp., of
approximately $797 million in total principal amount of outstanding
debt
securities of Charter Holdings in a private placement for CCH I and
CCH II
new debt securities (the “Private Exchange”);
|
|
·
|
the
September 2006 exchange by us and our subsidiaries, CCHC, CCH II,
and CCH
II Capital Corp., of approximately $450 million in total principal
amount
of Charter’s 5.875% convertible senior notes due 2009 for cash, shares of
Charter’s Class A common stock and CCH II new debt securities;
and
|
|
·
|
the
third quarter 2006 sales of certain cable television systems serving
a
total of approximately 390,300 analog video customers for a total
sales
price of approximately $1.0
billion.
|
Recent
Event
In
February 2007, we engaged J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., Banc of America
Securities LLC, and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. to arrange and syndicate
a
refinancing and expansion of our existing $6.85 billion senior secured credit
facilities. The proposed transaction includes $8.35 billion of senior
secured credit facilities, consisting of a $1.5 billion revolving credit
facility, a $1.5 billion new term facility, and a $5.0 billion refinancing
term
loan facility at Charter Communications Operating, LLC and a $350 million third
lien term loan at CCO Holdings, LLC, (collectively, the “Transaction”).
We
expect
to use a portion of the additional proceeds from the Transaction to redeem
up to
$550 million of our subsidiary, CCO Holdings, LLC’s outstanding floating rate
notes due 2010 and up to $187 million of Charter Holdings' outstanding 8.625%
senior notes due 2009 in addition to other general corporate purposes. We expect
that we will enter into the credit facilities in March 2007. Upon
completion of the Transaction, we expect to have adequate liquidity to fund
our
operations and service our debt through 2008.
Focus
for 2007
We
strive
to provide value to our customers by offering a high-quality suite of services
including video, high-speed Internet, and telephone service as well as advanced
offerings including OnDemand video service, high-definition television service,
and DVR service. We offer our services to encourage customers to subscribe
to a
combination of services known as a bundle. We offer a two-services bundle,
which
is a combination of two of our service offerings; but our main focus is
marketing our three-services bundle, also called “Triple Play.” With a bundle,
the customer receives a lower total price than the sum of the price of
individual services, along with the convenience of a single bill. By continually
focusing on the needs of our customers - raising customer service levels and
investing in products and services they desire - our goal is to be the premier
provider of in-home entertainment and communications services in the communities
we serve.
In
2007,
we expect to continue with the strategic priorities identified in 2006, which
were to:
|
·
|
improve
the end-to-end customer experience and increase customer
loyalty;
|
|
·
|
grow
sales and retention for all our products and services;
|
|
·
|
drive
operating and capital effectiveness; and
|
|
·
|
continue
an opportunistic approach to enhancing liquidity, extending maturities,
and reducing debt.
|
We
strive
to continually improve our customers’ experiences and, in doing so, to increase
customer loyalty by instilling a service-oriented culture throughout our care
centers, field service operations, and corporate support organization.
Charter
markets its service offerings by employing a segmented, targeted marketing
approach. We determine which marketing and sales programs are the most effective
using campaign management tools that track, analyze, and report the results
of
our marketing campaigns.
We
believe that customers value our ability to combine video, high-speed Internet,
and telephone services into attractively priced bundled offerings that
distinguish us from the competition. Bundling of services, by combining two
or
more Charter services for one value-based price, is fundamental to our marketing
strategy because we believe bundled offerings increase customer acceptance
of
our services, and improve customer retention and satisfaction. We will pursue
further growth in our customer base through targeted marketing of bundled
services and continually improving the end-to-end customer experience.
During
2006, we extended the deployment of our telephone capabilities to approximately
3.9 million additional homes passed, to reach a total of approximately 6.8
million homes passed across our network, and we plan to extend to additional
homes passed in 2007. During 2007, we plan to focus our marketing and sales
efforts to attract additional customers to our telephone service, primarily
through bundled offers with our video and high-speed Internet services.
In
addition to serving and growing our residential customer base, we will increase
efforts to make video, high-speed Internet and telephone services available
to
the business community. We believe that small businesses will find our bundled
service offerings provide value and convenience, and that we can continue to
grow this portion of our business.
We
expect
to continue a disciplined approach to managing capital expenditures by directing
resources to initiatives and opportunities offering the highest expected
returns. We anticipate placing a priority on supporting deployment of telephone
service to residential and small business customers.
Our
asset
sales and operational initiatives in 2006 have improved the density of our
geographic service areas and provided a more efficient operating platform.
We
operate an integrated customer care system to serve our customers. We are
deploying telephone service capability to the majority of our systems to more
effectively leverage the capability of our broadband network, and are making
a
series of service improvement initiatives related to our technical operations.
We expect our continuous improvement initiatives to further enhance the
operating effectiveness and efficiencies of our operating platform. We
will also continue to evaluate our geographic service areas for opportunities
to
improve operating and capital efficiencies, through sales, exchanges
of systems with other providers, and/or acquisitions of cable
systems.
In
2007,
we will continue to evaluate potential financial transactions that can enhance
our liquidity, extend debt maturities, and/or reduce our debt.
We
believe our focus on these strategic priorities will enable us to provide
greater value to our customers and thereby generate future growth opportunities
for us.
Corporate
Organizational Structure
The
chart
below sets forth our organizational structure and that of our direct and
indirect subsidiaries. This chart does not include all of our affiliates and
subsidiaries and, in some cases, we have combined separate entities for
presentation purposes. The equity ownership, voting percentages, and
indebtedness amounts shown below are approximations as of December 31, 2006,
and
do not give effect to any exercise, conversion or exchange of then outstanding
options, preferred stock, convertible notes, and other convertible or
exchangeable securities. Indebtedness amounts shown below are accreted values
for financial reporting purposes as of December 31, 2006. See “Item 8. Financial
Statements and Supplementary Data,” which also includes the principal amount of
the indebtedness described below.
(1)
|
|
Charter
acts as the sole manager of Charter Holdco and its direct and indirect
limited liability company subsidiaries. Charter’s certificate of
incorporation requires that its principal assets be securities of
Charter
Holdco, the terms of which mirror the terms of securities issued
by
Charter. See “Item 1. Business — Corporate Organizational Structure —
Charter Communications, Inc.” below.
|
|
|
|
(2)
|
|
These
membership units are held by Charter Investment, Inc. (“CII”) and Vulcan
Cable III Inc., each of which is 100% owned by Paul G. Allen, our
chairman
and controlling shareholder. They are exchangeable at any time on
a
one-for-one basis for shares of Charter Class B common stock, which
in
turn are exchangeable into Charter Class A common
stock.
|
|
|
|
(3)
|
|
The
percentages shown in this table reflect the 39.8 million shares of
Class A common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2006
issued
pursuant to the share lending agreement.
However, for accounting purposes, Charter’s common equity interest in
Charter Holdco is 52%, and Paul G. Allen’s ownership of Charter
Holdco through CII and Vulcan Cable III Inc. is 48%. These percentages
exclude the 39.8 million mirror membership units outstanding as of
December
31, 2006 issued pursuant to the share lending agreement.
See
Note 13 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained
in
“Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
|
|
|
|
(4)
|
|
Represents
preferred membership interests in CC VIII, LLC (“CC VIII”), a subsidiary
of CC V Holdings, LLC, and an exchangeable accreting note issued
by CCHC
related to the settlement of the CC VIII dispute. See Note 10 to
the
accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Item 8.
Financial Statements and Supplementary
Data.”
|
Charter
Communications, Inc. Certain
provisions of Charter’s certificate of incorporation and Charter Holdco’s
limited liability company agreement effectively require that Charter’s
investment in Charter Holdco replicate, on a “mirror” basis, Charter’s
outstanding equity and debt structure. As a result of these coordinating
provisions, whenever Charter issues equity or debt, Charter transfers the
proceeds from such issuance to Charter Holdco, and Charter Holdco issues a
“mirror” security to Charter that replicates the characteristics of the security
issued by Charter. Consequently, Charter’s principal assets are an approximate
55% common equity interest (52% for accounting purposes) and a 100% voting
interest in Charter Holdco, “mirror” notes that are payable by Charter Holdco to
Charter that have the same principal amount and terms as Charter’s convertible
senior notes and preferred units in Charter Holdco that mirror the terms and
liquidation preferences of Charter’s outstanding preferred stock. Charter
Holdco, through its subsidiaries, owns cable systems and certain strategic
investments. As sole manager under applicable operating agreements, Charter
controls the affairs of Charter Holdco and its limited liability company
subsidiaries. In addition, Charter also provides management services to Charter
Holdco and its subsidiaries under a management services agreement.
The
following table sets forth information as of December 31, 2006 with respect
to
the shares of common stock of Charter on an actual outstanding, “as converted”
and “fully diluted” basis:
|
Charter
Communications, Inc.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Assuming
Exchange of
|
|
|
|
Actual
Shares Outstanding (a)
|
|
Charter
Holdco Membership Units (b)
|
|
Fully
Diluted Shares Outstanding (c)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Number
|
|
Percentage
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Number
of
|
|
Percentage
of
|
|
of
Fully
|
|
of
Fully
|
|
Number
of
|
|
Percentage
|
|
|
|
As
Converted
|
|
As
Converted
|
|
Diluted
|
|
Diluted
|
|
Common
|
|
of
Common
|
|
|
|
Common
|
|
Common
|
|
Common
|
|
Common
|
|
Shares
|
|
Shares
|
|
Voting
|
|
Shares
|
|
Shares
|
|
Shares
|
|
Shares
|
|
Outstanding
|
|
Outstanding
|
|
Percentage
|
|
Outstanding
|
|
Outstanding
|
|
Outstanding
|
|
Outstanding
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Class A
Common Stock
|
407,994,585
|
|
99.99%
|
|
9.99%
|
|
407,994,585
|
|
54.61%
|
|
407,994,585
|
|
41.94%
|
Class B
Common Stock
|
50,000
|
|
0.01%
|
|
90.01%
|
|
50,000
|
|
0.01%
|
|
50,000
|
|
*
|
Total
Common Shares
Outstanding
|
408,044,585
|
|
100.00%
|
|
100.00%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One-for-One
Exchangeable Equity in Subsidiaries:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Charter
Investment, Inc.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
222,818,858
|
|
29.82%
|
|
222,818,858
|
|
22.91%
|
Vulcan
Cable III Inc.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
116,313,173
|
|
15.56%
|
|
116,313,173
|
|
11.96%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
As Converted Shares Outstanding
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
747,176,616
|
|
100.00%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other
Convertible Securities
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Charter
Communications, Inc.:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Convertible
Preferred Stock (d)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
148,575
|
|
0.02%
|
Convertible
Debt:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5.875%
Convertible Senior
Notes
(e)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
170,454,545
|
|
17.52%
|
Employee,
Director and
Consultant
Stock Options (f)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
26,692,468
|
|
2.74%
|
CCHC:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
14%
Exchangeable Accreting
Note
(g)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
28,300,595
|
|
2.91%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fully
Diluted Common Shares Outstanding
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
972,772,799
|
|
100.00%
|
__________
* Less
than
.01%.
(a)
|
|
Paul
G. Allen owns approximately 7% of Charter’s outstanding Class A common
stock (approximately 49% assuming the exchange by Mr. Allen of all
units
in Charter Holdco held by him and his affiliates for shares of Charter
Class B common stock, which are in turn convertible into Class A
common
stock) and beneficially controls approximately 91% of the voting
power of
Charter’s capital stock. Mr. Allen is entitled to ten votes for each
share of Class B common stock held by him and his affiliates and for
each membership unit in Charter Holdco held by him and his affiliates.
|
|
|
|
(b)
|
|
Assumes
only the exchange of Charter Holdco membership units held by Mr.
Allen and
his affiliates for shares of Charter Class B common stock on a
one-for-one basis pursuant to exchange agreements between the holders
of
such units and Charter, which shares are in turn convertible into
Class A
common stock. Does not include shares issuable on conversion or exercise
of any other convertible securities, including stock options, convertible
notes and convertible preferred stock.
|
|
|
|
(c)
|
|
Represents
“fully diluted” common shares outstanding, assuming exercise, exchange or
conversion of all outstanding options and exchangeable or convertible
securities, including the exchangeable membership units described
in note
(b) above, all shares of Charter Series A convertible redeemable
preferred stock, the 14% CCHC exchangeable accreting note, all outstanding
5.875% convertible senior notes of Charter, and all employee, director
and
consultant stock options.
|
(d)
|
|
Reflects
common shares issuable upon conversion of the 36,713 shares of
Series A convertible redeemable preferred stock. Such shares have a
current liquidation preference of approximately $4 million and are
convertible at any time into shares of Class A common stock at an
initial conversion price of $24.71 per share (or 4.0469446 shares
of Class
A common stock for each share of convertible redeemable preferred
stock),
subject to certain adjustments.
|
|
|
|
(e)
|
|
Reflects
shares issuable upon conversion of all outstanding 5.875% convertible
senior notes ($413 million total principal amount), which are convertible
into shares of Class A common stock at an initial conversion rate of
413.2231 shares of Class A common stock per $1,000 principal amount
of notes (or approximately $2.42 per share), subject to certain
adjustments.
|
|
|
|
(f)
|
|
The
weighted average exercise price of outstanding stock options was
$3.88 as
of December 31, 2006.
|
|
|
|
(g)
|
|
Mr.
Allen, through his wholly owned subsidiary CII, holds an accreting
note
(the “CCHC note”) that as of December 31, 2006 is exchangeable for Charter
Holdco units. The CCHC note has a 15-year maturity. The CCHC note
has an
initial accreted value of $48 million accreting at 14% compounded
quarterly, except that from and after February 28, 2009, CCHC may
pay any
increase in the accreted value of the CCHC note in cash and the accreted
value of the CCHC note will not increase to the extent such amount
is paid
in cash. The CCHC note is exchangeable at CII’s option, at any time, for
Charter Holdco Class A common units, which are exchangeable into
shares of
Charter Class B common stock, which shares are in turn convertible
into
Class A common stock, at a rate equal to the then accreted value,
divided
by $2.00. See Note 10 to our accompanying consolidated financial
statements contained in “Item 8. Financial Statements and
Supplementary Data.”
|
Charter
Communications Holding Company, LLC. Charter
Holdco, a Delaware limited liability company formed on May 25, 1999, is the
direct 100% parent of CCHC. The common membership units of Charter Holdco are
owned approximately 55% by Charter, 15% by Vulcan Cable III Inc. and 30% by
CII.
All of the outstanding common membership units in Charter Holdco held by Vulcan
Cable III Inc. and CII are controlled by Mr. Allen and are exchangeable on
a one-for-one basis at any time for shares of Class B common stock of
Charter, which are in turn convertible into Class A common stock of
Charter. Charter controls 100% of the voting power of Charter Holdco and is
its
sole manager.
Certain
provisions of Charter’s certificate of incorporation and Charter Holdco’s
limited liability company agreement effectively require that Charter’s
investment in Charter Holdco replicate, on a “mirror” basis, Charter’s
outstanding equity and debt structure. As a result, in addition to its equity
interest in common units of Charter Holdco, Charter also holds 100% of the
5.875% mirror convertible notes of Charter Holdco that automatically convert
into common membership units upon the conversion of any Charter 5.875%
convertible senior notes and 100% of the mirror preferred membership units
of
Charter Holdco that automatically convert into common membership units upon
the
conversion of the Series A convertible redeemable preferred stock of
Charter.
CCHC,
LLC.
CCHC, a
Delaware limited liability company formed on October 25, 2005, is the issuer
of
an exchangeable accreting note. In October 2005, Charter, acting through a
Special Committee of Charter’s Board of Directors, and Mr. Allen, settled a
dispute that had arisen between the parties with regard to the ownership of
CC
VIII. As part of that settlement, CCHC issued the CCHC note to CII.
Interim
Holding Company Debt Issuers.
As
indicated in the organizational chart above, our interim holding company debt
issuers indirectly own the subsidiaries that own or operate all of our cable
systems, subject to a CC VIII minority interest held by Mr. Allen and CCH I
as
described below. For a description of the debt issued by these issuers please
see “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and
Results of Operations — Description of Our Outstanding Debt.”
Preferred
Equity in CC VIII, LLC.
CII owns
30% of the CC VIII preferred membership interests. CCH I, a direct subsidiary
of
CCH I Holdings, LLC (“CIH”), directly owns the remaining 70% of these preferred
interests. The common membership interests in CC VIII are indirectly owned
by
Charter Operating. See Notes 11 and 22 to our accompanying consolidated
financial statements contained in “Item 8. Financial Statements and
Supplementary Data.”
Products
and Services
We
sell
video services, high-speed Internet services, and in many areas, telephone
services utilizing our cable system. Our video services include traditional
cable video services (analog and digital) and in some areas advanced broadband
services such as high definition television, OnDemand, and DVR. Our telephone
services are primarily provided using voice over Internet protocol (“VoIP”), to
transmit digital voice signals over our systems. Our video, high-speed Internet,
and telephone services are offered to residential and commercial customers.
We
sell our video services, high-speed Internet, and telephone services on a
subscription basis, with prices and related charges that vary primarily based
on
the types of service selected, whether the services are sold as a “bundle” or on
an individual basis, and the equipment necessary to receive the services, with
some variation in prices depending on geographic location.
The
following table summarizes our customer statistics for analog and digital video,
residential high-speed Internet and residential telephone approximate as of
December 31, 2006 and 2005.
|
|
Approximate
as of
|
|
|
|
December
31,
|
|
December
31,
|
|
|
|
2006
(a)
|
|
2005
(a)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Video
Services:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Analog
Video:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Residential
(non-bulk) analog video customers (b)
|
|
|
5,172,300
|
|
|
5,616,300
|
|
Multi-dwelling
(bulk) and commercial unit customers (c)
|
|
|
261,000
|
|
|
268,200
|
|
Total
analog video customers (b)(c)
|
|
|
5,433,300
|
|
|
5,884,500
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Digital
Video:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Digital
video customers (d)
|
|
|
2,808,400
|
|
|
2,796,600
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Non-Video
Services:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Residential
high-speed Internet customers (e)
|
|
|
2,402,200
|
|
|
2,196,400
|
|
Residential
telephone customers (f)
|
|
|
445,800
|
|
|
121,500
|
|
After
giving effect to the acquisition of cable systems in January 2006 and the sales
of certain non-strategic cable systems in the third quarter of 2006, December
31, 2005 analog video customers, digital video customers, high-speed Internet
customers and telephone customers would have been 5,506,800, 2,638,500,
2,097,700 and 136,000, respectively.
|
(a)
|
“Customers”
include all persons our corporate billing records show as receiving
service (regardless of their payment status), except for complimentary
accounts (such as our employees). In addition, at December 31, 2006
and
2005, “customers” include approximately 35,700 and 50,500 persons whose
accounts were over 60 days past due in payment, approximately 6,000
and
14,300 persons, whose accounts were over 90 days past due in payment
and
approximately 2,700 and 7,400 of which were over 120 days past due
in
payment, respectively.
|
|
(b)
|
“Analog
video customers” include all customers who receive video
services.
|
|
(c)
|
Included
within “video customers” are those in commercial and multi-dwelling
structures, which are calculated on an equivalent bulk unit (“EBU”) basis.
EBU is calculated for a system by dividing the bulk price charged
to
accounts in an area by the most prevalent price charged to non-bulk
residential customers in that market for the comparable tier of service.
The EBU method of estimating analog video customers is consistent
with the
methodology used in determining costs paid to programmers and has
been
used consistently.
|
|
(d)
|
“Digital
video customers” include all households that have one or more digital
set-top boxes or cable cards deployed.
|
|
(e)
|
"Residential
high-speed Internet customers" represent those residential customers
who
subscribe to our high-speed Internet service.
|
|
(f)
|
“Residential
telephone customers” include all residential customers receiving telephone
service.
|
Video
Services
In
2006,
video services represented 61% of our total revenues. Our video service
offerings include the following:
|
•
|
|
Basic
Analog Video. All
of our video customers receive a package of basic programming which
generally consists of local broadcast television, local community
programming, including governmental and public access, and limited
satellite-delivered or non-broadcast channels, such as weather, shopping
and religious services. Our basic channel line-up generally has between
9
and 30 channels.
|
|
|
|
|
|
•
|
|
Expanded
Basic Video. This
expanded programming level includes a package of satellite-delivered
or
non-broadcast channels and generally has between 20 and 60 channels
in
addition to the basic channel line-up.
|
|
|
|
|
|
•
|
|
Digital
Video.
We
offer digital video service to our customers in several different
service
combination packages. All of our digital packages include a digital
set-top box or cable card, an interactive electronic programming
guide, an
expanded menu of pay-per-view channels, and the option to also receive
digital packages which range generally from 3 to 45 additional video
channels. We also offer our customers certain digital packages with
one or
more premium channels that give customers access to several alternative
genres of certain premium channels (for example, HBO Family® and HBO
Comedy®). Some digital tier packages focus on the interests of a
particular customer demographic and emphasize, for example, sports,
movies, family, or ethnic programming. In addition to video programming,
digital video service enables customers to receive our advanced services
such as OnDemand and high definition television. Other digital packages
bundle digital television with our advanced services, such as high-speed
Internet services and telephone services.
|
|
|
|
|
|
•
|
|
Premium
Channels. These
channels provide original programming, commercial-free movies, sports,
and
other special event entertainment programming. Although we offer
subscriptions to premium channels on an individual basis, we offer
an
increasing number of digital video channel packages and premium channel
packages, and we offer premium channels bundled with our advanced
services.
|
|
|
|
|
|
•
|
|
Pay-Per-View. These
channels allow customers to pay on a per event basis to view a single
showing of a recently released movie, a one-time special sporting
event,
music concert, or similar event on a commercial-free
basis.
|
|
|
|
|
|
•
|
|
OnDemand
and Subscription OnDemand.
OnDemand
service allows customers to access hundreds of movies and other
programming at any time with digital picture quality. In some systems
we
also offer subscription OnDemand for a monthly fee or included in
a
digital tier premium channel subscription.
|
|
|
|
|
|
•
|
|
High
Definition Television.
High definition television offers our digital customers certain video
programming at a higher resolution to improve picture quality versus
standard analog or digital video images.
|
|
|
|
|
|
•
|
|
Digital
Video Recorder.
DVR service enables customers to digitally record programming and
to pause
and rewind live programming.
|
High-Speed
Internet Services
In
2006,
residential high-speed Internet services represented 19% of our total revenues.
We offer several tiers of high-speed Internet services to our residential
customers primarily via cable modems attached to personal computers. We also
offer home networking gateways to these customers.
Telephone
Services
In
2006,
telephone services represented 2% of our total revenues. We provide voice
communications services primarily using VoIP, to transmit digital voice signals
over our systems. At December 31, 2006, telephone service was available to
approximately 6.8 million homes passed, and we were marketing these services
to
approximately 93% of those homes. We will continue to prepare additional markets
for telephone launches in 2007.
Commercial
Services
In
2006,
commercial services represented 6% of our total revenues. We offer integrated
network solutions to commercial and institutional customers. These solutions
include high-speed Internet and video services. In addition, we offer high-speed
Internet services to small businesses. We will continue to expand the marketing
of our video and high-speed Internet services to the business community and
have
begun to introduce telephone services.
Sale
of Advertising
In
2006,
sale of advertising represented 6% of our total revenues. We receive revenues
from the sale of local advertising on satellite-delivered networks such as
MTV®,
CNN® and ESPN®. In any particular market, we generally insert local advertising
on up to 40 channels. We also provide cross-channel advertising to some
programmers.
From
time
to time, certain of our vendors, including programmers and equipment vendors,
have purchased advertising from us. For the years ending December 31, 2006,
2005
and 2004, we had advertising revenues from programmers of approximately $17
million, $15 million, and $16 million, respectively. These revenues resulted
from purchases at market rates pursuant to binding agreements.
Pricing
of Our Products and Services
Our
revenues are derived principally from the monthly fees customers pay for the
services we offer. We typically charge a one-time installation fee which is
sometimes waived or discounted during certain promotional periods. The prices
we
charge for our products and services vary based on the level of service the
customer chooses and the geographic market. Most of our pricing is reviewed
throughout the year and adjusted on an annual basis.
In
accordance with the Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC”) rules, the
prices we charge for video cable-related equipment, such as set-top boxes and
remote control devices, and for installation services, are based on actual
costs
plus a permitted rate of return in regulated markets.
Although
our broadband service offerings vary across the markets we serve because of
various factors including competition, regulatory factors, and service
availability, our services are typically offered at monthly prices, excluding
franchise fees and other taxes.
We
offer
reduced-price service for promotional periods in order to attract new customers
and to promote the bundling of two or more services. There is no assurance
that
these customers will remain as customers when the promotional pricing service
expires. When customers bundle services, they enjoy prices that are lower per
service than if they had only purchased a single service.
Our
Network Technology
We
employ
the hybrid fiber coaxial cable (“HFC”) architecture for our systems. HFC
architecture combines the use of fiber optic cable with coaxial cable. In most
systems, we deliver our signals via fiber optic cable from the headend to a
group of nodes, and use coaxial cable to deliver the signal from individual
nodes to the homes passed served by that node. Our system design enables a
maximum of 500 homes passed to be served by a single node. Currently, our
average node serves approximately 385 homes passed. Our system design provides
for six strands of fiber to each node, with two strands activated and four
strands reserved for spares and future services. We believe that this hybrid
network design provides high capacity and signal quality. The design also
provides reserve capacity for the addition of future services.
HFC
architecture benefits include:
|
•
|
|
bandwidth
capacity to enable traditional and two-way video and broadband
services;
|
|
|
|
|
|
•
|
|
dedicated
bandwidth for two-way services, which avoids reverse signal interference
problems that can occur with two-way communication capability;
and
|
|
|
|
|
|
•
|
|
clean
signal quality and high service
reliability.
|
The
following table sets forth the technological capacity of our systems as of
December 31, 2006 based on a percentage of homes passed:
Less
than 550
|
|
|
|
750
|
|
860/870
|
|
Two-way
|
megahertz
|
|
550
megahertz
|
|
megahertz
|
|
megahertz
|
|
activated
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7%
|
|
5%
|
|
41%
|
|
47%
|
|
93%
|
Approximately
93% of our homes passed are served by systems that have bandwidth of 550
megahertz or greater. This bandwidth capacity enables us to offer digital
television, high-speed Internet services, telephone service and other advanced
services.
We
have
reduced the number of headends that serve our customers from 1,138 at
January 1, 2001 to 553 at December 31, 2006. Because headends are the
control centers of a cable system, where incoming signals are amplified,
converted, processed and combined for transmission to the customer, reducing
the
number of headends reduces related equipment, service personnel, and maintenance
expenditures. As of December 31, 2006, approximately 88% of our customers were
served by headends serving at least 10,000 customers. After completion of the
sale of certain cable systems in January 2007, we further reduced the number
of
headends that serve our customers to 393.
As
of
December 31, 2006, our cable systems consisted of approximately 205,500
strand and trench miles of coax, and approximately 54,300 strand and trench
miles of fiber optic cable, passing approximately 11.8 million households and
serving approximately 5.7 million customers. After completion of the sale of
certain cable systems in January 2007, our cable systems consisted of
approximately 201,700 strand and trench miles of coax, and approximately 54,100
strand and trench miles of fiber optic cable, passing approximately 11.7 million
households and serving approximately 5.7 million customers.
Management
of Our Systems
The
corporate office, which includes employees of Charter and Charter Holdco, is
responsible for coordinating and overseeing overall operations including
establishing company wide policies and procedures. The corporate office performs
certain financial and administrative functions on a centralized basis such
as
accounting, cash management, taxes, billing, finance, human resources, risk
management, telephone, payroll, information system design and support, internal
audit, legal, purchasing, customer care, marketing and programming contract
administration and Internet service, network and circuits administration and
oversight and coordination of external auditors and consultants. The corporate
office performs these services on a cost reimbursement basis pursuant to a
management services agreement. Our field operations are managed within three
divisions. Each division has a divisional president and is supported by
operational, financial, legal, customer care, marketing and engineering
functions.
Customer
Care
Our
customer care centers are managed centrally, with the deployment and execution
of care strategies and initiatives conducted on a company-wide basis. As a
result of facilities consolidations that occurred in 2006, we have seven
customer care locations, compared to the thirteen locations at December 31,
2005
and have launched technology and procedures resulting in the seven locations
being able to function as an integrated system. We believe that consolidation
and integration of our care centers will allow us to improve service delivery
and customer satisfaction.
We
provide service to our customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and utilize
technologically advanced equipment that we believe enhances interactions with
our customers through more intelligent call routing, data management, and
forecasting and scheduling capabilities. We believe that through continued
optimization of our care network we will be able to improve complaint
resolution, equipment troubleshooting, sales of new and additional services,
and
customer retention.
We
are
committed to making further improvements in the area of customer care to
increase customer retention and satisfaction. Accordingly, we have certain
initiatives underway targeted at gaining new customers and retaining existing
ones. We have increased efforts to focus management attention on instilling
a
customer service oriented culture throughout our organization, and to give
the
customer service areas of our operations resources for staffing, training,
and
financial incentives for employee performance.
We
have
agreements with three third party call center service providers. We believe
these relationships further our service objectives and support marketing
activities by providing additional capacity to respond to customer
inquiries.
We
also
utilize our website to enhance customer care by enabling customers to view
and
pay their bills online, obtain useful information, and perform various equipment
troubleshooting procedures. Our customers may also obtain support through our
on-line chat and email functionality.
Sales
and Marketing
In
2006,
our primary strategic direction was to accelerate the rate of revenue growth
by
increasing our investments in marketing, sustaining these higher investments
throughout the year, and implementing targeted marketing programs designed
to
offer appropriate bundles of products to the appropriate existing and potential
customers. Marketing expenditures increased by $38 million, or 27%, over the
year ended December 31, 2005 to $180 million for the year ended December 31,
2006. We expect to continue to invest in targeted marketing efforts in 2007.
Our
marketing organization is intended to promote interaction, information flow,
and
sharing of best practices between our corporate office and our field offices,
which make local decisions as to when and how certain marketing programs will
be
implemented. We monitor customer perception, competition, pricing, and
service preferences, among other factors, to increase our responsiveness to
our
customers. Our coordinated marketing activities involve door-to-door,
telemarketing, media advertising, e-marketing, direct mail, and retail
locations. In 2006, we increased our focus on migrating existing single service
customers into multiple service bundles and launching our telephone service.
Programming
General
We
believe that offering a wide variety of programming influences a customer’s
decision to subscribe to and retain our cable services. We rely on market
research, customer demographics and local programming preferences to determine
channel offerings in each of our markets. We obtain basic and premium
programming from a number of suppliers, usually pursuant to written contracts.
Our programming contracts generally continue for a fixed period of time, usually
from three to ten years, and are subject to negotiated renewal. Some program
suppliers offer financial incentives to support the launch of a channel and/or
ongoing marketing support. We also negotiate volume discount pricing structures.
Programming costs are usually payable each month based on calculations performed
by us and are generally subject to annual cost escalations and audits by the
programmers.
Costs
Programming
is usually made available to us for a license fee, which is generally paid
based
on the number of customers to whom we make such programming available. Such
license fees may include “volume” discounts available for higher numbers of
customers, as well as discounts for channel placement or service penetration.
Some channels are available without cost to us for a limited period of time,
after which we pay for the programming. For home shopping channels, we receive
a
percentage of the revenue attributable to our customers’ purchases.
Our
cable
programming costs have increased in every year we have operated in excess of
customary inflationary and cost-of-living type increases. We expect them to
continue to increase due to a variety of factors, including annual increases
imposed by programmers and additional programming, including high-definition
and
OnDemand programming, being provided to customers. In particular, sports
programming costs have increased significantly over the past several years.
In
addition, contracts to purchase sports programming sometimes provide for
optional additional programming to be available on a surcharge basis during
the
term of the contract.
Federal
law allows commercial television broadcast stations to make an election between
“must-carry” rights and an alternative “retransmission-consent” regime. When a
station opts for the retransmission-consent regime, we are not allowed to carry
the station’s signal without the station’s permission. Future demands by owners
of broadcast stations for carriage of other services or cash payments to those
broadcasters in exchange for retransmission consent could further increase
our
programming costs or require us to cease carriage of popular programming,
potentially leading to a loss of customers in affected markets.
Over
the
past several years, we have not been able to increase prices sufficiently to
fully offset increased programming costs, and with the impact of competition
and
other marketplace factors, we do not expect to be able to do so in the
foreseeable future. In
addition, our inability
to fully pass these programming cost increases on to our customers has had
and
is expected in the future to have an adverse impact on our cash flow and
operating margins. In
order
to mitigate reductions of our operating margins due to rapidly increasing
programming costs, we are reviewing our pricing and programming packaging
strategies, and we plan to continue to migrate certain program services from
our
analog level of service to our digital tiers. As we migrate our programming
to
our digital tier packages, certain programming that was previously available
to
all of our customers via an analog signal, may only be part of an elective
digital tier package offered to our customers for an additional fee. As a
result, we expect that the customer base upon which we pay programming fees
will
proportionately decrease, and the overall expense for providing that service
will likewise decrease. However, reductions in the size of certain programming
customer bases may result in the loss of specific volume discount benefits.
We
have
programming contracts that have expired and others that will expire at or before
the end of 2007. We
plan
to seek to renegotiate the terms of these agreements as they come due for
renewal. There
can
be no assurance that these agreements will be renewed on favorable or comparable
terms. To the extent that we are unable to reach agreement with certain
programmers on terms that we believe are reasonable, we have been, and may
in
the future be, forced to remove such programming channels from our line-up,
which may result in a loss of customers.
Franchises
As
of
December 31, 2006, our systems operated pursuant to a total of
approximately 3,600 franchises, permits, and similar authorizations issued
by
local and state governmental authorities. Such governmental authorities often
must approve a transfer to another party. Most franchises are subject to
termination proceedings in the event of a material breach. In addition, most
franchises require us to pay the granting authority a franchise fee of up to
5.0% of revenues as defined in the various agreements, which is the maximum
amount that may be charged under the applicable federal law. We are entitled
to
and generally do pass this fee through to the customer.
Prior
to
the scheduled expiration of most franchises, we generally initiate renewal
proceedings with the granting authorities. This process usually takes three
years but can take a longer period of time. The Communications Act of 1934,
as
amended (the “Communications Act”), which is the primary federal statute
regulating interstate communications, provides for an orderly franchise renewal
process in which granting authorities may not unreasonably withhold renewals.
In
connection with the franchise renewal process, many governmental authorities
require the cable operator to make certain commitments, such as building out
certain of the franchise areas at various levels of service requirements and
allowing for public access channels. Historically we have been able to renew
our
franchises without incurring significant costs, although any particular
franchise may not be renewed on commercially favorable terms or otherwise.
Our
failure to obtain renewals of our franchises, especially those in the major
metropolitan areas where we have the most customers, could have a material
adverse effect on our consolidated financial condition, results of operations,
or our liquidity, including our ability to comply with our debt covenants.
Approximately 12% of our franchises, covering approximately 15% of our analog
video customers were expired at December 31, 2006. Approximately 8% of
additional franchises, covering approximately 11% of additional analog video
customers will expire on or before December 31, 2007, if not renewed prior
to
expiration. We expect to renew all or substantially all of these
franchises.
Legislative
proposals have been introduced in the United States Congress and in some state
legislatures to streamline cable franchising. This legislation is intended
to
facilitate entry by new competitors, particularly local telephone companies.
See
“— Regulation and Legislation — Video
Services — Franchise
Matters.”
Competition
We
face
competition in the areas of price, service offerings, and service reliability.
We compete with other providers of television signals and other sources of
home
entertainment. In addition, as we continue to expand into additional services
such as high-speed Internet access and telephone, we face competition from
other
providers of each type of service. We operate in a very competitive business
environment, which can adversely affect our business and operations.
In
terms
of competition for customers, we view ourselves as a member of the broadband
communications industry, which encompasses multi-channel video for television
and related broadband services, such as high-speed Internet, telephone, and
other interactive video services. In the broadband industry, our principal
competitor for video services throughout our territory is direct broadcast
satellite (“DBS”) and our principal competitor for high-speed
Internet
services is digital subscriber line (“DSL”) provided by telephone companies. Our
principal competitors for telephone services are established telephone companies
and other carriers, including VoIP providers. Based on telephone companies’
entry into video service and the upgrades of their networks, they will likely
become increasingly more significant competitors for both high-speed Internet
and video customers. We do not consider other cable operators to be significant
competitors in our overall market, as overbuilds are infrequent and
geographically spotty (although in any particular market, a cable operator
overbuilder would likely be a significant competitor at the local level).
Although
cable operators tend not to be direct competitors, their relative size may
affect the competitive landscape in terms of how a cable company competes
against non-cable competitors in the market place as well as in relationships
with vendors who deal with cable operators. For example, a larger cable operator
might have better access to and pricing for the multiple types of services
cable
companies offer. Also, a larger entity might have more advantageous access
to
financial resources and acquisition opportunities.
Our
key
competitors include:
DBS
Direct
broadcast satellite is a significant competitor to cable systems. The DBS
industry has grown rapidly over the last several years, and now serves more
than
27 million subscribers nationwide. DBS service allows the subscriber to receive
video services directly via satellite using a dish antenna. Furthermore,
EchoStar and DirecTV both have entered into joint marketing agreements with
major telecommunications companies to offer bundled packages combining
telephone, including wireless, as well as high-speed Internet and video
services.
Video
compression technology and high powered satellites allow DBS providers to offer
more than 200 digital channels from a single satellite, thereby surpassing
the
typical analog cable system. In 2006, major DBS competitors offered a greater
variety of channel packages, and were especially competitive at the lower end
pricing, such as a monthly price of approximately $35 for 60 channels compared
to approximately $50 for the closest comparable package offered by us in most
of
our markets. In addition, while we continue to believe that the initial
investment by a DBS customer exceeds that of a cable customer, the initial
equipment cost for DBS has decreased substantially, as the DBS providers have
aggressively marketed offers to new customers of incentives for discounted
or
free equipment, installation, and multiple units. DBS providers are able to
offer service nationwide and are able to establish a national image and branding
with standardized offerings, which together with their ability to avoid
franchise fees of up to 5% of revenues and property tax, leads to greater
efficiencies and lower costs in the lower tiers of service. However, we believe
that cable-delivered OnDemand and Subscription OnDemand services are superior
to
DBS service, because cable headends can store thousands of titles which
customers can access and control independently, whereas DBS technology can
only
make available a much smaller number of titles with DVR-like customer control.
We also believe that our higher tier services, particularly bundled premium
packages, are price-competitive with DBS packages, and that many consumers
prefer our ability to economically bundle video packages with high-speed
Internet packages. Further, cable providers have the potential in some areas
to
provide a more complete “whole house” communications package when combining
video, high-speed Internet, and telephone services. We believe that this ability
to bundle services differentiates us from DBS competitors and could enable
us to
win back former customers who migrated to satellite. However, joint marketing
arrangements between DBS providers and telecommunications carriers allow similar
bundling of services in certain areas, and DBS providers are making investments
to offer more high definition programming, including local high definition
programming. Competition
from DBS service providers may also present greater challenges in areas of
lower
population density, and we believe that our systems serve a higher concentration
of such areas than those of other major cable service providers.
DBS
providers have made attempts at widespread deployment of high-speed Internet
access services via satellite, but those services have been technically
constrained and of limited appeal. DBS providers continue to explore options,
such as combining satellite communications with terrestrial wireless networks,
to provide high-speed Internet and other services. DBS providers have entered
into joint marketing arrangements with telecommunications carriers allowing
them
to offer terrestrial DSL services in many markets.
Telephone
Companies and Utilities
The
competitive environment has been significantly affected by technological
developments and regulatory changes enacted under the Telecommunication Act
of
1996 (the “1996 Telecom Act”), which amended the Communications Act and which is
designed to enhance competition in the cable television and local telephone
markets. Federal
cross-ownership
restrictions historically limited entry by local telephone companies into the
cable business. The 1996 Telecom Act modified this cross-ownership restriction,
making it possible for local exchange carriers, who have considerable resources,
to provide a wide variety of video services competitive with services offered
by
cable systems.
Telephone
companies already provide facilities for the transmission and distribution
of
voice and data services, including Internet services, in competition with our
existing or potential interactive services ventures and businesses. Telephone
companies can obtain the right to lawfully enter the cable television business
and some telephone companies have been extensively upgrading their networks
to
provide video services, as well as telephone and Internet access service.
Two
major
local telephone companies, AT&T Inc. (“AT&T”) and Verizon
Communications, Inc. (“Verizon”), have both announced that they intend to invest
in upgrading their networks. Some upgraded portions of these networks are or
will be capable of carrying two-way video services that are technically
comparable to ours, high-speed Internet services that operate at speeds as
high
as or higher than those we make available to customers in these areas, and
digital voice services that are similar to ours. In addition, these companies
continue to offer their traditional telephone services, as well as bundles
that
include wireless voice services provided by affiliated companies. We believe
that AT&T’s and Verizon’s upgrades have been completed in systems
representing approximately 1% of our homes passed as of December 31,
2006.
Additional upgrades in markets in which we operate are expected.
Although
telephone companies have obtained franchises or alternative authorizations
in
some areas and are seeking them in others, they are attempting through various
means (including federal and state legislation and through FCC rulemaking)
to
weaken or streamline the franchising requirements applicable to them. If
telephone companies are successful in avoiding or weakening the franchise and
other regulatory requirements that are applicable to cable operators like
Charter, their competitive posture would be enhanced. We cannot predict the
likelihood of success of the broadband services offered by our competitors
or
the impact on us of such competitive ventures. The large scale entry of major
telephone companies as direct competitors in the video marketplace could
adversely affect the profitability and valuation of established cable
systems.
DSL
service allows Internet access to subscribers at data transmission speeds
greater than those available over conventional telephone lines. DSL service
therefore is more competitive with high-speed Internet access over cable systems
than conventional dial-up. Most telephone companies which already have plant,
an
existing customer base, and other operational functions in place (such as,
billing, service personnel, etc.), offer DSL service. DSL actively markets
its
service, and many providers have offered promotional pricing with a one-year
service agreement. The FCC has determined that DSL service is an “information
service,” and based on that classification has removed DSL service from many
traditional telecommunications regulations. Legislative action and the FCC's
decisions and policies in this area are subject to change. We expect DSL to
remain a significant competitor to our high-speed Internet services,
particularly as we enter the telephone business and telephone companies
aggressively bundle DSL with telephone service to discourage their customers
from switching to cable company services. In addition, the continuing deployment
of fiber into telephone companies’ networks will enable them to provide higher
bandwidth Internet service than provided over traditional DSL
lines.
We
believe that pricing for residential and commercial Internet services on our
system is generally comparable to that for similar DSL services and that some
residential customers prefer our ability to bundle Internet services with video
and/or telephone services, and prefer the higher Internet speeds we have made
more generally available. However, DSL providers may currently be in a better
position to offer data services to businesses since their networks tend to
be
more complete in commercial areas. They also have the ability to bundle
telephone with Internet services for a higher percentage of their customers,
and
that ability is appealing to many consumers. Joint marketing arrangements
between DSL providers and DBS providers may allow some additional bundling
of
services.
Charter
offers telephone service in a majority of its service areas. Charter also
provides traditional circuit-switched telephone service in a few communities.
In
these areas, Charter competes directly with established telephone companies
and
other carriers, including VoIP providers, for voice service customers. Because
we offer voice services, we are subject to considerable competition from
telephone companies and other telecommunications providers. The
telecommunications industry is highly competitive and includes competitors
with
greater financial and personnel resources, strong brand name recognition, and
long-standing relationships with regulatory authorities and customers. Moreover,
mergers, joint ventures and alliances among franchise, wireless, or private
cable operators, local exchange carriers, and others, may result in providers
capable of offering cable television, Internet, and telephone services in direct
competition with us. For example, major local exchange carriers have entered
into
arrangements
with EchoStar and DirecTV in which they will market packages combining telephone
service, DSL, and DBS services.
Additionally,
we are subject to competition from utilities which possess fiber optic
transmission lines capable of transmitting signals with minimal signal
distortion. Utilities are also developing broadband over power line technology,
which may allow the provision of Internet and other broadband services to homes
and offices. Utilities have deployed broadband over power line technology in
a
few limited markets.
Broadcast
Television
Cable
television has long competed with broadcast television, which consists of
television signals that the viewer is able to receive without charge using
an
“off-air” antenna. The extent of such competition is dependent upon the quality
and quantity of broadcast signals available through “off-air” reception,
compared to the services provided by the local cable system. Traditionally,
cable television has provided higher picture quality and more channel offerings
than broadcast television. However, the recent licensing of digital spectrum
by
the FCC will provide traditional broadcasters with the ability to deliver high
definition television pictures and multiple digital-quality program streams,
as
well as advanced digital services such as subscription video and data
transmission.
Traditional
Overbuilds
Cable
systems are operated under non-exclusive franchises granted by local
authorities. More than one cable system may legally be built in the same area.
It is possible that a franchising authority might grant a second franchise
to
another cable operator and that such a franchise might contain terms and
conditions more favorable than those afforded us. In addition, entities willing
to establish an open video system, under which they offer unaffiliated
programmers non-discriminatory access to a portion of the system’s cable system,
may be able to avoid local franchising requirements. Well-financed businesses
from outside the cable industry, such as public utilities that already possess
fiber optic and other transmission lines in the areas they serve, may over
time
become competitors. There are a number of cities that have constructed their
own
cable systems, in a manner similar to city-provided utility services. There
also
has been interest in traditional cable overbuilds by private companies.
Constructing a competing cable system is a capital intensive process which
involves a high degree of risk. We believe that in order to be successful,
a
competitor’s overbuild would need to be able to serve the homes and businesses
in the overbuilt area with equal or better service quality, on a more
cost-effective basis than we can. Any such overbuild operation would require
either significant access to capital or access to facilities already in place
that are capable of delivering cable television programming.
As
of
December 31, 2006, we are aware of traditional overbuild situations
impacting approximately 7% of our total homes passed and potential traditional
overbuild situations in areas servicing approximately an additional 4% of our
total homes passed. Additional overbuild situations may occur.
Private
Cable
Additional
competition is posed by satellite master antenna television systems, or SMATV
systems, serving multiple dwelling units, or MDUs, such as condominiums,
apartment complexes, and private residential communities. These private cable
systems may enter into exclusive agreements with such MDUs, which may preclude
operators of franchise systems from serving residents of such private complexes.
Private cable systems can offer improved reception of local television stations,
and many of the same satellite-delivered program services that are offered
by
cable systems. SMATV systems currently benefit from operating advantages not
available to franchised cable systems, including fewer regulatory burdens and
no
requirement to service low density or economically depressed communities.
Exemption from regulation may provide a competitive advantage to certain of
our
current and potential competitors.
Wireless
Distribution
Cable
systems also compete with wireless program distribution services such as
multi-channel multipoint distribution systems or “wireless cable,” known as
MMDS, which uses low-power microwave frequencies to transmit television
programming over-the-air to paying customers. MMDS services, however, require
unobstructed “line of sight” transmission paths, and MMDS ventures have been
quite limited to date.
The
FCC
has completed its auction of Multichannel Video Distribution & Data Service
(“MVDDS”) licenses. MVDDS is a new terrestrial video and data fixed wireless
service that the FCC hopes will spur competition in the cable and DBS
industries.
Other
Competitors
Local
wireless Internet services have recently begun to operate in many markets using
available unlicensed radio spectrum. Some cellular phone service operators
are
also marketing PC cards offering wireless broadband access to their cellular
networks. These service options offer another alternative to cable-based
Internet access.
High-speed
Internet access facilitates the streaming of video into homes and businesses.
As
the quality and availability of video streaming over the Internet improves,
video streaming likely will compete with the traditional delivery of video
programming services over cable systems. It is possible that programming
suppliers will consider bypassing cable operators and market their services
directly to the consumer through video streaming over the Internet.
Regulation
and Legislation
The
following summary addresses the key regulatory and legislative developments
affecting the cable industry and our three primary services: video service,
high-speed Internet service, and telephone service. Cable system operations
are
extensively regulated by the FCC, certain state governments, and most local
governments. A failure to comply with these regulations could subject us to
substantial penalties. Our business can be dramatically impacted by changes
to
the existing regulatory framework, whether triggered by legislative,
administrative, or judicial rulings. Congress and the FCC have expressed a
particular interest in increasing competition in the communications field
generally and in the cable television field specifically. The 1996 Telecom
Act
altered the regulatory structure governing the nation's communications
providers. It removed barriers to competition in both the cable television
market and the local telephone market. At the same time, the FCC has pursued
spectrum licensing options designed to increase competition to the cable
industry by wireless multichannel video programming distributors. We could
be
materially disadvantaged in the future if we are subject to new regulations
that
do not equally impact our key competitors.
Congress
and the FCC have frequently revisited the subject of communications regulation,
and they are likely to do so in the future. In addition, franchise agreements
with local governments must be periodically renewed, and new operating terms
may
be imposed. Future legislative, regulatory, or judicial changes could adversely
affect our operations. We can provide no assurance that the already extensive
regulation of our business will not be expanded in the future.
Video Service
Cable
Rate Regulation.
The
cable industry has operated under a federal rate regulation regime for more
than
a decade. The regulations currently restrict the prices that cable systems
charge for the minimum level of video programming service, referred to as “basic
service,” and associated equipment. All other cable offerings are now
universally exempt from rate regulation. Although basic rate regulation operates
pursuant to a federal formula, local governments, commonly referred to as local
franchising authorities, are primarily responsible for administering this
regulation. The majority of our local franchising authorities have never been
certified to regulate basic cable rates (and order rate reductions and refunds),
but they retain the right to do so, except in those specific communities facing
“effective competition,” as defined under federal law. With increased DBS
competition, our systems are increasingly likely to satisfy the effective
competition standard. We have already secured FCC recognition of effective
competition, and become rate deregulated in many of our
communities.
There
have been frequent calls to impose expanded rate regulation on the cable
industry. Confronted with rapidly increasing cable programming costs, it is
possible that Congress may adopt new constraints on the retail pricing or
packaging of cable programming. For example, there has been considerable
legislative and regulatory interest in requiring cable operators to offer
historically bundled programming services on an à
la
carte
basis,
or to at least offer a separately available child-friendly “Family Tier.” Such
constraints could adversely affect our operations.
Federal
rate regulations generally require cable operators to allow subscribers to
purchase premium or pay-per-view services without the necessity of subscribing
to any tier of service, other than the basic service tier. The applicability
of
this rule in certain situations remains unclear, and adverse decisions by the
FCC could affect our
pricing
and packaging of services. As we attempt to respond to a changing marketplace
with competitive pricing practices, such as targeted promotions and discounts,
we may face Communications Act uniform pricing requirements that impede our
ability to compete.
Must
Carry/Retransmission Consent. There
are
two alternative legal methods for carriage of local broadcast television
stations on cable systems. Federal “must carry” regulations require cable
systems to carry local broadcast television stations upon the request of the
local broadcaster. Alternatively, federal law includes “retransmission consent”
regulations, by which popular commercial television stations can prohibit cable
carriage unless the cable operator first negotiates for “retransmission
consent,” which may be conditioned on significant payments or other concessions.
Broadcast stations must elect “must carry” or “retransmission consent” every
three years, with the next election to be made prior to September 15, 2008.
Either option has a potentially adverse effect on our business.
The
burden associated with must carry could increase significantly if cable systems
were required to simultaneously carry both the analog and digital signals of
each television station (dual carriage), as the broadcast industry transitions
from an analog to a digital format. The burden could also increase significantly
if cable systems are required to carry multiple program streams included within
a single digital broadcast transmission (multicast carriage). Additional
government-mandated broadcast carriage obligations could disrupt existing
programming commitments, interfere with our preferred use of limited channel
capacity, and limit our ability to offer services that appeal to our customers
and generate revenues. The FCC issued a decision in 2005 confirming an earlier
ruling against mandating either dual carriage or multicast carriage. However,
the FCC could reverse its own ruling or Congress could legislate additional
carriage obligations. Federal law has established February 2009 as the deadline
to complete the broadcast transition to digital spectrum and to reclaim analog
spectrum. Cable operators may need to take additional operational steps and/or
make further operating and capital investments at that time to ensure that
customers not otherwise equipped to receive digital programming, retain access
to broadcast programming.
Access
Channels. Local
franchise agreements often require cable operators to set aside certain channels
for public, educational, and governmental access programming. Federal law also
requires cable systems to designate a portion of their channel capacity for
commercial leased access by unaffiliated third parties. The FCC has recently
announced its intention to conduct a rulemaking aimed at increasing the use
of
commercial leased access channels. Increased activity in this area could further
burden the channel capacity of our cable systems, and potentially limit the
amount of services we are able to offer and may necessitate further investments
to expand our network capacity.
Access
to Programming. The
Communications Act and the FCC’s “program access” rules generally prevent
satellite video programmers affiliated with cable operators from favoring cable
operators over competing multichannel video distributors, such as DBS, and
limit
the ability of such programmers to offer exclusive programming arrangements
to
cable operators. The FCC has extended the exclusivity restrictions through
October 2007. Given the heightened competition and media consolidation that
Charter faces, it is possible that we will find it increasingly difficult to
gain access to popular programming at favorable terms. Such difficulty could
adversely impact our business.
Ownership
Restrictions. Federal
regulation of the communications field traditionally included a host of
ownership restrictions, which limited the size of certain media entities and
restricted their ability to enter into competing enterprises. Through a series
of legislative, regulatory, and judicial actions, most of these restrictions
have been either eliminated or substantially relaxed. For example, historic
restrictions on local exchange carriers offering cable service within their
telephone service area, as well as those prohibiting broadcast stations from
owning cable systems within their broadcast service area, no longer exist.
Changes in this regulatory area, including some still subject to judicial
review, could alter the business landscape in which we operate, as formidable
new competitors (including electric utilities, local exchange carriers, and
broadcast/media companies) may increasingly choose to offer cable services.
The
FCC
previously adopted regulations precluding any cable operator from serving more
than 30% of all domestic multichannel video subscribers and from devoting more
than 40% of the activated channel capacity of any cable system to the carriage
of affiliated national video programming services. These cable ownership
restrictions were invalidated by the courts, and the FCC is now considering
adoption of replacement regulations.
Pole
Attachments. The
Communications Act requires most utilities to provide cable systems with access
to poles and conduits and simultaneously subjects the rates charged for this
access to either federal or state regulation. The Communications Act specifies
that significantly higher rates apply if the cable plant is providing
telecommunications services. The FCC has clarified that a cable operator's
favorable pole rates are not endangered by the provision of Internet access,
and
that determination was upheld by the United States Supreme Court. It
remains
possible that the underlying pole attachment formula, or its application to
Internet and telecommunications offerings, will be modified in a manner that
substantially increases our pole attachment costs. We are a defendant in at
least one lawsuit where the utility company claims that we should pay an
increased rate on its poles. An adverse outcome would likely lead to higher
pole
attachment costs in certain states.
Cable
Equipment. In
1996,
Congress enacted a statute seeking to promote the “competitive availability of
navigational devices” by allowing cable subscribers to use set-top boxes
obtained from third parties, including third-party retailers. The FCC has
undertaken several steps to implement this statute designed to promote
competition in the delivery of cable equipment and compatibility with new
digital technology. The FCC has expressly ruled that cable customers must be
allowed to purchase set-top boxes from third parties, and has established a
multi-year phase-in during which security functions (which would remain in
the
operator's exclusive control) would be unbundled from the basic converter
functions, which could then be provided by third party vendors. The first phase
of implementation has already passed, whereby cable operators are providing
“CableCard” security modules and support to customer-owned digital televisions
and similar devices equipped with built-in set-top box functionality compatible
with CableCards. A prohibition on cable operators leasing digital set-top boxes
that integrate security and basic navigation functions is scheduled to go into
effect as of July 1, 2007.
There
have been many requests for waiver of the integrated security ban filed with
the
FCC. Charter has petitioned the FCC to waive the prohibition as applied to
our
least expensive digital set-top boxes, and the National Cable and
Telecommunications Association filed a request with the FCC that the prohibition
be waived for all cable operators, for all set-top boxes, until a downloadable
security solution is available, or until December 31, 2009, whichever is
earlier. We cannot predict whether the FCC will grant these or any other
requests.
It
is
possible that our vendors will be unable to deliver all of the necessary set-top
boxes that we will require in time for us to comply with the FCC regulation,
which could subject us to FCC penalties. In addition, our vendors will attempt
to pass on costs associated with the design and manufacture of the new set-top
boxes, which we may not be able to recover from our customers.
The
cable
and consumer electronics industries have been attempting to negotiate an
agreement that would establish additional specifications for two-way digital
televisions. It is unclear how this process will develop and how it will affect
our offering of cable equipment and our relationship with our
customers.
Privacy Regulation.
The
Communications Act limits our ability to collect and disclose subscribers’
personally identifiable information for our video, telephone, and high-speed
Internet services, as well as provides requirements to safeguard such
information. Charter is subject to additional Federal, State, and local laws
and
regulations that may also impose additional subscriber and employee privacy
restrictions. Further, the FCC, FTC, and many states now regulate the
telemarketing practices of cable operators, including telemarketing and online
marketing efforts.
Other
FCC Regulatory Matters. FCC
regulations cover a variety of additional areas, including, among other things:
(1) equal employment opportunity obligations; (2) customer service standards;
(3) technical service standards; (4) MDU access rights for potential
competitions; (5) mandatory blackouts of certain network, syndicated and sports
programming; (6) restrictions on political advertising; (7) restrictions on
advertising in children's programming; (8) restrictions on origination
cablecasting; (9) restrictions on carriage of lottery programming; (10)
sponsorship identification obligations; (11) closed captioning of video
programming; (12) licensing of systems and facilities; (13) maintenance of
public files; and
(14)
emergency alert systems.
It
is
possible that Congress or the FCC will expand or modify its regulation of cable
systems in the future, and we cannot predict at this time how that might impact
our business.
Copyright.
Cable
systems are subject to a federal copyright compulsory license covering carriage
of television and radio broadcast signals. The possible modification or
elimination of this compulsory copyright license is the subject of continuing
legislative review and could adversely affect our ability to obtain desired
broadcast programming. Moreover, the Copyright Office has not yet provided
any
guidance as to how the compulsory copyright license should apply to newly
offered digital broadcast signals.
Copyright
clearances for non-broadcast programming services are arranged through private
negotiations. Cable operators also must obtain music rights for locally
originated programming and advertising from the major music performing rights
organizations. These licensing fees have been the source of litigation in the
past, and we cannot predict with certainty whether license fee disputes may
arise in the future.
Franchise
Matters. Cable
systems generally are operated pursuant to nonexclusive franchises granted
by a
municipality or other state or local government entity in order to cross public
rights-of-way. Cable franchises generally are granted for fixed terms and in
many cases include monetary penalties for noncompliance and may be terminable
if
the franchisee fails to comply with material provisions. The
specific terms and conditions of cable franchises vary materially between
jurisdictions. Each franchise generally contains provisions governing cable
operations, franchise fees, system construction, maintenance, technical
performance, and customer service standards. A number of states subject cable
systems to the jurisdiction of centralized state government agencies, such
as
public utility commissions. Although local franchising authorities have
considerable discretion in establishing franchise terms, certain federal
protections benefit cable operators. For example, federal law caps local
franchise fees and includes renewal procedures designed to protect incumbent
franchisees from arbitrary denials of renewal. Even if a franchise is renewed,
however, the local franchising authority may seek to impose new and more onerous
requirements as a condition of renewal. Similarly, if a local franchising
authority's consent is required for the purchase or sale of a cable system,
the
local franchising authority may attempt to impose more burdensome requirements
as a condition for providing its consent.
Legislative
proposals have been introduced in the United States Congress and in state
legislatures that would greatly streamline cable franchising. This legislation
is intended to facilitate entry by new competitors, particularly local telephone
companies. Such legislation has passed in several states, including states
where
we have significant operations. Although certain of these states have provided
some regulatory relief for incumbent cable operators, these proposals are
generally viewed as being more favorable to new entrants due to a number of
factors, including efforts to withhold streamlined cable franchising from
incumbents until after the expiration of their existing franchises, and the
potential for new entrants to serve only higher-income areas of a particular
community. To the extent incumbent cable operators are not able to avail
themselves of this streamlined franchising process, such operators may continue
to be subject to more onerous franchise requirements at the local level than
new
entrants. At least two additional states where we have cable systems have issued
regulations that will facilitate telephone company provision of video services
by eliminating or reducing the application of franchising requirements to the
telephone companies. A proceeding is pending at the FCC to determine whether
local franchising authorities are impeding the deployment of competitive cable
services through unreasonable franchising requirements and whether any such
impediments should be preempted. At this time, we are not able to determine
what
impact such proceeding may have on us.
Internet
Service
Over
the
past several years, proposals have been advanced at the FCC and Congress that
would require cable operators offering Internet service to provide
non-discriminatory access to their networks to competing Internet service
providers. In a 2005 ruling, commonly referred to as Brand
X,
the
Supreme Court upheld an FCC decision making it less likely that any
non-discriminatory “open access” requirements (which are generally associated
with common carrier regulation of “telecommunications services”) will be imposed
on the cable industry by local, state or federal authorities. The Supreme Court
held that the FCC was correct in classifying cable-provided Internet service
as
an “information service,” rather than a “telecommunications service.” This
favorable regulatory classification limits the ability of various governmental
authorities to impose open access requirements on cable-provided Internet
service.
The
FCC’s
classification also means
that it
is unlikely the FCC will regulate Internet service to the same extent as cable
or telecommunications services. However, the FCC has concluded that the
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) does apply to
facilities-based broadband Internet access providers, setting a deadline of
May
14, 2007 for broadband providers to accommodate law enforcement requests for
electronic surveillance pursuant to court order or other lawful authority.
The
FCC also issued a non-binding policy statement in 2005 establishing four basic
principles that the FCC says will inform its ongoing policymaking activities
regarding broadband-related Internet services. Those principles state that
consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice,
consumers are entitled to run applications and services of their choice, subject
to the needs of law enforcement, consumers are entitled to connect their choice
of legal devices that do not harm the network, and consumers are entitled to
competition among network providers, application and service providers and
content providers. It is unclear what, if any, additional regulations the FCC
might impose on our Internet service, and what, if any, impact, such regulations
might have on our business.
As
the
Internet has matured, it has become the subject of increasing regulatory
interest. Congress and federal regulators have adopted a wide range of measures
directly or potentially affecting Internet use, including, for example, consumer
privacy, copyright protections (which afford copyright owners certain rights
against us that could adversely affect our relationship with a customer accused
of violating copyright laws), defamation liability,
taxation,
obscenity, and unsolicited commercial e-mail. Additionally, the FCC and Congress
are considering subjecting high-speed Internet access services to the Universal
Service funding requirements. This would impose significant new costs on our
high-speed Internet service. State and local governmental organizations have
also adopted Internet-related regulations. These various governmental
jurisdictions are also considering additional regulations in these and other
areas, such as pricing, service and product quality, and intellectual property
ownership. The
adoption of new Internet regulations or the adaptation of existing laws to
the
Internet could adversely affect our business.
Telephone
Service
The
1996
Telecom Act created a more favorable regulatory environment for us to provide
telecommunications services. In particular, it limited the regulatory role
of
local franchising authorities and established requirements ensuring that
providers of traditional telecommunications services can interconnect with
other
telephone companies to provide a viable service. Many implementation details
remain unresolved, and there are substantial regulatory changes being considered
that could impact, in both positive and negative ways, our primary
telecommunications competitors and our own entry into the field of telephone
service. The FCC and state regulatory authorities are considering, for example,
whether common carrier regulation traditionally applied to incumbent local
exchange carriers should be modified. The
FCC
has concluded that alternative voice technologies, like certain types of VoIP
(we use VoIP technology for our telephone service), should be regulated only
at
the federal level, rather than by individual states. A legal challenge to that
FCC decision is pending. While the FCC’s decision appears to be a positive
development for VoIP offerings, it is unclear whether and how the FCC will
apply
certain types of common carrier regulations, such as intercarrier compensations
and universal service obligations to alternative voice technology. Also, the
FCC
and Congress are considering whether, and to what extent, VoIP service will
have
interconnection rights with local telephone companies. The FCC has already
determined that providers of telephone services using Internet Protocol
technology must comply with traditional 911 emergency service obligations
(“E911”) and it has extended requirements for accommodating law enforcement
wiretaps to such providers. It is unclear how these regulatory matters
ultimately will be resolved and how they will affect our potential expansion
into telephone service.
Employees
As
of
December 31, 2006, we had approximately 15,500 full-time equivalent employees.
At December 31, 2006, approximately 100 of our employees were represented by
collective bargaining agreements. We have never experienced a work stoppage.
Item
1A. Risk
Factors.
Risks
Related to Significant Indebtedness of Us and Our
Subsidiaries
We
and our subsidiaries have a significant amount of existing debt and may incur
significant additional debt, including secured debt, in the future, which could
adversely affect our financial health and our ability to react to changes in
our
business.
We
and
our subsidiaries have a significant amount of debt and may (subject to
applicable restrictions in our debt instruments) incur additional debt in the
future. As of December 31, 2006, our total debt was approximately $19.1 billion,
our shareholders' deficit was approximately $6.2 billion and the deficiency
of
earnings to cover fixed charges for the year ended December 31, 2006 was $1.2
billion.
As
of
December 31, 2006, approximately $413 million aggregate principal amount of
Charter's convertible notes was outstanding; which matures in 2009. We will
need
to raise additional capital and/or receive distributions or payments from our
subsidiaries in order to satisfy this debt obligation. An additional $450
million aggregate principal amount of Charter’s convertible notes was held by
CCHC.
Because
of our significant indebtedness, our ability to raise additional capital at
reasonable rates, or at all, is uncertain, and the ability of our subsidiaries
to make distributions or payments to their parent companies is subject to
availability of funds and restrictions under our subsidiaries' applicable debt
instruments and under applicable law. If we need to raise additional capital
through the issuance of equity or find it necessary to engage in a
recapitalization or other similar transaction, our shareholders could suffer
significant dilution, and in the case of a recapitalization or other similar
transaction, our noteholders might not receive principal and interest payments
to which they are contractually entitled.
Our
significant amount of debt could have other important consequences. For example,
the debt will or could:
· |
require
us to dedicate a significant portion of our cash flow from operating
activities to make payments on our debt, reducing our funds available
for
working capital, capital expenditures, and other general corporate
expenses;
|
· |
limit
our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business,
the cable and telecommunications industries, and the economy at
large;
|
· |
place
us at a disadvantage compared to our competitors that have proportionately
less debt;
|
· |
make
us vulnerable to interest rate increases, because approximately 22%
of our
borrowings are, and will continue to be, at variable rates of
interest;
|
· |
expose
us to increased interest expense to the extent we refinance existing
debt
with higher cost debt;
|
· |
adversely
affect our relationship with customers and
suppliers;
|
· |
limit
our ability to borrow additional funds in the future, due to applicable
financial and restrictive covenants in our debt;
|
· |
make
it more difficult for us to satisfy our obligations to the holders
of our
notes and for our subsidiaries to satisfy their obligations to their
lenders under their credit facilities and to their noteholders;
and
|
· |
limit
future increases in the value, or cause a decline in the value of
our
equity, which could limit our ability to raise additional capital
by
issuing equity.
|
A
default
by one of our subsidiaries under its debt obligations could result in the
acceleration of those obligations, which in turn could trigger cross defaults
under other agreements governing our long-term indebtedness. In addition, the
secured lenders under the Charter Operating credit facilities and the holders
of
the Charter Operating senior second-lien notes could foreclose on their
collateral, which includes equity interest in our subsidiaries, and exercise
other rights of secured creditors. Any default under those credit facilities
or
the indentures governing our convertible notes or our subsidiaries’ debt could
adversely affect our growth, our financial condition, our results of operations,
and our ability to make payments on our convertible notes, Charter Operating’s
credit facilities, and other debt of our subsidiaries, and could force us to
seek the protection of the bankruptcy laws. We and our subsidiaries may incur
significant additional debt in the future. If current debt levels increase,
the
related risks that we now face will intensify.
The
agreements and instruments governing our debt and the debt of our subsidiaries
contain restrictions and limitations that could significantly affect our ability
to operate our business, as well as significantly affect our
liquidity.
The
Charter Operating credit facilities and the indentures governing our and our
subsidiaries' debt contain a number of significant covenants that could
adversely affect our ability to operate our business, as well as significantly
affect our liquidity, and therefore could adversely affect our results of
operations. These covenants will restrict, among other things, our and our
subsidiaries' ability to:
· |
repurchase
or redeem equity interests and
debt;
|
· |
make
certain investments or
acquisitions;
|
· |
pay
dividends or make other
distributions;
|
· |
dispose
of assets or merge;
|
· |
enter
into related party transactions; and
|
· |
grant
liens and pledge assets.
|
The
breach of any covenants or obligations in the foregoing indentures or credit
facilities, not otherwise waived or amended, could result in a default under
the
applicable debt obligations and could trigger acceleration of those obligations,
which in turn could trigger cross defaults under other agreements governing
our
long-term indebtedness. In addition, the secured lenders under the Charter
Operating credit facilities and the holders of the Charter Operating senior
second-lien notes could foreclose on their collateral, which includes equity
interests in our subsidiaries, and exercise other rights of secured creditors.
Any default under those credit facilities or the indentures governing our
convertible notes or our subsidiaries' debt could adversely affect our growth,
our financial condition, our results of operations and our ability to make
payments on our convertible notes, Charter Operating's credit facilities, and
other debt of our subsidiaries, and could force us to seek the protection of
the
bankruptcy laws.
Charter
Operating may not be able to access funds under its credit facilities if it
fails to satisfy the covenant restrictions in its credit facilities, which
could
adversely affect our financial condition and our ability to conduct our
business.
Our
subsidiaries have historically relied on access to credit facilities in order
to
fund operations and to service parent company debt, and we expect such reliance
to continue in the future. Our total potential borrowing availability under
the
Charter Operating credit facilities was approximately $1.3 billion as of
December 31, 2006, although the actual availability at that time was only $1.1
billion because of limits imposed by covenant restrictions. There can be no
assurance that actual availability under our credit facilities will not be
limited by covenant restrictions in the future.
One
of
the conditions to the availability of funding under Charter Operating's credit
facilities is the absence of a default under such facilities, including as
a
result of any failure to comply with the covenants under the facilities. Among
other covenants, the facilities require Charter Operating to maintain specific
financial ratios. The facilities also provide that Charter Operating has to
obtain an unqualified audit opinion from its independent accountants for each
fiscal year. There can be no assurance that Charter Operating will be able
to
continue to comply with these or any other of the covenants under the credit
facilities.
An
event
of default under the credit facilities or indentures, if not waived, could
result in the acceleration of those debt obligations and, consequently, could
trigger cross defaults under other agreements governing our long-term
indebtedness. In addition, the secured lenders under the Charter Operating
credit facilities and the holders of the Charter Operating senior second-lien
notes could foreclose on their collateral, which includes equity interest in
our
subsidiaries, and exercise other rights of secured creditors. Any default under
those credit facilities or the indentures governing our convertible notes or
our
subsidiaries’ debt could adversely affect our growth, our financial condition,
our results of operations, and our ability to make payments on our convertible
notes, Charter Operating’s credit facilities, and other debt of our
subsidiaries, and could force us to seek the protection of the bankruptcy laws,
which could materially adversely impact our ability to operate our business
and
to make payments under our debt instruments.
We
depend on generating sufficient cash flow and having access to additional
external liquidity sources to fund our debt obligations, capital expenditures,
and ongoing operations.
Our
ability to service our debt and to fund our planned capital expenditures and
ongoing operations will depend on both our ability to generate cash flow and
our
access to additional external liquidity sources. Our ability to generate cash
flow is dependent on many factors, including:
· |
competition
from other video programming distributors, including incumbent telephone
companies, direct broadcast satellite operators, wireless broadband
providers and DSL providers;
|
· |
unforeseen
difficulties we may encounter in our continued introduction of our
telephone services such as our ability to meet heightened customer
expectations for the reliability of voice services compared to other
services we provide, and our ability to meet heightened demand for
installations and customer service;
|
· |
our
ability to sustain and grow revenues by offering video, high-speed
Internet, telephone and other services, and to maintain and grow
a stable
customer base, particularly in the face of increasingly aggressive
competition from other service
providers;
|
· |
our
ability to obtain programming at reasonable prices or to pass programming
cost increases on to our customers;
|
· |
general
business conditions, economic uncertainty or slowdown;
and
|
· |
the
effects of governmental regulation, including but not limited to
local
franchise authorities, on our
business.
|
Some
of
these factors are beyond our control. If we are unable to generate sufficient
cash flow or access additional external liquidity sources, we may not be able
to
service and repay our debt, operate our business, respond to competitive
challenges, or fund our other liquidity and capital needs. Although we and
our
subsidiaries have been able to raise funds through issuances of debt in the
past, we may not be able to access additional sources of external liquidity
on
similar terms, if at all. We expect that cash on hand, cash flows from operating
activities, and the amounts available under our credit facilities will be
adequate to meet our cash needs through 2007. We believe that cash flows from
operating activities and amounts available under our credit facilities may
not
be sufficient to fund our operations and satisfy our interest and principal
repayment obligations in 2008 and will not be sufficient to fund
such
needs in 2009 and beyond. See “Part II. Item 7. Management's Discussion and
Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations —
Liquidity and Capital Resources.”
Because
of our holding company structure, our outstanding notes are structurally
subordinated in right of payment to all liabilities of our subsidiaries.
Restrictions in our subsidiaries' debt instruments and under applicable law
limit their ability to provide funds to us or our various debt
issuers.
Our
sole
assets are our equity interests in our subsidiaries. Our operating subsidiaries
are separate and distinct legal entities and are not obligated to make funds
available to us for payments on our notes or other obligations in the form
of
loans, distributions, or otherwise. Our subsidiaries' ability to make
distributions to us or the applicable debt issuers to service debt obligations
is subject to their compliance with the terms of their credit facilities and
indentures, and restrictions under applicable law. See “Part II. Item 7.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations —
Liquidity and Capital Resources — Limitations on Distributions” and “— Debt
Covenants.” Under
the
Delaware Limited Liability Company Act, our subsidiaries may only make
distributions if they have “surplus” as defined in the act. Under fraudulent
transfer laws, our subsidiaries may not pay dividends if they are insolvent
or
are rendered insolvent thereby. The measures of insolvency for purposes of
these
fraudulent transfer laws vary depending upon the law applied in any proceeding
to determine whether a fraudulent transfer has occurred. Generally, however,
an
entity would be considered insolvent if:
· |
the
sum of its debts, including contingent liabilities, was greater than
the
fair saleable value of all its
assets;
|
· |
the
present fair saleable value of its assets was less than the amount
that
would be required to pay its probable liability on its existing debts,
including contingent liabilities, as they become absolute and mature;
or
|
· |
it
could not pay its debts as they became
due.
|
While
we
believe that our relevant subsidiaries currently have surplus and are not
insolvent, there can be no assurance that these subsidiaries will be permitted
to make distributions in the future in compliance with these restrictions in
amounts needed to service our indebtedness. Our direct or indirect subsidiaries
include the borrowers and guarantors under the Charter Operating credit
facilities. Several of our subsidiaries are also obligors and guarantors under
other senior high yield notes. Our convertible notes are structurally
subordinated in right of payment to all of the debt and other liabilities of
our
subsidiaries. As of December 31, 2006, our total debt was approximately $19.1
billion, of which approximately $18.7 billion was structurally senior to our
convertible notes.
In
the
event of bankruptcy, liquidation, or dissolution of one or more of our
subsidiaries, that subsidiary's assets would first be applied to satisfy its
own
obligations, and following such payments, such subsidiary may not have
sufficient assets remaining to make payments to its parent company as an equity
holder or otherwise. In that event:
· |
the
lenders under Charter Operating's credit facilities, whose interests
are
secured by substantially all of our operating assets, will have the
right
to be paid in full before us from any of our subsidiaries' assets;
and
|
· |
the
holders of preferred membership interests in our subsidiary, CC VIII,
would have a claim on a portion of its assets that may reduce the
amounts
available for repayment to holders of our outstanding
notes.
|
All
of our and our subsidiaries' outstanding debt is subject to change of control
provisions. We may not have the ability to raise the funds necessary to fulfill
our obligations under our indebtedness following a change of control, which
would place us in default under the applicable debt
instruments.
We
may
not have the ability to raise the funds necessary to fulfill our obligations
under our and our subsidiaries' notes and credit facilities following a change
of control. Under the indentures governing our and our subsidiaries' notes,
upon
the occurrence of specified change of control events, we are required to offer
to repurchase all of these notes. However, Charter and our subsidiaries may
not
have sufficient funds at the time of the change of control event to make the
required repurchase of these notes, and our subsidiaries are limited in their
ability to make distributions or other payments to fund any required repurchase.
In addition, a change of control under our credit facilities would result in
a
default under those credit facilities. Because such credit facilities and our
subsidiaries' notes are obligations of our subsidiaries, the credit facilities
and our subsidiaries' notes would have to be repaid by our subsidiaries before
their assets could be available to us to repurchase our convertible senior
notes. Our failure to make or complete a change of control offer would place
us
in default under our convertible senior notes. The failure of our subsidiaries
to make a change of control offer or repay the amounts accelerated under their
notes and credit facilities would place them in default.
Paul
G. Allen and his affiliates are not obligated to purchase equity from,
contribute to, or loan funds to us or any of our
subsidiaries.
Paul
G.
Allen and his affiliates are not obligated to purchase equity from, contribute
to, or loan funds to us or any of our subsidiaries.
Risks
Related to Our Business
We
operate in a very competitive business environment, which affects our ability
to
attract and retain customers and can adversely affect our business and
operations.
The
industry in which we operate is highly competitive and has become more so in
recent years. In some instances, we compete against companies with fewer
regulatory burdens, easier access to financing, greater personnel and other
resources, greater brand name recognition, and long-established relationships
with regulatory authorities and customers. Increasing consolidation in the
cable
industry and the repeal of certain ownership rules may provide additional
benefits to certain of our competitors, either through access to financing,
resources, or efficiencies of scale.
Our
principal competitor for video services throughout our territory is DBS. The
two
largest DBS providers are DIRECTV and Echostar Communications. Competition
from
DBS, including intensive marketing efforts with aggressive pricing and exclusive
programming such as the “NFL Sunday Ticket,” has had an adverse impact on our
ability to retain customers. DBS has grown rapidly over the last several years.
The cable industry, including us, has lost a significant number of video
customers to DBS competition, and we face serious challenges in this area in
the
future. In some areas, DBS operators have entered into co-marketing arrangements
with other of our competitors to offer service bundles combining video services
provided by the DBS operator and DSL and traditional telephone service offered
by the telephone companies. These service bundles resemble our bundles and
result in a single bill to the customer. We believe that competition from DBS
service providers may present greater challenges in areas of lower population
density, and that our systems service a higher concentration of such areas
than
those of certain other major cable service providers.
Local
telephone companies and electric utilities can offer video and other services
in
competition with us and they increasingly may do so in the future. Two major
local telephone companies, AT&T and Verizon, have both announced that they
intend to make upgrades of their networks. Some upgraded portions of these
networks are or will be capable of carrying two-way video services that are
technically comparable to ours, high-speed data services that operate at speeds
as high or higher than those we make available to customers in these areas
and
digital voice services that are similar to ours. In addition, these companies
continue to offer their traditional telephone services as well as bundles that
include wireless voice services provided by affiliated companies. We believe
that AT&T and Verizon’s upgrades have been completed in systems representing
approximately 1% of our homes passed as of December 31, 2006. Additional
upgrades in markets in which we operate are expected.
In areas
where they have launched video services, these parties are aggressively
marketing video, voice and data bundles at entry level prices similar to those
we use to market our bundles. Certain telephone companies have begun more
extensive upgrades in their networks that enable them to begin providing video
services, as well as telephone and high bandwidth Internet access services,
to
residential and business customers and they are now offering such service in
limited areas. Some of these telephone companies have obtained, and are now
seeking, franchises or operating authorizations under terms and conditions
more
favorable than those imposed on us.
With
respect to our Internet access services, we face competition, including
intensive marketing efforts and aggressive pricing, from telephone companies
and
other providers of DSL and “dial-up”. DSL service is competitive with high-speed
Internet service over cable systems. In addition, DBS providers have entered
into joint marketing arrangements with Internet access providers to offer
bundled video and Internet service, which competes with our ability to provide
bundled services to our customers. Moreover, as we expand our telephone
offerings, we face considerable competition from established telephone companies
and other carriers, including VoIP providers.
In
order
to attract new customers, from time to time we make promotional offers,
including offers of temporarily reduced-price or free service. These promotional
programs result in significant advertising, programming and operating expenses,
and also require us to make capital expenditures to acquire additional digital
set-top boxes. Customers who subscribe to our services as a result of these
offerings may not remain customers for any significant period of time following
the end of the promotional period. A failure to retain existing customers and
customers added through promotional offerings or to collect the amounts they
owe
us could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial
results.
Mergers,
joint ventures and alliances among franchised, wireless or private cable
operators, satellite television providers, local exchange carriers and others,
may provide additional benefits to some of our competitors, either through
access to financing, resources or efficiencies of scale, or the ability to
provide multiple services in direct competition with us.
In
addition to the various competitive factors discussed above, our business is
subject to risks relating to increasing competition for the leisure and
entertainment time of consumers. Our business competes with all other sources
of
entertainment and information delivery, including broadcast television, movies,
live events, radio broadcasts, home video products, console games, print media,
and the Internet. Technological advancements, such as video-on-demand, new
video
formats, and Internet streaming and downloading, have increased the number
of
entertainment and information delivery choices available to consumers, and
intensified the challenges posed by audience fragmentation. The increasing
number of choices available to audiences could negatively impact not only
consumer demand for our products and services, but also advertisers’ willingness
to purchase advertising from us. If we do not respond appropriately to further
increases in the leisure and entertainment choices available to consumers,
our
competitive position could deteriorate, and our financial results could suffer.
We
cannot
assure you that our cable systems will allow us to compete effectively.
Additionally, as we expand our offerings to include other telecommunications
services, and to introduce new and enhanced services, we will be subject to
competition from other providers of the services we offer. We cannot predict
the
extent to which competition may affect our business and operations in the
future.
We
have a history of net losses and expect to continue to experience net losses.
Consequently, we may not have the ability to finance future
operations.
We
have
had a history of net losses and expect to continue to report net losses for
the
foreseeable future. Our net losses are principally attributable to insufficient
revenue to cover the combination of operating expenses and interest expenses
we
incur because of our high level of debt and the depreciation expenses that
we
incur resulting from the capital investments we have made in our cable
properties. We expect that these expenses will remain significant. We reported
net losses applicable to common stock of $1.4 billion, $970 million, and $4.3
billion for the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005, and 2004, respectively.
Continued losses would reduce our cash available from operations to service
our
indebtedness, as well as limit our ability to finance our
operations.
We
may not have the ability to pass our increasing programming costs on to our
customers, which would adversely affect our cash flow and operating
margins.
Programming
has been, and is expected to continue to be, our largest operating expense
item.
In recent years, the cable industry has experienced a rapid escalation in the
cost of programming, particularly sports programming. We expect programming
costs to continue to increase because of a variety of factors, including annual
increases imposed by programmers and additional programming, including high
definition television, and OnDemand
programming, being provided to customers. The inability to fully pass these
programming cost increases on to our customers has had an adverse impact on
our
cash flow and operating margins. We have programming contracts that have expired
or that will expire at or before the end of 2007. There can be no assurance
that
these agreements will be renewed on favorable or comparable terms. To the extent
that we are unable to reach agreement with certain programmers on terms that
we
believe are reasonable we may be forced to remove such programming channels
from
our line-up, which could result in a further loss of customers.
Increased
demands by owners of some broadcast stations for carriage of other services
or
payments to those broadcasters for retransmission consent could further increase
our programming costs. Federal law allows commercial television broadcast
stations to make an election between “must-carry” rights and an alternative
“retransmission-consent” regime. When a station opts for the latter, cable
operators are not allowed to carry the station’s signal without the station’s
permission. In some cases, we carry stations under short-term arrangements
while
we attempt to negotiate new long-term retransmission agreements. If negotiations
with these programmers prove unsuccessful, they could require us to cease
carrying their signals, possibly for an indefinite period. Any loss of stations
could make our video service less attractive to customers, which could result
in
less subscription and advertising revenue. In retransmission-consent
negotiations, broadcasters often condition consent with respect to one station
on carriage of one or more other stations or programming services in which
they
or their affiliates have an interest. Carriage of these other services may
increase our programming expenses and diminish the amount of capacity we have
available to introduce new services, which could have an adverse effect on
our
business and financial results.
If
our required capital expenditures in 2007, 2008 and beyond exceed our
projections, we may not have sufficient funding, which could adversely affect
our growth, financial condition and results of
operations.
During
the year ended December 31, 2006, we spent approximately $1.1 billion on capital
expenditures. During 2007, we expect capital expenditures to be approximately
$1.2 billion. The actual amount of our capital expenditures depends on the
level
of growth in high-speed Internet and telephone customers, and in the delivery
of
other advanced services, as well as the cost of introducing any new services.
We
may need additional capital in 2007, 2008, and beyond if there is accelerated
growth in high-speed Internet customers, telephone customers or in the delivery
of other advanced services. If we cannot obtain such capital from increases
in
our cash flow from operating activities, additional borrowings, proceeds from
asset sales or other sources, our growth, financial condition, and results
of
operations could suffer materially.
We
face risks inherent to our telephone business.
We
may
encounter unforeseen difficulties as we introduce our telephone service in
new
operating areas and as we increase the scale of our telephone service offerings
in areas in which they have already been launched. First, we face heightened
customer expectations for the reliability of telephone services, as compared
with our video and high-speed data services. We have undertaken significant
training of customer service representatives and technicians, and we will
continue to need a highly trained workforce. To ensure reliable service, we
may
need to increase our expenditures, including spending on technology, equipment
and personnel. If the service is not sufficiently reliable or we otherwise
fail
to meet customer expectations, our telephone business could be adversely
affected. Second, the competitive landscape for telephone services is intense;
we face competition from providers of Internet telephone services, as well
as
incumbent local telephone companies, cellular telephone service providers,
and
others. Third, we depend on interconnection and related services provided by
certain third parties. As a result, our ability to implement changes as the
service grows may be limited. Finally, we expect advances in communications
technology, as well as changes in the marketplace and the regulatory and
legislative environment. Consequently, we are unable to predict the effect
that
ongoing or future developments in these areas might have on our telephone
business and operations.
Our
inability to respond to technological developments and meet customer demand
for
new products and services could limit our ability to compete
effectively.
Our
business is characterized by rapid technological change and the introduction
of
new products and services, some of which are bandwidth-intensive. We cannot
assure you that we will be able to fund the capital expenditures necessary
to
keep pace with technological developments, or that we will successfully
anticipate the demand of our customers for products and services requiring
new
technology or bandwidth beyond our expectations. Our inability to maintain
and
expand our upgraded systems and provide advanced services in a timely manner,
or
to anticipate the demands of the marketplace, could materially adversely affect
our ability to attract and retain customers. Consequently, our growth, financial
condition and results of operations could suffer materially.
We
depend on third party suppliers and licensors; thus, if we are unable to procure
the necessary equipment, software or licenses on reasonable terms and on a
timely basis, our ability to offer services could be impaired, and our growth,
operations, business, financial results and financial condition could be
materially adversely affected.
We
depend
on third party suppliers and licensors to supply some of the hardware, software
and operational support necessary to provide some of our services. We obtain
these materials from a limited number of vendors, some of which do not have
a
long operating history. Some of our hardware, software and operational support
vendors represent our sole source of supply or have, either through contract
or
as a result of intellectual property rights, a position of some exclusivity.
If
demand exceeds these vendors’ capacity or if these vendors experience operating
or financial difficulties, or are otherwise unable to provide the equipment
we
need in a timely manner and at reasonable prices, our ability to provide some
services might be materially adversely affected, or the need to procure or
develop alternative sources of the affected materials or services might delay
our ability to serve our customers. These events could materially and adversely
affect our ability to retain and attract customers, and have a material negative
impact on our operations, business, financial results and financial condition.
A
limited number of vendors of key technologies can lead to less product
innovation and higher costs. For these reasons, we generally endeavor to
establish alternative vendors for materials we consider critical, but may not
be
able to establish these relationships or be able to obtain required materials
on
favorable terms.
For
example, each of our systems currently purchases set-top boxes from a limited
number of vendors, because each of our cable systems uses one or two proprietary
conditional access security schemes, which allow us to regulate subscriber
access to some services, such as premium channels. We believe that the
proprietary nature of these conditional access schemes makes other manufacturers
reluctant to produce set-top boxes. Future innovation in set-top boxes may
be
restricted until these issues are resolved. In addition, we believe that the
general lack of compatibility among set-top box operating systems has slowed
the
industry’s development and deployment of digital set-top box applications.
Malicious
and abusive Internet practices could impair our high-speed Internet
services.
Our
high-speed Internet customers utilize our network to access the Internet and,
as
a consequence, we or they may become victim to common malicious and abusive
Internet activities, such as unsolicited mass advertising (i.e., “spam”) and
dissemination of viruses, worms, and other destructive or disruptive software.
These activities could have adverse consequences on our network and our
customers, including degradation of service, excessive call volume to call
centers, and damage to our or our customers' equipment and data. Significant
incidents could lead to customer dissatisfaction and, ultimately, loss of
customers or revenue, in addition to increased costs to service our customers
and protect our network. Any significant loss of high-speed Internet customers
or revenue, or significant increase in costs of serving those customers, could
adversely affect our growth, financial condition and results of
operations.
We
could be deemed an “investment company” under the Investment Company Act of
1940. This would impose significant restrictions on us and would be likely
to
have a material adverse impact on our growth, financial condition and results
of
operation.
Our
principal assets are our equity interests in Charter Holdco and certain
indebtedness of Charter Holdco. If our membership interest in Charter Holdco
were to constitute less than 50% of the voting securities issued by Charter
Holdco, then our interest in Charter Holdco could be deemed an “investment
security” for purposes of the Investment Company Act. This may occur, for
example, if a court determines that the Class B common stock is no longer
entitled to special voting rights and, in accordance with the terms of the
Charter Holdco limited liability company agreement, our membership units in
Charter Holdco were to lose their special voting privileges. A determination
that such interest was an investment security could cause us to be deemed to
be
an investment company under the Investment Company Act, unless an exemption
from
registration were available or we were to obtain an order of the Securities
and
Exchange Commission excluding or exempting us from registration under the
Investment Company Act.
If
anything were to happen which would cause us to be deemed an investment company,
the Investment Company Act would impose significant restrictions on us,
including severe limitations on our ability to borrow money, to issue additional
capital stock, and to transact business with affiliates. In addition, because
our operations are very different from those of the typical registered
investment company, regulation under the Investment Company Act could affect
us
in other ways that are extremely difficult to predict. In sum, if we were deemed
to be an investment company it could become impractical for us to continue
our
business as currently conducted and our growth, our financial condition and
our
results of operations could suffer materially.
If
a court determines that the Class B common stock is no longer entitled to
special voting rights, we would lose our rights to manage Charter Holdco. In
addition to the investment company risks discussed above, this could materially
impact the value of the Class A common stock.
If
a
court determines that the Class B common stock is no longer entitled to special
voting rights, Charter would no longer have a controlling voting interest in,
and would lose its right to manage, Charter Holdco. If this were to
occur:
· |
we
would retain our proportional equity interest in Charter Holdco but
would
lose all of our powers to direct the management and affairs of Charter
Holdco and its subsidiaries; and
|
· |
we
would become strictly a passive investment vehicle and would be treated
under the Investment Company Act as an investment
company.
|
This
result, as well as the impact of being treated under the Investment Company
Act
as an investment company, could materially adversely impact:
· |
the
liquidity of the Class A common
stock;
|
· |
how
the Class A common stock trades in the
marketplace;
|
· |
the
price that purchasers would be willing to pay for the Class A common
stock
in a change of control transaction or otherwise;
and
|
· |
the
market price of the Class A common
stock.
|
Uncertainties
that may arise with respect to the nature of our management role and voting
power and organizational documents as a result of any challenge to the special
voting rights of the Class B common stock, including legal actions or
proceedings relating thereto, may also materially adversely impact the value
of
the Class A common stock.
For
tax purposes, there is significant risk that we will experience an ownership
change resulting in a material limitation on the use of a substantial amount
of
our existing net operating loss carryforwards.
As
of
December 31, 2006, we had approximately $6.7 billion of tax net operating
losses, resulting in a gross deferred tax asset of approximately $2.7 billion,
expiring in the years
2007
through 2026. Due to uncertainties in projected future taxable income,
valuation allowances have been established against the gross deferred tax assets
for book accounting purposes, except for deferred benefits available to offset
certain deferred tax liabilities. Currently, such tax net operating losses
can accumulate and be used to offset any of our future taxable income.
However, an “ownership change” as defined in Section 382 of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, would place significant limitations, on an
annual basis, on the use of such net operating losses to offset future taxable
income we may generate. Such limitations, in conjunction with the net
operating loss expiration provisions, could effectively eliminate our ability
to
use a substantial portion of our net operating losses to offset future taxable
income.
Future
transactions and the timing of such transactions could cause an ownership change
for income tax purposes. Such transactions include additional issuances of
common stock by us (including but not limited to issuances upon future
conversion of our 5.875% convertible senior notes), the return to us of the
borrowed shares loaned by us in connection with the issuance of the 5.875%
convertible senior notes, or acquisitions or sales of shares by certain holders
of our shares, including persons who have held, currently hold, or accumulate
in
the future five percent or more of our outstanding stock (including upon an
exchange by Mr. Allen or his affiliates, directly or indirectly, of membership
units of Charter Holdco into our Class B common stock). Many of the foregoing
transactions, including whether Mr. Allen exchanges his Charter Holdco units,
are beyond our control.
Risks
Related to Mr. Allen's Controlling Position
The
failure by Mr. Allen to maintain a minimum voting and economic interest in
us
could trigger a change of control default under our subsidiary's credit
facilities.
The
Charter Operating credit facilities provide that the failure by (a) Mr. Allen,
(b) his estate, spouse, immediate family members and heirs and (c) any trust,
corporation, partnership or other entity, the beneficiaries, stockholders,
partners or other owners of which consist exclusively of Mr. Allen or such
other
persons referred to in (b) above or a combination thereof to maintain a 35%
direct or indirect voting interest in the applicable borrower would result
in a
change of control default. Such a default could result in the acceleration
of
repayment of our and our subsidiaries' indebtedness, including borrowings under
the Charter Operating credit facilities.
Mr.
Allen controls our stockholder voting and may have interests that conflict
with
the interests of the other holders of our Class A common
stock.
Mr.
Allen
has the ability to control us. Through his control, as of December 31, 2006,
of
approximately 91% of the voting power of our capital stock, Mr. Allen is
entitled to elect all but one of our board members and effectively has the
voting power to elect the remaining board member as well. Mr. Allen thus has
the
ability to control fundamental corporate transactions requiring equity holder
approval, including, but not limited to, the election of all of our directors,
approval of merger transactions involving us and the sale of all or
substantially all of our assets.
Mr.
Allen
is not restricted from investing in, and has invested in, and engaged in, other
businesses involving or related to the operation of cable television systems,
video programming, high-speed Internet service, telephone or business and
financial transactions conducted through broadband interactivity and Internet
services. Mr. Allen may also engage in other businesses that compete or may
in
the future compete with us.
Mr.
Allen's control over our management and affairs could create conflicts of
interest if he is faced with decisions that could have different implications
for him, us and the other holders of our Class A common stock. For example,
if
Mr. Allen were to elect to exchange his Charter Holdco membership units for
our
Class B common stock pursuant to our existing exchange agreement with him,
such
a transaction would result in an ownership change for income tax purposes,
as
discussed above. See “—
For
tax
purposes, there is significant risk that we will experience an ownership change
resulting in a material limitation on the use of a substantial amount of our
existing net operating loss carryforwards.” Further, Mr. Allen could effectively
cause us to enter into contracts with another entity in which he owns an
interest, or to decline a transaction into which he (or another entity in which
he owns an interest) ultimately enters.
Current
and future agreements between us and either Mr. Allen or his affiliates may
not
be the result of arm's-length negotiations. Consequently, such agreements may
be
less favorable to us than agreements that we could otherwise have entered into
with unaffiliated third parties.
We
are not permitted to engage in any business activity other than the cable
transmission of video, audio and data unless Mr. Allen authorizes us to pursue
that particular business activity, which could adversely affect our ability
to
offer new products and services outside of the cable transmission business
and
to enter into new businesses, and could adversely affect our growth, financial
condition and results of operations.
Our
certificate of incorporation and Charter Holdco's limited liability company
agreement provide that Charter and Charter Holdco and our subsidiaries, cannot
engage in any business activity outside the cable transmission business except
for specified businesses. This will be the case unless Mr. Allen consents to
our
engaging in the business activity. The cable transmission business means the
business of transmitting video, audio (including telephone services), and data
over cable television systems owned, operated, or managed by us from time to
time. These provisions may limit our ability to take advantage of attractive
business opportunities.
The
loss of Mr. Allen's services could adversely affect our ability to manage our
business.
Mr.
Allen
is Chairman of our board of directors and provides strategic guidance and other
services to us. If we were to lose his services, our growth, financial
condition, and results of operations could be adversely impacted.
The
special tax allocation provisions of the Charter Holdco limited liability
company agreement may cause us in some circumstances to pay more taxes than
if
the special tax allocation provisions were not in
effect.
Charter
Holdco's limited liability company agreement provided that through the end
of
2003, net tax losses (such net tax losses being determined under the federal
income tax rules for determining capital accounts) of Charter Holdco that would
otherwise have been allocated to us based generally on our percentage ownership
of outstanding common membership units of Charter Holdco, would instead be
allocated to the membership units held by Vulcan Cable III Inc. (“Vulcan Cable”)
and CII. The purpose of these special tax allocation provisions was to allow
Mr.
Allen to take advantage, for tax purposes, of the losses generated by Charter
Holdco during such period. In some situations, these special tax allocation
provisions could result in our having to pay taxes in an amount that is more
or
less than if Charter Holdco had allocated net tax losses to its members based
generally on the percentage of outstanding common membership units owned by
such
members. For further discussion on the details of the tax allocation provisions
see “Part II. Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial
Condition and Results of Operations —
Critical
Accounting Policies and Estimates —
Income
Taxes.”
Risks
Related to Regulatory and Legislative Matters
Our
business is subject to extensive governmental legislation and regulation, which
could adversely affect our business.
Regulation
of the cable industry has increased cable operators' administrative and
operational expenses and limited their revenues. Cable operators are subject
to,
among other things:
· |
rules
governing the provision of cable equipment and compatibility with
new
digital technologies;
|
· |
rules
and regulations relating to subscriber
privacy;
|
· |
limited
rate regulation;
|
· |
requirements
governing when a cable system must carry a particular broadcast station
and when it must first obtain consent to carry a broadcast
station;
|
· |
rules
and regulations relating to provision of voice
communications;
|
· |
rules
for franchise renewals and transfers;
and
|
· |
other
requirements covering a variety of operational areas such as equal
employment opportunity, technical standards, and customer service
requirements.
|
Additionally,
many aspects of these regulations are currently the subject of judicial
proceedings and administrative or legislative proposals. There are also ongoing
efforts to amend or expand the federal, state, and local regulation of some
of
our cable systems, which may compound the regulatory risks we already face.
Certain states and localities are considering new telecommunications taxes
that
could increase operating expenses.
Our
cable system franchises are subject to non-renewal or termination. The failure
to renew a franchise in one or more key markets could adversely affect our
business.
Our
cable
systems generally operate pursuant to franchises, permits, and similar
authorizations issued by a state or local governmental authority controlling
the
public rights-of-way. Many franchises establish comprehensive facilities and
service requirements, as well as specific customer service standards and
monetary penalties for non-compliance. In many cases, franchises are terminable
if the franchisee fails to comply with significant provisions set forth in
the
franchise agreement governing system operations. Franchises are generally
granted for fixed terms and must be periodically renewed. Local franchising
authorities may resist granting a renewal if either past performance or the
prospective operating proposal is considered inadequate. Franchise authorities
often demand concessions or other commitments as a condition to renewal. In
some
instances, franchises have not been renewed at expiration, and we have operated
and are operating under either temporary operating agreements or without a
license while negotiating renewal terms with the local franchising authorities.
Approximately 12% of our franchises, covering approximately 15% of our analog
video customers, were expired as of December 31, 2006. Approximately 8% of
additional franchises, covering approximately an additional 11% of our analog
video customers, will expire on or before December 31, 2007, if not renewed
prior to expiration.
We
cannot
assure you that we will be able to comply with all significant provisions of
our
franchise agreements and certain of our franchisors have from time to time
alleged that we have not complied with these agreements. Additionally, although
historically we have renewed our franchises without incurring significant costs,
we cannot assure you that we will be able to renew, or to renew as favorably,
our franchises in the future. A termination of or a sustained failure to renew
a
franchise in one or more key markets could adversely affect our business in
the
affected geographic area.
Our
cable system franchises are non-exclusive. Accordingly, local franchising
authorities can grant additional franchises and create competition in market
areas where none existed previously, resulting in overbuilds, which could
adversely affect results of operations.
Our
cable
system franchises are non-exclusive. Consequently, local franchising authorities
can grant additional franchises to competitors in the same geographic area
or
operate their own cable systems. In addition, certain telephone companies are
seeking authority to operate in local communities without first obtaining a
local franchise. As a result, competing operators may build systems in areas
in
which we hold franchises. In some cases municipal utilities may legally compete
with us without obtaining a franchise from the local franchising
authority.
Legislative
proposals have been introduced in the United States Congress and in state
legislatures that would greatly streamline cable franchising. This legislation
is intended to facilitate entry by new competitors, particularly local telephone
companies. Such legislation has passed in several states, including states
where
we have significant operations. Although certain of these states have provided
some regulatory relief for incumbent cable operators, these proposals are
generally viewed as being more favorable to new entrants due to a number of
factors, including efforts to withhold streamlined cable franchising from
incumbents until after the expiration of their existing franchises, and the
potential for new entrants to serve only higher-income areas of a particular
community. To the extent incumbent cable operators are not able to avail
themselves of this streamlined franchising process, such operators may continue
to be subject to more onerous franchise requirements at the local level than
new
entrants. At least two additional states where we have cable systems have issued
regulations that will facilitate telephone company provision of video services
by eliminating or reducing the application of franchising requirements to the
telephone companies. A proceeding is pending at the FCC to determine whether
local franchising authorities are impeding the deployment of competitive cable
services through unreasonable franchising requirements and whether such
impediments should be preempted. We are not yet able to determine what impact
such proceeding may have on us.
The
existence of more than one cable system operating in the same territory is
referred to as an overbuild. These overbuilds could adversely affect our growth,
financial condition, and results of operations by creating or increasing
competition. As of December 31, 2006, we are aware of traditional overbuild
situations impacting approximately 7% of our estimated homes passed, and
potential traditional overbuild situations in areas servicing approximately
an
additional 4% of our estimated homes passed. Additional overbuild situations
may
occur in other systems.
Local
franchise authorities have the ability to impose additional regulatory
constraints on our business, which could further increase our
expenses.
In
addition to the franchise agreement, cable authorities in some jurisdictions
have adopted cable regulatory ordinances that further regulate the operation
of
cable systems. This additional regulation increases the cost of operating our
business. We cannot assure you that the local franchising authorities will
not
impose new and more restrictive requirements. Local franchising authorities
also
generally have the power to reduce rates and order refunds on the rates charged
for basic services.
Further
regulation of the cable industry could cause us to delay or cancel service
or
programming enhancements, or impair our ability to raise rates to cover our
increasing costs, resulting in increased losses.
Currently,
rate regulation is strictly limited to the basic service tier and associated
equipment and installation activities. However, the FCC and the U.S. Congress
continue to be concerned that cable rate increases are exceeding inflation.
It
is possible that either the FCC or the U.S. Congress will again restrict the
ability of cable system operators to implement rate increases. Should this
occur, it would impede our ability to raise our rates. If we are unable to
raise
our rates in response to increasing costs, our losses would
increase.
There
has
been considerable legislative and regulatory interest in requiring cable
operators to offer historically bundled programming services on an á la carte
basis, or to at least offer a separately available child-friendly “Family Tier.”
It is possible that new marketing restrictions could be adopted in the future.
Such restrictions could adversely affect our operations.
Actions
by pole owners might subject us to significantly increased pole attachment
costs.
Pole
attachments are cable wires that are attached to utility poles. Cable system
attachments to public utility poles historically have been regulated at the
federal or state level, generally resulting in favorable pole attachment rates
for attachments used to provide cable service. The FCC clarified that a cable
operator's favorable pole rates are not endangered by the provision of Internet
access, and that approach ultimately was upheld by the Supreme Court of the
United States. Despite the existing regulatory regime, utility pole owners
in
many areas are attempting to raise pole attachment fees and impose additional
costs on cable operators and others. The favorable pole attachment rates
afforded cable operators under federal law can be increased by utility companies
if the operator provides telecommunications services, in addition to cable
service, over cable wires attached to utility poles. To date, VoIP service
has
not been classified as either a telecommunications service or cable service
under the Communications Act. If VoIP were classified as a telecommunications
service under the Communications Act by the FCC, a state Public Utility
Commission, or an appropriate court, it might result in significantly increased
pole attachment costs for us, which could adversely affect our financial
condition and results of operations. We are a defendant in at least one lawsuit
where the utility company claims that we should pay an increased rate on its
poles. Any significant increased pole attachment costs could have a material
adverse impact on our profitability and discourage system upgrades and the
introduction of new products and services.
We
may be required to provide access to our networks to other Internet service
providers which could significantly increase our competition and adversely
affect our ability to provide new products and
services.
A
number
of companies, including independent Internet service providers (“ISPs”), have
requested local authorities and the FCC to require cable operators to provide
non-discriminatory access to cable's broadband infrastructure, so that these
companies may deliver Internet services directly to customers over cable
facilities. In a 2005 ruling, commonly referred to as
Brand X
, the
Supreme Court upheld an FCC decision making it less likely that any
nondiscriminatory “open access” requirements (which are generally associated
with common carrier regulation of “telecommunications services”) will be imposed
on the cable industry by local, state or federal authorities. The Supreme Court
held that the FCC was correct in classifying cable provided Internet service
as
an “information service,” rather than a “telecommunications service.”
Notwithstanding
Brand X,
there
has been increasing advocacy by certain internet content providers and consumer
groups for new federal laws or regulations to adopt so-called “net
neutrality”
principles limiting the ability of broadband network owners (like Charter)
to
manage and control their own networks. The proposals might prevent network
owners, for example, from charging bandwidth intensive content providers, such
as certain online gaming, music, and video service providers, an additional
fee
to ensure quality delivery of the services to consumers. If we were required
to
allocate a portion of our bandwidth capacity to other Internet service
providers, or were prohibited from charging heavy bandwidth intensive services
a
fee for use of our networks, we believe that it could impair our ability to
use
our bandwidth in ways that would generate maximum revenues.
Changes
in channel carriage regulations could impose significant additional costs on
us.
Cable
operators also face significant regulation of their channel carriage. They
currently can be required to devote substantial capacity to the carriage of
programming that they would not carry voluntarily, including certain local
broadcast signals, local public, educational, and government access programming,
and unaffiliated commercial leased access programming. This carriage burden
could increase in the future, particularly if cable systems were required to
carry both the analog and digital versions of local broadcast signals (dual
carriage), or to carry multiple program streams included with a single digital
broadcast transmission (multicast carriage). Additional government-mandated
broadcast carriage obligations could disrupt existing programming commitments,
interfere with our preferred use of limited channel capacity, and limit our
ability to offer services that would maximize customer appeal and revenue
potential. Although the FCC issued a decision in February 2005, confirming
an
earlier ruling against mandating either dual carriage or multicast carriage,
that decision is subject to a petition for reconsideration which is pending.
In
addition, the FCC could reverse its own ruling or Congress could legislate
additional carriage obligations.
Offering
voice communications service may subject us to additional regulatory burdens,
causing us to incur additional costs.
In
2002,
we began to offer voice communications services on a limited basis over our
broadband network. We continue to develop and deploy VoIP services. The FCC
has
declared that certain VoIP services are not subject to traditional state public
utility regulation. The full extent of the FCC preemption of state and local
regulation of VoIP services is not yet clear. Expanding our offering of these
services may require us to obtain certain authorizations, including federal
and
state licenses. We may not be able to obtain such authorizations in a timely
manner, or conditions could be imposed upon such licenses or authorizations
that
may not be favorable to us. The FCC has extended certain traditional
telecommunications requirements, such as E911 and Universal Service
requirements, to many VoIP providers, such as Charter. The FCC has also required
that these VoIP providers comply with obligations applied to traditional
telecommunications carriers to ensure their networks can accommodate law
enforcement wiretaps by May 2007. Telecommunications companies generally are
subject to other significant regulation which could also be extended to VoIP
providers. If additional telecommunications regulations are applied to our
VoIP
service, it could cause us to incur additional costs.
Item
1B. Unresolved
Staff Comments.
None.
Our
principal physical assets consist of cable distribution plant and equipment,
including signal receiving, encoding and decoding devices, headend reception
facilities, distribution systems, and customer premise equipment for each of
our
cable systems.
Our
cable
plant and related equipment are generally attached to utility poles under pole
rental agreements with local public utilities and telephone companies, and
in
certain locations are buried in underground ducts or trenches. We own or lease
real property for signal reception sites, and own most of our service
vehicles.
Historically,
our subsidiaries have owned the real property and buildings for our data
centers, customer contact centers, and our divisional administrative offices.
Since early 2003 we have reduced our total real estate portfolio square footage
by approximately 15% and have decreased our annual operating lease costs by
approximately 28%. In addition, Charter has sold over $34 million worth of
land
and buildings since early 2003. We plan to continue to reduce operating costs
and improve utilization in this area through consolidation of sites within
our
system footprints. Our subsidiaries generally have leased space for business
offices throughout our operating divisions. Our headend and tower locations
are
located on owned or leased parcels of land, and we generally own the towers
on
which
our
equipment is located. Charter Holdco owns the real property and building for
our
principal executive offices.
The
physical components of our cable systems require maintenance as well as periodic
upgrades to support the new services and products we introduce. See
“Item 1. Business - Our Network Technology.” We believe that our properties
are generally in good operating condition and are suitable for our business
operations.
Item 3.
Legal
Proceedings.
We
are a
defendant or co-defendant in several unrelated lawsuits claiming infringement
of
various patents relating to various aspects of our businesses. Other industry
participants are also defendants in certain of these cases, and, in many cases,
we expect that any potential liability would be the responsibility of our
equipment vendors pursuant to applicable contractual indemnification provisions.
In the event that a court ultimately determines that we infringe on any
intellectual property rights, we may be subject to substantial damages and/or
an
injunction that could require us or our vendors to modify certain products
and
services we offer to our subscribers. While we believe the lawsuits are without
merit, and intend to defend the actions vigorously, the lawsuits could be
material to our consolidated results of operations of any one period, and no
assurance can be given that any adverse outcome would not be material to our
consolidated financial condition, results of operations or
liquidity.
We
are a
party to other lawsuits and claims that arise in the ordinary course of
conducting our business. The ultimate outcome of these other legal matters
pending against us or our subsidiaries cannot be predicted, and although such
lawsuits and claims are not expected individually to have a material adverse
effect on our consolidated financial condition, results of operations or
liquidity, such lawsuits could have, in the aggregate, a material adverse effect
on our consolidated financial condition, results of operations or
liquidity.
No
matters were submitted to a vote of security holders during the fourth quarter
of the year ended December 31, 2006.
PART
II
(A)
Market Information
Our
Class
A common stock is quoted on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol “CHTR.”
The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, the range of high
and
low last reported sale price per share of Class A common stock on the NASDAQ
Global Market. There is no established trading market for our Class B common
stock.
Class A
Common Stock
|
|
|
|
High
|
|
|
Low
|
|
2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
First
quarter
|
|
$
|
2.30
|
|
$
|
1.35
|
Second
quarter
|
|
|
1.53
|
|
|
0.90
|
Third
quarter
|
|
|
1.71
|
|
|
1.14
|
Fourth
quarter
|
|
|
1.50
|
|
|
1.12
|
|
2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
First
quarter
|
|
$
|
1.25
|
|
$
|
0.94
|
Second
quarter
|
|
|
1.38
|
|
|
1.03
|
Third
quarter
|
|
|
1.56
|
|
|
1.11
|
Fourth
quarter
|
|
|
3.36
|
|
|
1.47
|
(B)
Holders
As
of
December 31, 2006, there were 4,326 holders of record of our Class A common
stock, one holder of our Class B common stock, and 4 holders of record of our
Series A Convertible Redeemable Preferred Stock.
(C)
Dividends
Charter
has not paid stock or cash dividends on any of its common stock, and we do
not
intend to pay cash dividends on common stock for the foreseeable future. We
intend to retain future earnings, if any, to finance our business.
Charter
Holdco may make pro rata distributions to all holders of its common membership
units, including Charter. Covenants in the indentures and credit agreements
governing the debt obligations of Charter Communications Holdings and its
subsidiaries restrict their ability to make distributions to us, and
accordingly, limit our ability to declare or pay cash dividends. See
“Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and
Results of Operations.”
(D)
Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation
Plans
The
following information is provided as of December 31, 2006 with respect to equity
compensation plans:
|
|
Number
of Securities
|
|
|
|
Number
of Securities
|
|
|
to
be Issued Upon
|
|
Weighted
Average
|
|
Remaining
Available
|
|
|
Exercise
of Outstanding
|
|
Exercise
Price of
|
|
for
Future Issuance
|
|
|
Options,
Warrants
|
|
Outstanding
Options,
|
|
Under
Equity
|
Plan
Category
|
|
and
Rights
|
|
Warrants
and Rights
|
|
Compensation
Plans
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Equity
compensation plans approved
by
security holders
|
|
26,403,200
|
(1)
|
|
|
$
3.88
|
|
34,327,388
|
Equity
compensation plans not
approved
by security holders
|
|
289,268
|
(2)
|
|
|
$
3.91
|
|
--
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TOTAL
|
|
26,692,468
|
|
|
|
$
3.88
|
|
34,327,388
|
(1)
|
This
total does not include 2,572,267 shares issued pursuant to restricted
stock grants made under our 2001 Stock Incentive Plan, which were
or are
subject to vesting based on continued employment or 12,184,749 performance
shares issued under our LTIP plan, which are subject to vesting based
on
continued employment and Charter’s achievement of certain performance
criteria.
|
(2)
|
Includes
shares of Class A common stock to be issued upon exercise of options
granted pursuant to an individual compensation agreement with a
consultant.
|
For
information regarding securities issued under our equity compensation plans,
see
Note 20 to our accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in
“Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”
(E)
Performance Graph
The
graph
below shows the cumulative total return on our Class A common stock for the
period from December 31, 2001 through December 31, 2006, in comparison
to the cumulative total return on Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and a
peer group consisting of the four national cable operators that are most
comparable to us in terms of size and nature of operations. The Company’s peer
group consists of Cablevision Systems Corporation, Comcast Corporation, Insight
Communications, Inc. (through third quarter 2005) and Mediacom Communications
Corp. The results shown assume that $100 was invested on December 31, 2001
and that all dividends were reinvested. These indices are included for
comparative purposes only and do not reflect whether it is management’s opinion
that such indices are an appropriate measure of the relative performance of
the
stock involved, nor are they intended to forecast or be indicative of future
performance of the Class A common stock.
(F) Recent
Sales of Unregistered Securities
During
2006, there were no unregistered sales of securities of the registrant other
than those previously reported on a Form 10-Q or Form 8-K.
The
following table presents selected consolidated financial data for the periods
indicated (dollars in millions, except share data):
|
|
Charter
Communications, Inc.
|
|
|
|
Year
Ended December 31, (a)
|
|
|
|
2006
|
|
2005
|
|
2004
|
|
2003
|
|
2002
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Statement
of Operations Data:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Revenues
|
|
$
|
5,504
|
|
$
|
5,033
|
|
$
|
4,760
|
|
$
|
4,616
|
|
$
|
4,377
|
|
Operating
income (loss) from continuing operations
|
|
|
367
|
|
|
304
|
|
|
(1,942
|
)
|
|
484
|
|
|
(3,914
|
)
|
Interest
expense, net
|
|
$
|
(1,887
|
)
|
$
|
(1,789
|
)
|
$
|
(1,670
|
)
|
$
|
(1,557
|
)
|
$
|
(1,503
|
)
|
Loss
from continuing operations before cumulative effect of accounting
change
|
|
$
|
(1,586
|
)
|
$
|
(1,003
|
)
|
$
|
(3,441
|
)
|
$
|
(241
|
)
|
$
|
(2,104
|
)
|
Net
loss applicable to common stock
|
|
$
|
(1,370
|
)
|
$
|
(970
|
)
|
$
|
(4,345
|
)
|
$
|
(242
|
)
|
$
|
(2,514
|
)
|
Basic
and diluted loss from continuing operations before cumulative effect
of
accounting change per common share
|
|
$
|
(4.78
|
)
|
$
|
(3.24
|
)
|
$
|
(11.47
|
)
|
$
|
(0.83
|
)
|
$
|
(7.15
|
)
|
Basic
and diluted loss per common share
|
|
$
|
(4.13
|
)
|
$
|
(3.13
|
)
|
$
|
(14.47
|
)
|
$
|
(0.82
|
)
|
$
|
(8.55
|
)
|
Weighted-average
shares outstanding, basic and diluted
|
|
|
331,941,788
|
|
|
310,209,047
|
|
|
300,341,877
|
|
|
294,647,519
|
|
|
294,490,261
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Balance
Sheet Data (end of period):
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Investment
in cable properties
|
|
$
|
14,440
|
|
$
|
15,666
|
|
$
|
16,167
|
|
$
|
20,694
|
|
$
|
21,406
|
|
Total
assets
|
|
$
|
15,100
|
|
$
|
16,431
|
|
$
|
17,673
|
|
$
|
21,364
|
|
$
|
22,384
|
|
Long-term
debt
|
|
$
|
19,062
|
|
$
|
19,388
|
|
$
|
19,464
|
|
$
|
18,647
|
|
$
|
18,671
|
|
Note
payable - related party
|
|
$
|
57
|
|
$
|
49
|
|
$
|
--
|
|
$
|
--
|
|
$
|
--
|
|
Minority
interest (b)
|
|
$
|
192
|
|
$
|
188
|
|
$
|
648
|
|
$
|
689
|
|
$
|
1,050
|
|
Preferred
stock — redeemable
|
|
$
|
4
|
|
$
|
4
|
|
$
|
55
|
|
$
|
55
|
|
$
|
51
|
|
Shareholders’
equity (deficit)
|
|
$
|
(6,219
|
)
|
$
|
(4,920
|
)
|
$
|
(4,406
|
)
|
$
|
(175
|
)
|
$
|
41
|
|
(a)
|
In
2006, we sold certain cable television systems in West Virginia and
Virginia
to
Cebridge Connections, Inc.
We
determined that the West Virginia and Virginia cable systems comprise
operations and cash flows that for financial reporting purposes meet
the
criteria for discontinued operations. Accordingly, the results of
operations for the West Virginia and Virginia cable systems have
been
presented as discontinued operations, net of tax for the year ended
December 31, 2006 and all prior periods presented herein have been
reclassified to conform to the current
presentation.
|
(b)
|
Minority
interest represents preferred
membership interests in our indirect subsidiary, CC VIII, and since
June 6, 2003, the pro rata share of the profits and losses of CC
VIII. This preferred membership interest arises from approximately
$630 million of preferred membership units issued by CC VIII in
connection with an acquisition in February 2000. As part of the Private
Exchange, CCHC contributed its 70% interest in the 24,273,943
Class A preferred membership units (collectively, the "CC VIII
interest")
to
CCH I. See
Note 22 to our accompanying consolidated financial statements contained
in
“Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.” Reported
losses allocated to minority interest on the statement of operations
are
limited to the extent of any remaining minority interest on the balance
sheet related to Charter Holdco. Because minority interest in Charter
Holdco was substantially eliminated at December 31, 2003, beginning
in
2004, Charter began to absorb substantially all losses before income
taxes
that otherwise would have been allocated to minority interest. Under
our
existing capital structure, Charter will continue to absorb all future
losses for GAAP purposes.
|
Comparability
of the above information from year to year is affected by acquisitions and
dispositions completed by us. See Note 4 to our accompanying consolidated
financial statements contained in “Item 8. Financial Statements and
Supplementary Data” and “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of
Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Liquidity and Capital
Resources.”
Reference
is made to “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Statement Regarding
Forward-Looking Statements,” which describes 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 of Charter
Communications, Inc. and subsidiaries as of and for the years ended
December 31, 2006, 2005 and 2004.
Overview
Charter
is a broadband communications company operating in the United States, with
approximately 5.73 million customers at December 31, 2006. Through our hybrid
fiber and coaxial cable network, we offer our customers traditional cable video
programming (analog and digital, which we refer to as "video" service),
high-speed Internet access, advanced broadband cable services (such as OnDemand,
high definition television service and DVR) and, in many of our markets,
telephone service. See "Item 1. Business —
Products and Services"
for
further description of these terms, including "customers."
Approximately
88% of our revenues for each of the years ended December 31, 2006 and 2005,
respectively, are attributable to monthly subscription fees charged to customers
for our video, high-speed Internet, telephone, and commercial services provided
by our cable systems. Generally, these customer subscriptions may be
discontinued by the customer at any time. The remaining 12% of revenue is
derived primarily from advertising revenues, franchise fee revenues (which
are
collected by us but then paid to local franchising authorities), pay-per-view
and OnDemand programming (where users are charged a fee for individual programs
viewed), installation or reconnection fees charged to customers to commence
or
reinstate service, and commissions related to the sale of merchandise by home
shopping services.
The
industry's and our most significant operational challenges include competition
from DBS providers and DSL service providers. See "Item 1. Business —
Competition.'' We believe that competition from DBS has resulted in net analog
video customer losses. In addition, DBS competition combined with increasingly
limited opportunities to expand our customer base, now that approximately 52%
of
our analog video customers subscribe to our digital video service, has resulted
in decreased growth rates for digital video customers. Competition from DSL
providers has resulted in decreased growth rates for high-speed Internet
customers. In the recent past, we have grown revenues by offsetting analog
video
customer losses with price increases and sales of incremental services such
as
high-speed Internet, OnDemand, DVR, high definition television, and telephone.
We expect to continue to grow revenues through price increases, increases in
the
number of our customers who purchase bundled services, and through sales of
incremental video services including high definition television, OnDemand and
DVR service. In addition, we expect to increase revenues by expanding the sales
of our services to our commercial customers.
Our
expenses primarily consist of operating costs, selling, general and
administrative expenses, depreciation and amortization expense and interest
expense. Operating costs primarily include programming costs, the cost of our
workforce, cable service related expenses, advertising sales costs and franchise
fees. Selling, general and administrative expenses primarily include salaries
and benefits, rent expense, billing costs, call center costs, internal network
costs, bad debt expense and property taxes. Controlling our expenses impacts
our
ability to improve margins. We are attempting to control our costs of operations
by maintaining strict controls on expenses. More specifically, we are focused
on
managing our cost structure by managing our workforce to control cost increases
and improve productivity, and leveraging our growth and increasing size in
purchasing activities. In addition, we are reviewing our pricing and programming
packaging strategies. See “Item 1. Business — Programming” for more details.
Our
operating income from continuing operations increased to $367 million for the
year ended December 31, 2006 from $304 million for the year ended December
31,
2005. We had positive operating margins (defined as operating income from
continuing operations divided by revenues) of 7% and 6% for the years ended
December 31, 2006 and 2005, respectively. The improvement in operating income
from continuing operations and operating margin for the year ended December
31,
2006 is principally due to an increase in revenue over expenses as a result
of
increased customers for high-speed Internet, digital video, and advanced
services, as well as overall rate increases. Operating loss from continuing
operations was $1.9 billion for the year ended December 31, 2004. We had a
negative operating margin of 40% for the year ended December 31, 2004. The
increase in operating income from continuing operations and positive operating
margin for the year ended December 31, 2005 was principally due to the
impairment of franchises of $2.3 billion recorded in the third quarter of 2004,
which did not recur in 2005.
Although
we do not expect charges for impairment in the future of comparable magnitude,
potential charges could occur due to changes in market conditions.
We
have a
history of net losses. Further, we expect to continue to report net losses
for
the foreseeable future. Our net losses are principally attributable to
insufficient revenue to cover the combination of operating expenses and interest
expenses we incur because of our high level of debt and the depreciation
expenses that we incur resulting from the capital investments we have made
and
continue to make in our cable properties. We expect that these expenses will
remain significant.
Beginning
in 2004 and continuing through January 2007, we sold several cable systems
which
reflects
our strategy to divest geographically non-strategic assets to allow for more
efficient operations, while also increasing our liquidity. In
2004,
we sold cable systems representing a total of approximately 228,500 analog
video
customers. In 2005, we closed the sale of certain cable systems representing
a
total of approximately 33,000 analog video customers, and in 2006, we sold
cable
systems serving a total of approximately 390,300 analog video customers. In
January 2007, we completed the sale of additional cable systems representing
approximately 34,400 analog video customers. As a result of these sales we
have
improved our geographic footprint by reducing our number of headends, increasing
the number of customers per headend, and reducing the number of states in which
the majority of our customers reside.
In
2006,
we determined that the West Virginia and Virginia cable systems, which were
part
of the system sales disclosed above, comprised operations and cash flows
that
for financial reporting purposes met the criteria for discontinued operations.
Accordingly, the results of operations for the West Virginia and Virginia
cable
systems (including a gain on sale of approximately $200 million recorded
in the
third quarter of 2006), have been presented as discontinued operations, net
of
tax, for the year ended December 31, 2006, and all prior periods presented
herein have been reclassified to conform to the current presentation. Tax
expense of $18 million associated with this gain on sale was recorded in
the
fourth quarter of 2006.
Critical
Accounting Policies and Estimates
Certain
of our accounting policies require our management to make difficult, subjective
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;
|
· |
useful
lives of property, plant and
equipment;
|
· |
impairment
of property, plant, and equipment, franchises, and
goodwill;
|
In
addition, there are other items within our financial statements that require
estimates or judgment but are not deemed critical, such as the allowance for
doubtful accounts, but changes in judgment, or estimates in these other items
could also have a material impact on our financial statements.
Capitalization
of labor and overhead costs. The
cable
industry is capital intensive, and a large portion of our resources are spent
on
capital activities associated with extending, rebuilding, and upgrading our
cable network. As of December 31, 2006 and 2005, the net carrying amount of
our property, plant and equipment (consisting primarily of cable network assets)
was approximately $5.2 billion (representing 35% of total assets) and $5.8
billion (representing 36% of total assets), respectively. Total capital
expenditures for the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005, and 2004 were
approximately $1.1 billion, $1.1 billion, and $924 million, respectively.
Costs
associated with network construction, initial customer installations (including
initial installations of new or advanced services), installation refurbishments,
and the addition of network equipment necessary to provide new or advanced
services, are capitalized. While our capitalization is based on specific
activities, once capitalized, we track
these
costs by fixed asset category at the cable system level, and not on a specific
asset basis. Costs capitalized as part of initial customer installations include
materials, direct labor, and certain indirect costs (“overhead”). These indirect
costs are associated with the activities of personnel who assist in connecting
and activating the new service, and consist of compensation and overhead costs
associated with these support functions. The costs of disconnecting service
at a
customer’s dwelling or reconnecting service to a previously installed dwelling
are charged to operating expense in the period incurred. Costs for repairs
and
maintenance are charged to operating expense as incurred, while equipment
replacement and betterments, including replacement of cable drops from the
pole
to the dwelling, are capitalized.
We
make
judgments regarding the installation and construction activities to be
capitalized. We capitalize direct labor and overhead using standards developed
from actual costs and applicable operational data. We calculate standards 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 significant in the periods presented.
Labor
costs directly associated with capital projects are capitalized. We capitalize
direct labor costs based upon the specific time devoted to network construction
and customer installation activities. Capitalizable activities performed in
connection with customer installations include such activities as:
· |
Dispatching
a “truck roll” to the customer’s dwelling for service
connection;
|
· |
Verification
of serviceability to the customer’s dwelling (i.e., determining whether
the customer’s dwelling is capable of receiving service by our cable
network and/or receiving advanced or Internet
services);
|
· |
Customer
premise activities performed by in-house field technicians and third-party
contractors in connection with customer installations, installation
of
network equipment in connection with the installation of expanded
services, and equipment replacement and betterment;
and
|
· |
Verifying
the integrity of the customer’s network connection by initiating test
signals downstream from the headend to the customer’s digital set-top
box.
|
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,
consisting primarily of installation and construction vehicle costs,
(iii) the cost of support personnel, such as dispatchers, who directly
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 system activities 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. We capitalized internal direct labor and overhead
of $204 million, $190 million and $164 million, respectively, for the years
ended December 31, 2006, 2005, and 2004. Capitalized internal direct labor
and overhead costs have increased in 2005 and 2006 as compared to 2004 as a
result of the use of more internal labor for capitalizable installations, rather
than third party contractors.
Useful
lives of property, plant and equipment. We
evaluate the appropriateness of estimated useful lives assigned to our property,
plant and equipment, based on annual analyses of such useful lives, and revise
such lives to the extent warranted by changing facts and circumstances. Any
changes in estimated useful lives as a result of these analyses, which were
not
significant in the periods presented, will be reflected prospectively beginning
in the period in which the study is completed. The effect of a one-year decrease
in the weighted average remaining useful life of our property, plant and
equipment would be an increase in depreciation expense for the year ended
December 31, 2006 of approximately $168 million. The effect of a one-year
increase in the weighted average useful life of our
property,
plant and equipment would be a decrease in
depreciation expense for the year ended December 31, 2006 of approximately
$131
million.
Depreciation
expense related to property, plant and equipment totaled $1.3 billion, $1.4
billion, and $1.4 billion, representing approximately 26%, 30%, and 21% of
costs
and expenses, for the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005, and 2004,
respectively. Depreciation is recorded using the straight-line composite method
over management’s estimate of the estimated useful lives of the related assets
as listed below:
Cable
distribution systems………………………………
|
|
7-20
years
|
Customer
equipment and installations…………………
|
|
3-5
years
|
Vehicles
and equipment…………………………………
|
|
1-5
years
|
Buildings
and leasehold improvements……………….
|
|
5-15
years
|
Furniture,
fixtures and equipment….……………………
|
|
5
years
|
Impairment
of property, plant and equipment, franchises and goodwill.
As
discussed above, the net carrying value of our property, plant and equipment
is
significant. We also have recorded a significant amount of cost related to
franchises, pursuant to which we are granted the right to operate our cable
distribution network throughout our service areas. The net carrying value of
franchises as of December 31, 2006 and 2005 was approximately $9.2 billion
(representing 61% of total assets) and $9.8 billion (representing 60% of total
assets), respectively. Furthermore, our noncurrent assets include approximately
$61 million of goodwill.
We
adopted SFAS No. 142, Goodwill
and Other Intangible Assets,
on
January 1, 2002. SFAS No. 142 requires that franchise intangible
assets that meet specified indefinite-life criteria no longer be amortized
against earnings, but instead must be tested for impairment annually based
on
valuations, or more frequently as warranted by events or changes in
circumstances. In determining whether our franchises have an indefinite-life,
we
considered the likelihood of franchise renewals, the expected costs of franchise
renewals, and the technological state of the associated cable systems, with
a
view to whether or not we are in compliance with any technology upgrading
requirements specified in a franchise agreement. We have concluded that as
of
December 31, 2006, 2005, and 2004 more than 99% of our franchises qualify for
indefinite-life treatment under SFAS No. 142, and that less than one
percent of our franchises do not qualify for indefinite-life treatment, due
to
technological or operational factors that limit their lives. Costs of
finite-lived franchises, along with costs associated with franchise renewals,
are amortized on a straight-line basis over 10 years, which represents
management’s best estimate of the average remaining useful lives of such
franchises. Franchise amortization expense was $2 million, $4 million, and
$3
million for the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005, and 2004,
respectively. We expect that amortization expense on franchise assets will
be
approximately $1 million annually for each of the next five years. Actual
amortization expense in future periods could differ from these estimates as
a
result of new intangible asset acquisitions or divestitures, changes in useful
lives, and other relevant factors. Our goodwill is also deemed to have an
indefinite life under SFAS No. 142.
SFAS
No. 144, Accounting
for Impairment or Disposal of Long-Lived Assets,
requires that we evaluate the recoverability of our property, plant and
equipment and franchise assets which did not qualify for indefinite-life
treatment under SFAS No. 142, upon the occurrence of events or changes in
circumstances which indicate that the carrying amount of an asset may not be
recoverable. Such events or changes in circumstances could include such factors
as the impairment of our indefinite-life franchises under SFAS No. 142, changes
in technological advances, fluctuations in the fair value of such assets,
adverse changes in relationships with local franchise authorities, adverse
changes in market conditions, or a deterioration of operating results. Under
SFAS No. 144, a long-lived asset is deemed impaired when the carrying amount
of
the asset exceeds the projected undiscounted future cash flows associated with
the asset. No impairments of long-lived assets to be held and used were recorded
in the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005, or 2004, however, approximately
$159
million and $39 million of impairment on assets held for sale was recorded
for
the years ended December 31, 2006 and 2005, respectively. We are also required
to evaluate the recoverability of our indefinite-life franchises, as well as
goodwill, on an annual basis or more frequently as deemed necessary.
Under
both SFAS No. 144 and SFAS No. 142, if an asset is determined to be impaired,
it
is required to be written down to its estimated fair market value. We determine
fair market value based on estimated discounted future cash flows, using
reasonable and appropriate assumptions that are consistent with internal
forecasts. Our assumptions include these and other factors: Penetration rates
for analog and digital video, high-speed Internet, and telephone; revenue growth
rates; and expected operating margins and capital expenditures. Considerable
management judgment is necessary to estimate future cash flows, and such
estimates include inherent uncertainties, including those relating to the timing
and amount of future cash flows, and the discount rate used in the calculation.
Based
on
the guidance prescribed in Emerging Issues Task Force (“EITF”) Issue No. 02-7,
Unit
of Accounting for Testing of Impairment of Indefinite-Lived Intangible
Assets,
franchises were aggregated into essentially inseparable asset groups to
conduct the valuations. The asset groups generally represent geographic
clustering of our cable systems into groups by which such systems are managed.
Management believes such groupings represent the highest and best use of
those
assets.
Our
valuations, which are based on the present value of projected after tax cash
flows, result in a value of property, plant and equipment, franchises, customer
relationships, and our total entity value. The value of goodwill is the
difference between the total entity value and amounts assigned to the other
assets. The use of different valuation assumptions or definitions of franchises
or customer relationships, such as our inclusion of the value of selling
additional services to our current customers within customer relationships
versus franchises, could significantly impact our valuations and any resulting
impairment.
Franchises,
for valuation purposes, 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, such as interactivity and telephone,
to
the potential customers (service marketing rights). Fair value is determined
based on estimated discounted future cash flows using assumptions consistent
with internal forecasts. The franchise after-tax cash flow is calculated as
the
after-tax cash flow generated by the potential customers obtained (less the
anticipated customer churn) and the new services added to those customers in
future periods. The sum of the present value of the franchises’ after-tax cash
flow in years 1 through 10 and the continuing value of the after-tax cash flow
beyond year 10 yields the fair value of the franchise. Prior to the adoption
of
EITF Topic D-108, Use
of the Residual Method to Value Acquired Assets Other than
Goodwill,
discussed below, we followed a residual method of valuing our franchise assets,
which had the effect of including goodwill with the franchise
assets.
We
follow
the guidance of EITF Issue 02-17, Recognition
of Customer Relationship Intangible Assets Acquired in a Business Combination,
in
valuing customer relationships. Customer relationships, for valuation purposes,
represent the value of the business relationship with our existing customers
(less the anticipated customer churn), and are calculated by projecting future
after-tax cash flows from these customers, including the right to deploy and
market additional services such as interactivity and telephone to these
customers. The present value of these after-tax cash flows yields the fair
value
of the customer relationships. Substantially all our acquisitions occurred
prior
to January 1, 2002. We did not record any value associated with the
customer relationship intangibles related to those acquisitions. For
acquisitions subsequent to January 1, 2002, we did assign a value to the
customer relationship intangible, which is amortized over its estimated useful
life.
The
valuations used in our impairment assessments involve numerous assumptions
as
noted above. While economic conditions, applicable at the time of the valuation,
indicate the combination of assumptions utilized in the valuations are
reasonable, as market conditions change so will the assumptions, with a
resulting impact on the valuation and consequently the potential impairment
charge. At October 1, 2006, a 10% and 5% decline in the estimated fair value
of
our franchise assets in each of our asset groupings would have resulted in
an
impairment charge of approximately $60 million and $0,
respectively.
In
September 2004, EITF Topic D-108, Use
of the Residual Method to Value Acquired Assets Other than
Goodwill,
was
issued, which requires the direct method of separately valuing all intangible
assets and does not permit goodwill to be included in franchise assets. We
performed an impairment assessment as of September 30, 2004, and adopted Topic
D-108 in that assessment resulting in a total franchise impairment of
approximately $3.3 billion. We recorded a cumulative effect of accounting change
of $765 million (approximately $875 million before tax effects of $91 million
and minority interest effects of $19 million) for the year ended December 31,
2004 representing the portion of our total franchise impairment attributable
to
no longer including goodwill with franchise assets. The effect of the adoption
was to increase net loss and loss per share by $765 million and $2.55,
respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2004. The remaining $2.4 billion
of the total franchise impairment was attributable to the use of lower projected
growth rates and the resulting revised estimates of future cash flows in our
valuation, and was recorded as impairment of franchises in our consolidated
statements of operations for the year ended December 31, 2004. Sustained analog
video customer losses by us and our industry peers in the third quarter of
2004
primarily as a result of increased competition from DBS providers and decreased
growth rates in our and our industry peers’ high-speed Internet customers in the
third quarter of 2004, in part as a result of increased competition from DSL
providers, led us to lower our projected growth rates and accordingly revise
our
estimates of future cash flows from those used in prior years. See “Item 1.
Business — Competition.”
The
valuations completed at October 1, 2006 and 2005 showed franchise values in
excess of book value, and thus resulted in no impairment.
Income
Taxes. All
operations are held through Charter Holdco and its direct and indirect
subsidiaries. Charter Holdco and the majority of its subsidiaries are not
subject to income tax. However, certain of these subsidiaries are corporations
and are subject to income tax. All of the taxable income, gains, losses,
deductions and credits of Charter Holdco are passed through to its members:
Charter, CII and Vulcan Cable. Charter is responsible for its share of taxable
income or loss of Charter Holdco allocated to it in accordance with the Charter
Holdco limited liability company agreement (“LLC Agreement”) and partnership tax
rules and regulations.
The
LLC
Agreement provides for certain special allocations of net tax profits and net
tax losses (such net tax profits and net tax losses being determined under
the
applicable federal income tax rules for determining capital accounts). Under
the
LLC Agreement, through the end of 2003, net tax losses of Charter Holdco that
would otherwise have been allocated to Charter based generally on its percentage
ownership of outstanding common units were allocated instead to membership
units
held by Vulcan Cable and CII (the “Special Loss Allocations”) to the extent of
their respective capital account balances. After 2003, under the LLC Agreement,
net tax losses of Charter Holdco are allocated to Charter, Vulcan Cable and
CII
based generally on their respective percentage ownership of outstanding common
units to the extent of their respective capital account balances. Allocations
of
net tax losses in excess of the members’ aggregate capital account balances are
allocated under the rules governing Regulatory Allocations, as described below.
Subject to the Curative Allocation Provisions described below, the LLC Agreement
further provides that, beginning at the time Charter Holdco generates net tax
profits, the net tax profits that would otherwise have been allocated to Charter
based generally on its percentage ownership of outstanding common membership
units, will instead generally be allocated to Vulcan Cable and CII (the “Special
Profit Allocations”). The Special Profit Allocations to Vulcan Cable and CII
will generally continue until the cumulative amount of the Special Profit
Allocations offsets the cumulative amount of the Special Loss Allocations.
The
amount and timing of the Special Profit Allocations are subject to the potential
application of, and interaction with, the Curative Allocation Provisions
described in the following paragraph. The LLC Agreement generally provides
that
any additional net tax profits are to be allocated among the members of Charter
Holdco based generally on their respective percentage ownership of Charter
Holdco common membership units.
Because
the respective capital account balances of each of Vulcan Cable and CII were
reduced to zero by December 31, 2002, certain net tax losses of Charter
Holdco that were to be allocated for 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, to Vulcan Cable
and CII, instead have been allocated to Charter (the “Regulatory Allocations”).
As a result of the allocation of net tax losses to Charter in 2005, Charter’s
capital account balance was reduced to zero during 2005. The LLC Agreement
provides that once the capital account balances of all members have been reduced
to zero, net tax losses are to be allocated to Charter, Vulcan Cable and CII
based generally on their respective percentage ownership of outstanding common
units. Such allocations are also considered to be Regulatory Allocations. The
LLC Agreement further provides that, to the extent possible, the effect of
the
Regulatory Allocations is to be offset over time pursuant to certain curative
allocation provisions (the “Curative Allocation Provisions”) so that, after
certain offsetting adjustments are made, each member’s capital account balance
is equal to the capital account balance such member would have had if the
Regulatory Allocations had not been part of the LLC Agreement. The cumulative
amount of the actual tax losses allocated to Charter as a result of the
Regulatory Allocations through the year ended December 31, 2006 is
approximately $4.1 billion.
As
a
result of the Special Loss Allocations and the Regulatory Allocations referred
to above (and their interaction with the allocations related to assets
contributed to Charter Holdco with differences between book and tax basis),
the
cumulative amount of losses of Charter Holdco allocated to Vulcan Cable and
CII
is in excess of the amount that would have been allocated to such entities
if
the losses of Charter Holdco had been allocated among its members in proportion
to their respective percentage ownership of Charter Holdco common membership
units. The cumulative amount of such excess losses was approximately
$1 billion through December 31, 2006.
In
certain situations, the Special Loss Allocations, Special Profit Allocations,
Regulatory Allocations, and Curative Allocation Provisions described above
could
result in Charter paying taxes in an amount that is more or less than if Charter
Holdco had allocated net tax profits and net tax losses among its members based
generally on the number of common membership units owned by such members. This
could occur due to differences in (i) the character of the allocated income
(e.g., ordinary versus capital), (ii) the allocated amount and timing of
tax depreciation and tax amortization expense due to the application of
section 704(c) under the Internal Revenue Code, (iii) the potential
interaction between the Special Profit Allocations and the Curative Allocation
Provisions, (iv) the amount and timing of alternative minimum taxes paid by
Charter, if any, (v) the apportionment of the allocated income or loss
among the states in which Charter Holdco does business, and (vi) future
federal and state tax laws. Further, in the event of new capital contributions
to Charter Holdco, it is possible that the tax effects of the Special Profit
Allocations, Special Loss Allocations, Regulatory Allocations and Curative
Allocation Provisions will change
significantly
pursuant to the provisions of the income tax regulations or the terms of a
contribution agreement with respect to such contributions. Such change could
defer the actual tax benefits to be derived by Charter with respect to the
net
tax losses allocated to it or accelerate the actual taxable income to Charter
with respect to the net tax profits allocated to it. As a result, it is possible
under certain circumstances, that Charter could receive future allocations
of
taxable income in excess of its currently allocated tax deductions and available
tax loss carryforwards. The ability to utilize net operating loss carryforwards
is potentially subject to certain limitations as discussed below.
In
addition, under their exchange agreement with Charter, Vulcan Cable and CII
have
the right at anytime to exchange some or all of their membership units in
Charter Holdco for Charter’s Class B common stock, be merged with Charter
in exchange for Charter’s Class B common stock, or be acquired by Charter in a
non-taxable reorganization in exchange for Charter’s Class B common stock. If
such an exchange were to take place prior to the date that the Special Profit
Allocation provisions had fully offset the Special Loss Allocations, Vulcan
Cable and CII could elect to cause Charter Holdco to make the remaining Special
Profit Allocations to Vulcan Cable and CII immediately prior to the consummation
of the exchange. In the event Vulcan Cable and CII choose not to make such
election or to the extent such allocations are not possible, Charter would
then
be allocated tax profits attributable to the membership units received in such
exchange pursuant to the Special Profit Allocation provisions. Mr. Allen
has generally agreed to reimburse Charter for any incremental income taxes
that
Charter would owe as a result of such an exchange and any resulting future
Special Profit Allocations to Charter. The ability of Charter to utilize net
operating loss carryforwards is potentially subject to certain limitations
(see
“Risk Factors — For tax purposes, there is significant risk that we will
experience an ownership change resulting in a material limitation on the use
of
a substantial amount of our existing net operating loss carryforwards”). If
Charter were to become subject to such limitations (whether as a result of
an
exchange described above or otherwise), and as a result were to owe taxes
resulting from the Special Profit Allocations, then Mr. Allen may not be
obligated to reimburse Charter for such income taxes. Further, Mr. Allen’s
obligation to reimburse Charter for taxes attributable to the Special Profit
Allocation to Charter ceases upon a subsequent change of control of
Charter.
As
of
December 31, 2006 and 2005, we have recorded net deferred income tax
liabilities of $514 million and $325 million, respectively. Additionally,
as of December 31, 2006 and 2005, we have deferred tax assets of
$4.6 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively, which primarily relate to
financial and tax losses allocated to Charter from Charter Holdco. We are
required to record a valuation allowance when it is more likely than not that
some portion or all of the deferred income tax assets will not be realized.
Given the uncertainty surrounding our ability to utilize our deferred tax
assets, these items have been offset with a corresponding valuation allowance
of
$4.2 billion and $3.7 billion at December 31, 2006 and 2005,
respectively.
Charter
Holdco is currently under examination by the Internal Revenue Service for the
tax years ending December 31, 2002 and 2003. In addition, one of our
indirect corporate subsidiaries is under examination by the Internal Revenue
Service for the tax year ended December 31, 2004. Our results (excluding Charter
and our indirect corporate subsidiaries, with the exception of the indirect
corporate subsidiary under examination) for these years are subject to these
examinations. Management does not expect the results of these examinations
to
have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial condition, results
of operations, or our liquidity, including our ability to comply with our debt
covenants.
Litigation. Legal
contingencies have a high degree of uncertainty. When a loss from a contingency
becomes estimable and probable, a reserve is established. The reserve reflects
management's best estimate of the probable cost of ultimate resolution of the
matter and is revised accordingly as facts and circumstances change, and
ultimately when the matter is brought to closure. We have established reserves
for certain matters and if any of these matters are resolved unfavorably,
resulting in payment obligations in excess of management's best estimate of
the
outcome, such resolution could have a material adverse effect on our
consolidated financial condition, results of operations, or our
liquidity.
Results
of Operations
The
following table sets forth the percentages of revenues that items in the
accompanying consolidated statements of operations constitute for the indicated
periods (dollars in millions, except share data):
|
|
|
Year
Ended December 31,
|
|
|
|
2006
|
|
2005
|
|
2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Revenues
|
|
$
|
5,504
|
|
|
100%
|
|
$
|
5,033
|
|
|
100%
|
|
$
|
4,760
|
|
|
100%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Costs
and Expenses:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Operating
(excluding depreciation and amortization)
|
|
|
2,438
|
|
|
44%
|
|
|
2,203
|
|
|
44%
|
|
|
1,994
|
|
|
42%
|
|
Selling,
general and administrative
|
|
|
1,165
|
|
|
21%
|
|
|
1,012
|
|
|
20%
|
|
|
965
|
|
|
20%
|
|
Depreciation
and amortization
|
|
|
1,354
|
|
|
25%
|
|
|
1,443
|
|
|
29%
|
|
|
1,433
|
|
|
30%
|
|
Impairment
of franchises
|
|
|
--
|
|
|
--
|
|
|
--
|
|
|
--
|
|
|
2,297
|
|
|
48%
|
|
Asset
impairment charges
|
|
|
159
|
|
|
3%
|
|
|
39
|
|
|
1%
|
|
|
--
|
|
|
--
|
|
Other
operating expenses, net
|
|
|
21
|
|
|
--
|
|
|
32
|
|
|
--
|
|
|
13
|
|
|
--
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5,137
|
|
|
93%
|
|
|
4,729
|
|
|
94%
|
|
|
6,702
|
|
|
140%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Operating
income (loss) from continuing operations
|
|
|
367
|
|
|
7%
|
|
|
304
|
|
|
6%
|
|
|
(1,942)
|
|
|
(40)%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interest
expense, net
|
|
|
(1,887)
|
|
|
|
|
|
(1,789)
|
|
|
|
|
|
(1,670)
|
|
|
|
Gain
(loss) on extinguishment of debt and preferred stock
|
|
|
101
|
|
|
|
|
|
521
|
|
|
|
|
|
(31)
|
|
|
|
Other
income, net
|
|
|
20
|
|
|
|
|
|
73
|
|
|
|
|
|
68
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Loss
from continuing operations before income taxes
and
cumulative effect of accounting change
|
|
|
(1,399)
|
|
|
|
|
|
(891)
|
|
|
|
|
|
(3,575)
|
|
|
|
Income
tax benefit (expense)
|
|
|
(187)
|
|
|
|
|
|
(112)
|
|
|
|
|
|
134
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Loss
from continuing operations before cumulative
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
effect
of accounting change
|
|
|
(1,586)
|
|
|
|
|
|
(1,003)
|
|
|
|
|
|
(3,441)
|
|
|
|
Income
(loss) from discontinued operations,
net
of tax
|
|
|
216
|
|
|
|
|
|
36
|
|
|
|
|
|
(135)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Loss
before cumulative effect of accounting change
|
|
|
(1,370)
|
|
|
|
|
|
(967)
|
|
|
|
|
|
(3,576)
|
|
|
|
Cumulative
effect of accounting change, net of tax
|
|
|
--
|
|
|
|
|
|
--
|
|
|
|
|
|
(765)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net
loss
|
|
|
(1,370)
|
|
|
|
|
|
(967)
|
|
|
|
|
|
(4,341)
|
|
|
|
Dividends
on preferred stock - redeemable
|
|
|
--
|
|
|
|
|
|
(3)
|
|
|
|
|
|
(4)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net
loss applicable to common stock
|
|
$
|
(1,370)
|
|
|
|
|
$
|
(970)
|
|
|
|
|
$
|
(4,345)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Loss
per common share, basic and diluted:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Loss
from continuing operations before cumulative effect of accounting
change
|
|
$
|
(4.78)
|
|
|
|
|
$
|
(3.24)
|
|
|
|
|
$
|
(11.47)
|
|
|
|
Net
loss
|
|
$
|
(4.13)
|
|
|
|
|
$
|
(3.13)
|
|
|
|
|
$
|
(14.47)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Weighted
average common shares outstanding
|
|
|
331,941,788
|
|
|
|
|
|
310,209,047
|
|
|
|
|
|
300,341,877
|
|
|
|
Revenues.
Average
monthly revenue per analog video customer, measured on an annual basis, has
increased from $67 in 2004 to $74 in 2005 and $82 in 2006. Average monthly
revenue per analog video customer represents total annual revenue, divided
by
twelve, divided by the average number of analog video customers during the
respective period. Revenue growth in 2006 and 2005 primarily reflects increases
in the number of customers, price increases, and incremental video revenues
from
OnDemand, DVR and high-definition television services. Cable
system sales, net of acquisitions, in 2004, 2005, and 2006 reduced the increase
in revenues in 2006 as compared to 2005 by approximately $24 million, and in
2005 as compared to 2004 by approximately $30 million.
Revenues
by service offering were as follows (dollars in millions):
|
|
Year
Ended December 31,
|
|
|
|
|
|
2006
|
|
|
2005
|
|
|
2004
|
|
|
2006
over 2005
|
|
|
2005
over 2004
|
|
|
Revenues
|
|
%
of Revenues
|
|
|
Revenues
|
|
%
of Revenues
|
|
|
Revenues
|
|
%
of Revenues
|
|
|
Change
|
|
%
Change
|
|
|
Change
|
|
%
Change
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Video
|
$
|
3,349
|
|
61%
|
|
$
|
3,248
|
|
65%
|
|
$
|
3,217
|
|
68%
|
|
$
|
101
|
|
3%
|
|
$
|
31
|
|
1%
|
High-speed
Internet
|
|
1,051
|
|
19%
|
|
|
875
|
|
17%
|
|
|
712
|
|
15%
|
|
|
176
|
|
20%
|
|
|
163
|
|
23%
|
Telephone
|
|
135
|
|
2%
|
|
|
36
|
|
1%
|
|
|
18
|
|
--
|
|
|
99
|
|
275%
|
|
|
18
|
|
100%
|
Advertising
sales
|
|
319
|
|
6%
|
|
|
284
|
|
6%
|
|
|
279
|
|
6%
|
|
|
35
|
|
12%
|
|
|
5
|
|
2%
|
Commercial
|
|
305
|
|
6%
|
|
|
266
|
|
5%
|
|
|
227
|
|
5%
|
|
|
39
|
|
15%
|
|
|
39
|
|
17%
|
Other
|
|
345
|
|
6%
|
|
|
324
|
|
6%
|
|
|
307
|
|
6%
|
|
|
21
|
|
6%
|
|
|
17
|
|
6%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$
|
5,504
|
|
100%
|
|
$
|
5,033
|
|
100%
|
|
$
|
4,760
|
|
100%
|
|
$
|
471
|
|
9%
|
|
$
|
273
|
|
6%
|
Video
revenues consist primarily of revenues from analog and digital video services
provided to our non-commercial customers. Analog video customers decreased
by
210,700 and 79,100 customers in 2006 and 2005, respectively, of which 137,200
in
2006 was related to system sales, net of acquisitions. Digital video customers
increased by 127,800 and 124,600 customers in 2006 and 2005, respectively.
The
increase in 2006 was reduced by the sale, net of acquisitions, of 42,100 digital
customers. The increases in video revenues are attributable to the following
(dollars in millions):
|
|
2006
compared to 2005
|
|
2005
compared to 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Increases
related to price increases and incremental video services
|
|
$
|
102
|
|
$
|
119
|
|
Increases
related to increase in digital video customers
|
|
|
58
|
|
|
18
|
|
Decreases
related to decrease in analog video customers
|
|
|
(34
|
)
|
|
(76
|
)
|
Increase
related to acquisition
|
|
|
6
|
|
|
--
|
|
Decreases
related to system sales
|
|
|
(31
|
)
|
|
(21
|
)
|
Hurricane
impact
|
|
|
--
|
|
|
(9
|
)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$
|
101
|
|
$
|
31
|
|
High-speed
Internet customers grew by 283,600 and 306,000 customers in 2006 and 2005,
respectively, of which 20,900 in 2006 was related to system sales, net of
acquisitions. The increases in high-speed Internet revenues from our
non-commercial customers are attributable to the following (dollars in
millions):
|
|
2006
compared to 2005
|
|
2005
compared to 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Increases
related to increases in high-speed Internet customers
|
|
$
|
146
|
|
$
|
135
|
|
Increases
related to price increases
|
|
|
31
|
|
|
34
|
|
Increase
related to acquisition
|
|
|
3
|
|
|
--
|
|
Decreases
related to system sales
|
|
|
(4
|
)
|
|
(3
|
)
|
Hurricane
impact
|
|
|
--
|
|
|
(3
|
)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$
|
176
|
|
$
|
163
|
|
Revenues
from telephone services increased primarily as a result of an increase of
324,300 telephone customers in 2006, of which 14,500 was related to
acquisitions, and 76,100 telephone customers in 2005. Approximately $6 million
of the increase in 2006 telephone revenue compared to 2005 is related to an
acquisition.
Advertising
sales revenues consist primarily of revenues from commercial advertising
customers, programmers and other vendors. In 2006, advertising sales revenues
increased primarily as a result of an increase in local and national advertising
sales, including political advertising. In 2005, advertising sales revenues
increased primarily as a result of an increase in local advertising sales,
and
were offset by a decline in national advertising sales. In addition, the
increases were offset by a decrease of $1 million in 2006 and $1 million in
2005
as a result of system sales. For the
years
ended December 31, 2006, 2005, and 2004, we received $17 million, $15 million,
and $16 million, respectively, in advertising sales revenues from
programmers.
Commercial
revenues consist primarily of revenues from cable video and high-speed Internet
services provided to our commercial customers. Commercial revenues increased
primarily as a result of an increase in commercial high-speed Internet revenues.
The increases were reduced by approximately $1 million in 2006 and $3 million
in
2005 as a result of system sales.
Other
revenues consist of revenues from franchise fees, equipment rental, customer
installations, home shopping, dial-up Internet service, late payment fees,
wire
maintenance fees and other miscellaneous revenues. For the years ended December
31, 2006, 2005, and 2004, franchise fees represented approximately 52%, 54%,
and
52%, respectively, of total other revenues. The increase in other revenues
was
primarily the result of increases in franchise fees as a result of increases
in
revenues upon which the fees apply, and increases in installation revenues.
The
increases were reduced by approximately $2 million in 2006 and $2 million in
2005 as a result of system sales.
Operating
expenses.
The
increases in operating expenses are attributable to the following (dollars
in
millions):
|
|
2006
compared to 2005
|
|
2005
compared to 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Increases
in programming costs
|
|
$
|
143
|
|
$
|
104
|
|
Increases
in labor costs
|
|
|
32
|
|
|
24
|
|
Increases
in costs of providing high-speed Internet and telephone
services
|
|
|
25
|
|
|
26
|
|
Increases
in maintenance costs
|
|
|
15
|
|
|
24
|
|
Increases
in advertising sales costs
|
|
|
14
|
|
|
4
|
|
Increases
in franchise costs
|
|
|
11
|
|
|
10
|
|
Other
increases, net
|
|
|
2
|
|
|
29
|
|
Increase
related to acquisition
|
|
|
13
|
|
|
--
|
|
Decreases
related to system sales
|
|
|
(20
|
)
|
|
(12
|
)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$
|
235
|
|
$
|
209
|
|
Programming
costs were approximately $1.5 billion, $1.4 billion, and $1.3 billion,
representing 61%, 62%, and 63% of total operating expenses for the years
ended
December 31, 2006, 2005, and 2004, respectively. Programming costs consist
primarily of costs paid to programmers for analog, premium, digital and
pay-per-view programming. The increases in programming costs are primarily
a
result of rate increases, particularly in sports programming, and in 2005
were
offset by a decrease in analog video customers. In addition, programming
costs
increased as a result of reductions in the amounts of amortization of payments
received from programmers in support of launches of new channels. Amounts
amortized against programming expenses were $32 million, $41 million, and
$59
million in 2006, 2005, and 2004, respectively. We expect programming expenses
to
continue to increase due to a variety of factors, including annual increases
imposed by programmers, and additional programming, including high-definition
and OnDemand programming, being provided to customers. Labor costs increased
due
to an increase in headcount to support improved service levels and telephone
deployment.
Selling,
general and administrative expenses. The
increases in selling, general and administrative expenses are attributable
to
the following (dollars in millions):
|
|
2006
compared to 2005
|
|
2005
compared to 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Increases
(decreases) in customer care costs
|
|
$
|
56
|
|
$
|
(2
|
)
|
Increases
in marketing costs
|
|
|
38
|
|
|
23
|
|
Increases
in employee costs
|
|
|
32
|
|
|
28
|
|
Increases
(decreases) in bad debt and collection costs
|
|
|
19
|
|
|
(20
|
)
|
Increases
(decreases) in property and casualty costs
|
|
|
17
|
|
|
(6
|
)
|
Increases
(decreases) in professional service costs
|
|
|
(26
|
)
|
|
31
|
|
Other
increases (decreases), net
|
|
|
21
|
|
|
(3
|
)
|
Decreases
related to system sales
|
|
|
(9
|
|