Charter Communications Inc (CHTR) 2018 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Michelle, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Charter Fourth Quarter 2018 Investor Call. (Operator Instructions)

早安.我叫米歇爾，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線生。在此，我謹代表 Charter 公司歡迎各位參加 2018 年第四季投資者電話會議。（操作說明）

I would now like to turn the call over to Stefan Anninger. Please go ahead.

現在我想把電話交給斯特凡·安寧格。請繼續。

Good morning, and welcome to Charter's Fourth Quarter 2018 Investor Call. The presentation that accompanies this call can be found on our website, ir.charter.com, under the Financial Information section.

早安，歡迎參加Charter公司2018年第四季投資人電話會議。本次電話會議的簡報可在我們的網站 ir.charter.com 的「財務資訊」部分找到。

Before we proceed, I would like to remind you that there are a number of risk factors and other cautionary statements contained in our SEC filings, including our most recent 10-K filed this morning. We will not review those risk factors and other cautionary statements on this call. However, we encourage you to read them carefully.

在我們繼續之前，我想提醒各位，我們的美國證券交易委員會文件中包含許多風險因素和其他警示性聲明，包括我們今天早上提交的最新 10-K 表格。本次電話會議我們將不討論這些風險因素和其他警示性聲明。不過，我們建議您仔細閱讀。

Various remarks that we make on this call concerning expectations, predictions, plans and prospects constitute forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from historical or anticipated results. Any forward-looking statements reflect management's current view only, and Charter undertakes no obligation to revise or update such statements or to make additional forward-looking statements in the future.

我們在本次電話會議中就預期、預測、計畫和前景所作的各種評論構成前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述存在風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與歷史結果或預期結果有所不同。任何前瞻性陳述僅反映管理階層目前的觀點，Charter 不承擔任何義務修改或更新此類陳述，也不承擔未來作出其他前瞻性陳述的義務。

During the course of today's call, we will be referring to non-GAAP measures as defined and reconciled in our earnings materials. These non-GAAP measures, as defined by Charter, may not be comparable to measures with similar titles used by other companies. Please also note that all growth rates noted on this call and in the presentation are calculated on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise specified.

在今天的電話會議中，我們將提及我們在獲利資料中定義和調整的非GAAP指標。根據 Charter 的定義，這些非 GAAP 指標可能與其他公司使用的類似名稱的指標不具可比性。另請注意，除非另有說明，本次電話會議和簡報中提及的所有成長率均按同比計算。

Joining me on today's call are Tom Rutledge, Chairman and CEO; and Chris Winfrey, our CFO.

今天和我一起參加電話會議的有董事長兼執行長湯姆·拉特利奇，以及財務長克里斯·溫弗瑞。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Tom.

這樣，我就把電話交給湯姆了。

Thank you, Stefan. We performed well in 2018, while simultaneously completing the most customer-impacting phase of our integration. For the full year, we grew our total Internet customer base by 1.3 million customers or 5.3%. We grew cable revenue by 4.7% in 2018 and cable adjusted EBITDA of -- by 6.5%. With our integration now nearly complete, our goal is to accelerate customer relationship and cash flow growth going forward.

謝謝你，斯特凡。2018 年我們表現出色，同時完成了對顧客影響最大的整合階段。全年來看，我們的網路用戶總數增加了 130 萬，增幅達 5.3%。2018 年，我們的有線電視營收成長了 4.7%，有線電視調整後的 EBITDA 成長了 6.5%。隨著整合工作接近尾聲，我們的目標是加速客戶關係和現金流的成長。

Following our transactions in May of 2016, we put 3 very large companies together in order to create a new company with a larger and more concentrated footprint, giving us the scale to innovate and grow faster. We're beginning to benefit from that strategy in all the ways we expected.

繼 2016 年 5 月的交易之後，我們將 3 家規模龐大的公司合併在一起，創建了一家規模更大、業務更集中的新公司，從而使我們能夠以更大的規模進行創新和快速發展。我們開始從這項策略中獲益，而且獲益的方式正如我們預期的那樣。

When we started the process of pursuing additional scale in 2013, we knew that to fully benefit from any acquisitions, we would need to create a single operating entity with a unified product marketing technology and service infrastructure. We spent over 2.5 years doing that. Slide 4 of today's presentation reflects the progress against the integration plan we first showed in 2016 and the earlier-than-expected launches of DOCSIS 3.1 1-gig service and Spectrum Mobile.

2013 年，當我們開始尋求擴大規模時，我們就知道，要從任何收購中充分獲益，我們需要創建一個單一的營運實體，擁有統一的產品行銷技術和服務基礎設施。我們花了兩年半多的時間做這件事。今天簡報的第 4 張投影片反映了我們在 2016 年首次提出的整合計畫的進展情況，以及 DOCSIS 3.1 1G 服務和 Spectrum Mobile 比預期更早推出的情況。

While our integration and network upgrades have excellent long-term benefits, they've been disruptive to our customers, our ability to execute and counter to our long-term operating strategy of reducing service interactions as planned. That process, though, is now essentially complete. We still have some work to do, but virtually all of the customer-facing initiatives related to our integration are now behind us.

雖然我們的整合和網路升級具有極佳的長期效益，但它們對我們的客戶、我們的執行能力造成了乾擾，並且與我們按計劃減少服務互動的長期營運策略背道而馳。不過，這個過程現在基本上已經完成了。我們還有一些工作要做，但與整合相關的面向客戶的幾乎所有舉措現在都已經完成了。

We've migrated 70% of our acquired residential customers to Spectrum pricing and packaging. Our all-digital initiative is now finished. We've completed the upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1 and the launch of our gigabit speed offering across our entire residential and business footprint. Our service infrastructure is national, specialized and consistent.

我們已將收購的住宅客戶中的 70% 遷移到 Spectrum 的定價和套餐方案。我們的全數位轉型計劃現已完成。我們已完成 DOCSIS 3.1 的升級，並在我們所有的住宅和商業用戶中推出了千兆速度服務。我們的服務基礎設施涵蓋全國，專業化程度高，且服務體系穩定。

Our call centers and service platforms will be fully virtualized across the company by year-end, and our field operation and customer care insourcing are also nearly complete. By the end of 2019, we expect to have completed the very last pieces of our integration. But I said -- as I said, most of this year's integration activity is non-customer-facing in nature.

到今年年底，我們的呼叫中心和服務平台將全面虛擬化，我們的現場營運和客戶服務內部化工作也已接近完成。預計到 2019 年底，我們將完成整合工作的最後階段。但我說過——正如我所說，今年的大部分整合活動本質上都是非面向客戶的。

With our biggest integration initiatives behind us, we're now in a position to drive long-term sustainable customer relationship growth, EBITDA growth and significantly lower capital intensity, driving accelerating free cash flow growth.

隨著我們最大的整合計畫的完成，我們現在能夠推動長期可持續的客戶關係成長、EBITDA 成長和顯著降低資本密集度，從而加速自由現金流成長。

As we look forward to 2019 -- through 2019, we remain focused on a number of key strategic priorities, including driving higher sales volumes. We made some key changes to our Double and Triple Play packaging in September, including the way we sell landline voice and including Spectrum Mobile in every sales opportunity.

展望 2019 年—在整個 2019 年，我們將繼續專注於一些關鍵的策略重點，包括推動更高的銷售量。9 月份，我們對雙重和三重播放套餐進行了一些關鍵的調整，包括我們銷售固定電話語音的方式，以及在每個銷售機會中加入 Spectrum Mobile。

Those changes required that we retrain our sales force personnel in all sales channels. That process took through October to take hold, and our sales effectiveness will continue to improve. Our fourth quarter results demonstrate that churn continues to show meaningful improvements as planned.

這些變化要求我們對所有銷售管道的銷售人員進行重新培訓。這個過程持續到十月才真正開始奏效，我們的銷售效率也將持續提高。我們的第四季度業績表明，客戶流失率繼續按計劃取得顯著改善。

Spectrum Mobile is ramping up. We added over 110,000 mobile lines in the fourth quarter, and we're seeing a growing percentage of our new cable sales taking mobile service. We're also upselling mobile service to existing cable customers. Over the longer term, we expect consumer savings from our mobile offering to drive incremental cable sales as we build brand and product awareness for our Spectrum Mobile service and become a more powerful retention tool.

Spectrum Mobile正在加速發展。我們在第四季度新增了超過 11 萬條行動線路，我們看到，在我們新增的有線電視銷售中，越來越多的用戶選擇使用行動服務。我們也向現有有線電視用戶推銷行動服務。從長遠來看，我們預期消費者透過我們的行動服務所節省的費用將推動有線電視銷售的成長，同時我們將提升 Spectrum Mobile 服務的品牌和產品知名度，使其成為更強大的客戶維繫工具。

In December, we began the process of allowing customers to transfer their existing handsets to Spectrum Mobile from other service providers at some of our stores. Over the coming months, we'll expand the Bring Your Own Device program to include a broader set of devices and to allow customers to bring their own device process -- or to do their own Bring Your Own Device process themselves without having to visit us in a store. Full Bring Your Own Device availability will expand our mobile market opportunity substantially.

去年 12 月，我們開始允許顧客在部分門市將他們現有的手機從其他服務供應商轉移到 Spectrum Mobile。在接下來的幾個月裡，我們將擴大「自備設備」計畫的範圍，涵蓋更多類型的設備，並允許顧客自行完成「自備設備」流程，而無需到店辦理。全面推行自帶設備辦公模式將大幅拓展我們的行動市場機會。

In 2019, we are also well-positioned to reduce service transactions. With the vast majority of our integration behind us, we expect to see a meaningful reduction in network activity, CPE swaps, service calls and truck rolls. Service activity should also decline as our better product and pricing and services across a larger base improves and as we begin to benefit from enhanced online self-service, greater levels of self installs. So in 2019, the lower level of activity will raise customer satisfaction, reduce churn and extend customer lifetimes.

2019年，我們也做好了減少服務交易的準備。隨著我們大部分整合工作的完成，我們預計網路活動、CPE更換、服務呼叫和車輛出勤次數將大幅減少。隨著我們更好的產品、更優惠的價格以及在更大範圍內提供的服務不斷改進，並且我們開始受益於增強的線上自助服務和更高水準的自助安裝，服務活動也應該會下降。因此，2019 年較低的業務活動水準將提高客戶滿意度，降低客戶流失率，延長客戶生命週期。

Finally, 2019 is the year we will see a significant reduction in capital intensity. Our goal at the beginning of this process was to put our combined assets in a position to operate as a single entity and to grow faster over the long term as quickly as possible. As a result, we stepped up capital spending in the short term.

最後，2019 年我們將看到資本密集度大幅下降。我們一開始的目標是使我們合併後的資產能夠作為一個整體運營，並儘快實現長期的快速成長。因此，我們在短期內加大了資本支出。

That higher spending is now behind us, and cable capital intensity will fall significantly in 2019, as planned, but also beyond 2019, as CPE spend per home declines, consumers increasingly install their own services, the reliability of our plant improves and our network becomes increasingly cloud-based and IP-driven, all on a higher expected revenue while we continue to appropriately invest in our products and in our network.

高支出時期已經過去，有線電視資本密集度將在 2019 年按計劃大幅下降，而且在 2019 年之後還會繼續下降，因為每戶家庭的 CPE 支出下降，消費者越來越多地自行安裝服務，我們的網絡可靠性提高，我們的網絡越來越基於雲和 IP，所有這些都建立在更高的預期收入之上，同時我們將繼續對我們的產品。

Already in 2019, I expect the business and cash flow performance of our cable business will further demonstrate the superiority of our networks and our assets, the returns of our recent investment and the long-term benefits of our consumer-focused operating strategy on a larger set of assets.

2019 年，我預計我們有線電視業務的業務和現金流表現將進一步證明我們網路和資產的優越性、我們近期投資的回報以及我們以消費者為中心的營運策略在更大資產組合上的長期效益。

I'll turn the call over to Chris Winfrey.

我將把電話轉給克里斯溫弗瑞。

Thanks, Tom, and a couple of administrative items before covering our results. Like last quarter, the prospective adoption of the new revenue recognition standard lowered our EBITDA in the fourth quarter by about $7 million as compared to last year. In 2019, there should be less impact year-over-year, and we don't expect to continue to highlight the amount.

謝謝湯姆，在公佈結果之前，還有幾件行政事項需要處理。與上個季度一樣，由於預計採用新的收入確認標準，我們第四季度的 EBITDA 比去年同期減少了約 700 萬美元。2019 年，其影響應該會比前一年減少，我們預計不會再強調這筆金額。

And as it relates to Hurricane Michael and Florence and the wildfires in California, we did have some recovery and rebuild costs in the quarter, but they were relatively small. And since we had storms in last year's fourth quarter, the negative impact to this quarter's EBITDA and CapEx on a year-over-year basis was minimal.

至於颶風邁克爾、佛羅倫薩以及加州的野火，我們本季確實產生了一些恢復和重建費用，但這些費用相對較小。由於去年第四季遭遇了風暴，因此本季 EBITDA 和資本支出較去年同期受到的負面影響微乎其微。

Now turning to our results. Total residential and SMB customer relationships grew by 248,000 in the fourth quarter and 942,000 over the last 12 months. Including residential and SMB, Internet grew by 329,000 in the quarter, video declined by 22,000, and voice declined by 56,000. Over 70% of our acquired residential customers were in Spectrum pricing and packaging at the end of the fourth quarter. And similar to what we saw at legacy Charter, pricing and packaging migration transactions are slowing, which together with the completion of network upgrades last year, means that in 2019, we'll see lower CPE spending and meaningful churn benefits.

現在來看我們的結果。第四季住宅和中小企業客戶關係總數增加了 248,000 個，過去 12 個月增加了 942,000 個。包括住宅用戶和中小企業用戶在內，本季網路用戶成長了 32.9 萬，視訊用戶減少了 2.2 萬，語音用戶減少了 5.6 萬。在第四季末，我們收購的住宅客戶中有超過 70% 採用了 Spectrum 的定價和套餐服務。與我們在Charter老牌業者看到的情況類似，定價和套餐遷移交易正在放緩，再加上去年完成的網路升級，這意味著2019年我們將看到CPE支出減少，並帶來顯著的客戶流失效益。

In residential Internet, we added a total of 289,000 customers versus 263,000 in the fourth quarter of last year. Over the last 12 months, we've grown our total residential Internet customer base by 1.1 million customers or 4.9%. And we now offer gigabit service in nearly 100% of our footprint using DOCSIS 3.1.

在住宅網路方面，我們新增了 289,000 名用戶，而去年第四季為 263,000 名。在過去的 12 個月裡，我們的住宅網路用戶總數增加了 110 萬，增幅達 4.9%。現在，我們使用 DOCSIS 3.1 在幾乎 100% 的服務區域內提供千兆服務。

Over the last year, our residential video customers declined by 1.8%. Sales of our Stream and Choice packages, which are primarily targeted at Internet-only, is continuing to do well.

過去一年，我們的住宅視訊用戶數量下降了 1.8%。我們的 Stream 和 Choice 套餐主要針對純網路用戶，銷售情況持續良好。

Spectrum Guide is being deployed to the vast majority of new video connects, providing a better overall video experience. And our video product is available via the Spectrum TV app on a variety of platforms, including Android, Kindle Fire, Roku, Xbox, Samsung Smart TV and computers. We also recently launched our Spectrum TV app on Apple TV with a zero sign-on feature for customers with Spectrum Internet.

Spectrum Guide 正在部署到絕大多數新的視訊連線中，從而提供更好的整體視訊體驗。我們的視訊產品可透過 Spectrum TV 應用程式在多種平台上使用，包括 Android、Kindle Fire、Roku、Xbox、三星智慧電視和電腦。我們最近也在 Apple TV 上推出了 Spectrum TV 應用，為 Spectrum Internet 用戶提供零登入功能。

In voice, we lost 83,000 residential voice customers in the quarter versus a gain of 23,000 last year, driven by a lower Triple Play sell-in mix. As Tom mentioned, we changed our voice pricing in mid-September to address wireline voice sell-in, retention at roll-off and the launch of mobile. At acquisition, voice is now $9.99 with no change to that price when a customer rolls off a bundled promotion.

在語音業務方面，本季我們流失了 83,000 名住宅語音用戶，而去年同期則增加了 23,000 名，這主要是由於三重播放銷售組合的減少所致。正如湯姆所提到的，我們在 9 月中旬調整了語音定價策略，以應對固話語音銷售、用戶流失和行動業務的推出。語音服務在客戶購買時價格為 9.99 美元，當客戶取消捆綁促銷活動時，價格不會改變。

With wireline voice as a $9.99 value-added service going forward, mobile is now positioned to be the Triple Play value driver for connectivity sales, similar to what wireline voice did for cable over the last decade. These are meaningful changes to a large selling machine, but the transition went well in the fourth quarter.

隨著有線語音作為一項 9.99 美元的增值服務繼續發展，行動通訊現在有望成為連接銷售的三重播放價值驅動因素，就像過去十年有線語音對有線電視所做的那樣。對於一個龐大的銷售機器來說，這些都是意義重大的改變，但第四季的過渡進展順利。

Turning to mobile, we added 113,000 mobile lines in the quarter, with a healthy mix of both Unlimited and By the Gig lines. As of December, we had 134,000 lines. As we add new features and functionality, including Bring Your Own Device capabilities, we expand our marketable population, as Tom mentioned.

在行動業務方面，本季新增了 113,000 條行動線路，其中無限流量套餐和按流量計費套餐的比例均衡。截至12月，我們有134,000條路線。正如湯姆所提到的那樣，隨著我們不斷添加新功能，包括自帶設備功能，我們的目標客戶群也在擴大。

Over the last year, we grew total residential customers by 771,000 or 3%. Residential revenue per customer relationship grew by 0.9% year-over-year, given the lower rate of SPP migration and promotional campaign roll-off and rate adjustments. And we did gross up some voice and video taxes in both revenue and expense, with no impact to EBITDA in the past or now. Those ARPU benefits were partly offset by a higher mix of Internet-only customers.

過去一年，我們的住宅用戶總數增加了 771,000 戶，增幅達 3%。由於 SPP 遷移率較低、促銷活動結束以及費率調整，每位客戶關係的住宅收入年增 0.9%。我們確實將一些語音和視訊稅費計入了收入和支出，過去和現在都沒有對 EBITDA 產生影響。ARPU 的這些優勢部分被網路使用者比例較高的情況所抵消。

Slide 7 shows our cable customer growth, combined with our ARPU growth, resulted in year-over-year residential revenue growth of 3.9%. Keep in mind that our cable ARPU does not reflect any mobile revenue.

投影片 7 顯示，我們的有線電視用戶成長，加上我們的 ARPU 成長，使得住宅收入較去年同期成長 3.9%。請注意，我們的有線電視用戶平均收入不包含任何行動收入。

Turning to commercial. Total SMB and enterprise revenue combined grew by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. SMB revenue grew by 3.6%, faster than last quarter, as the revenue growth impact of repricing our SMB products at legacy TWC and Bright House have slowed. We have grown SMB customer relationships by over 10% in the last year. And in 2019, we expect a lower level of SMB ARPU decline from the repricing.

轉向商業用途。第四季中小企業和大型企業的總收入合計成長了4.5%。由於對原TWC和Bright House的中小企業產品進行重新定價對收入成長的影響有所放緩，中小企業收入成長了3.6%，比上一季成長更快。過去一年，我們與中小企業的客戶關係成長了 10% 以上。2019 年，我們預期中小企業 ARPU 因重新定價而下降的幅度會更小。

Enterprise revenue was up by 5.7%. Excluding cell backhaul, NaviSite and some onetime fees, which were a benefit this quarter, enterprise grew by 6%, with 13% PSU growth year-over-year. Our enterprise group is in an earlier stage of repricing packaging transition that is very similar to what we have done in our larger SMB and residential businesses over the last 2 years.

企業收入成長了5.7%。剔除蜂窩回程、NaviSite 和一些一次性費用（這些費用在本季度帶來了收益），企業業務增長了 6%，單位利潤同比增長了 13%。我們的企業集團正處於重新定價包裝轉型的早期階段，這與我們在過去兩年中在規模較大的中小企業和住宅業務中所做的非常相似。

The process of moving customers to more competitive pricing pressures enterprise ARPU in the near term. But ultimately, the revenue growth will follow the unit growth, as is beginning to happen in SMB. We remain very confident in the strategy and our long-term growth opportunity in enterprise.

將客戶轉移到更具競爭力的價格體系的過程會在短期內給企業平均每用戶收入 (ARPU) 帶來壓力。但最終，收入成長將跟隨銷售成長，這種情況已經在中小企業中開始出現了。我們對公司的策略以及在企業領域的長期成長機會仍然充滿信心。

Fourth quarter advertising revenue grew by 34% year-over-year, and political advertising accounted for all of that growth, as it also utilizes traditional inventory.

第四季廣告收入年增 34%，其中政治廣告貢獻了全部成長，因為政治廣告也利用了傳統廣告資源。

Mobile revenue totaled $89 million, with about $80 million of that revenue being device revenue. As a reminder, under equipment installment plans or EIP, all future device installment payments are recognized as revenue on the connect date. Hence, the mobile working capital usage during the growth phase, which we've highlighted.

行動業務收入總計 8,900 萬美元，其中約 8,000 萬美元為設備收入。再次提醒，根據設備分期付款計劃 (EIP)，所有未來的設備分期付款均在連接日確認為收入。因此，我們重點關注了成長階段的行動營運資金使用情況。

In total, consolidated fourth quarter revenue was up 5.9% year-over-year, with cable revenue growth of 5.1% or 3.9% when excluding advertising.

第四季綜合營收年增 5.9%，其中有線電視營收成長 5.1%，若不計廣告收入，則成長 3.9%。

Moving to operating expenses on Slide 8. In the fourth quarter, total operating expenses grew by $446 million or 6.7% year-over-year. Excluding mobile, operating expenses increased by 3.6%. Programming increased 5.5% year-over-year, and a mid-single-digit growth rate is probably a good baseline for 2019 programming costs growth.

接下來是第 8 張投影片中的營運費用。第四季度，營運費用總額年增 4.46 億美元，增幅為 6.7%。剔除行動端費用後，營運支出成長了3.6%。節目製作成本年增 5.5%，中等個位數的成長率可能是 2019 年節目製作成本成長的良好基準。

Regulatory, connectivity and produced content grew by 11.8%, driven by our adoption of the new revenue recognition standard on January 1, 2018, which reclassed some expenses to this line in the quarter as well as the voice and video tax and fee gross-up that I mentioned earlier. And finally, content costs were up given more Lakers games in the fourth quarter of 2018 versus the fourth quarter of 2017.

監管、連接和內容製作增長了 11.8%，這主要得益於我們於 2018 年 1 月 1 日採用了新的收入確認準則，該準則將本季度的一些費用重新歸類到該項，以及我之前提到的語音和視訊稅費總額。最後，由於 2018 年第四季湖人隊的比賽比 2017 年第四季多，內容成本也隨之上升。

Cost to service customers declined by 0.8% year-over-year compared to 3.5% customer relationship growth. And even excluding some bad debt improvement year-over-year, cost to service customers was flat year-over-year. We are essentially lowering our per-relationship service costs through changes in business practices and continue to see productivity benefits from insourcing investments.

客戶服務成本年減 0.8%，而客戶關係成長率為 3.5%。即使不考慮一些壞帳年比改善的情況，客戶服務成本也與去年持平。我們透過改變業務實踐，實際降低了每項客戶關係的服務成本，並持續從內部投資中獲得生產力提升。

Cable marketing expenses declined by 2.3% year-over-year, and other cable expenses were up 7% year-over-year, driven by higher ad sales cost for political, IT costs from ongoing integration, property tax and insurance and costs related to the launch of our Spectrum News 1 channel in Los Angeles.

有線電視行銷費用年減 2.3%，其他有線電視費用較去年同期上升 7%，主要原因是政治廣告銷售成本增加、持續整合帶來的 IT 成本增加、房產稅和保險費增加，以及與在洛杉磯推出 Spectrum News 1 頻道相關的成本增加。

Mobile expenses totaled $211 million and was comprised of device cost tied to the device revenue I mentioned, market launch costs and operating expenses to stand up and operate the business, including our own personnel and overhead costs in our portion of the JV with Comcast.

行動業務支出總計 2.11 億美元，包括與我提到的設備收入相關的設備成本、市場推廣成本以及建立和運營業務的營運費用，包括我們自己的人員成本以及我們在與 Comcast 的合資企業中的管理費用。

Adjusted cable EBITDA grew by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. And when including the mobile EBITDA loss of $122 million, total adjusted EBITDA grew by 4.6%. As we look to 2019, annualizing our fourth quarter 2018 mobile EBITDA loss is a good starting place for estimating our 2019 mobile EBITDA losses.

第四季調整後有線電視業務 EBITDA 成長 7.6%。如果計入行動業務 EBITDA 虧損 1.22 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 總額成長 4.6%。展望 2019 年，將 2018 年第四季行動業務 EBITDA 虧損年化是估算 2019 年行動業務 EBITDA 虧損的一個好起點。

That generalization assumes a material acceleration in mobile line growth, which drives high acquisition costs as well as ongoing start-up costs. As mobile lines and revenue scale relative to the fixed operating cost and variable acquisition costs, we continue to expect mobile will be a positive EBITDA and cash flow business on a stand-alone basis without accounting for the planned benefits to cable.

這種概括假設行動產品線的成長速度顯著加快，這將導致高昂的獲取成本以及持續的啟動成本。隨著行動線路和收入相對於固定營運成本和可變收購成本的成長，我們仍然預計，即使不考慮計劃對有線電視帶來的收益，行動業務在獨立基礎上仍將實現正的 EBITDA 和現金流。

Turning to net income on Slide 9. We generated $296 million of net income attributable to Charter shareholders in the fourth quarter versus $9.6 billion last year. The year-over-year decline was primarily driven by last year's GAAP tax benefit given federal tax reform, higher interest expense and pension, derivative and other noncash adjustments in this year's fourth quarter. That was partly offset by higher adjusted EBITDA and lower depreciation and amortization expense.

接下來看投影片 9 的淨收入。第四季歸屬於 Charter 股東的淨收入為 2.96 億美元，去年同期為 96 億美元。年比下降的主要原因是去年聯邦稅收改革帶來的 GAAP 稅收優惠、今年第四季更高的利息支出以及退休金、衍生性商品和其他非現金調整。部分損失被調整後 EBITDA 增加和折舊及攤銷費用降低所抵銷。

Turning to Slide 10 on CapEx. Capital expenditures totaled $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter, about $150 million lower than last year. The decline was primarily driven by lower CPE with less SPP migration and as we finished all-digital. We also had lower scalable infrastructure and support capital spend, given more consistent timing of in-year spend this year versus last, as well as the completion of various integration projects. That was partly offset by higher spend on line extensions as we continue to build out and fulfill our merger conditions.

接下來請看關於資本支出的第10張投影片。第四季資本支出總額為 24 億美元，比去年同期減少了約 1.5 億美元。下降的主要原因是 CPE 減少、SPP 遷移減少以及我們完成了全數位化。由於今年的年度支出時間比去年更加穩定，以及各種整合項目的完成，我們的可擴展基礎設施和支援資本支出也較低。但這部分被我們在產品線擴展方面的更高支出所抵消，因為我們將繼續推進業務拓展並滿足合併條件。

We spent $106 million on mobile-related CapEx this quarter, driven by software, some of which is related to our JV with Comcast, and on upgrading our retail footprint for mobile. Most of the mobile spend is reflected in support capital. Following what I mentioned earlier, using the Q4 mobile CapEx run rate as a simple way to think about 2019 also works. We expect mobile CapEx will decline following the upgrade of our retail footprint.

本季我們在行動相關資本支出方面投入了 1.06 億美元，主要用於軟體開發，其中一部分與我們和 Comcast 的合資企業有關，另一部分用於升級我們的行動零售佈局。大部分行動支出都體現在支援資金上。正如我之前提到的，使用第四季度行動資本支出運行率作為思考 2019 年的簡單方法也是可行的。我們預計，隨著零售佈局的升級，行動端資本支出將會下降。

For the full year 2018, we spent $8.9 billion in cable CapEx or 20.4% of cable revenue, down from 20.9% in 2017, consistent with our previous expectations. As we look to 2019, Tom mentioned cable CapEx will be down meaningfully in absolute dollar terms and in terms of capital intensity.

2018 年全年，我們在有線電視資本支出上花費了 89 億美元，佔有線電視收入的 20.4%，低於 2017 年的 20.9%，與我們先前預期的一致。展望 2019 年，湯姆提到，有線電視資本支出無論從絕對美元價值或資本密集度來看都將大幅下降。

We don't generally provide guidance, but with the significant decline in 2019 capital spend, I will tell you our internal plan calls for $7 billion -- roughly $7 billion of total cable CapEx in 2019, down from $8.9 billion in 2018 for all the reasons we've said. Within that number, there are still significant product and network development and some integration capital, including both software development and real estate improvements, which we treat as CapEx. As usual, if we find new high-ROI projects during the course of the year or that accelerated spend on existing projects will drive faster growth, we would continue to do so.

我們通常不提供指導，但鑑於 2019 年資本支出大幅下降，我可以告訴你們，我們的內部計劃是 2019 年有線電視資本支出總額約為 70 億美元，低於 2018 年的 89 億美元，原因我們已​​經說過了。在這些資金中，仍有大量的產品和網路開發以及一些整合資金，包括軟體開發和房地產改進，我們將其視為資本支出。像往常一樣，如果我們在一年中發現新的高投資回報率項目，或者加快對現有項目的投入將推動更快的成長，我們將繼續這樣做。

As Slide 11 shows, we generated $885 million of consolidated free cash flow this quarter, including about $300 million of investment in mobile. Excluding mobile, we generated approximately $1.2 billion of cable free cash flow, roughly the same as last year's fourth quarter. While this quarter we did have higher adjusted EBITDA and lower cable CapEx year-over-year, those were almost entirely offset by a lower cash flow benefit from working capital year-over-year.

如投影片 11 所示，本季我們產生了 8.85 億美元的合併自由現金流，其中包括約 3 億美元的行動投資。不計行動業務，我們產生了約 12 億美元的有線電視自由現金流，與去年第四季大致相同。雖然本季調整後的 EBITDA 年比增加，有線電視資本支出較去年同期降低，但這些幾乎完全被營運資本現金流較去年同期下降所抵銷。

Recall that we spent a significant amount of capital in and late within the fourth quarter of 2017. So we had a very large working capital benefit, nearly $700 million, within the fourth quarter of 2017. Excluding the year-over-year working capital impacts, cable free cash flow was up by over $400 million year-over-year in the fourth quarter.

請記住，我們在 2017 年第四季末投入了大量資金。因此，我們在 2017 年第四季獲得了非常可觀的營運資金收益，接近 7 億美元。剔除年比營運資本的影響，第四季有線電視業務的自由現金流年增超過 4 億美元。

For the full year 2019, I expect another year of working capital-related reduction to cash flow as we continue to add mobile customers, which drives handset-related working capital needs, we will continue to separate that, and as cable CapEx falls meaningfully, already in the first quarter in 2019, which means we'll see an immediate and material full year step down in our cable CapEx payables balance, which could make our first quarter 2019 cable working capital look similar to the first quarter of 2018.

預計 2019 年全年，隨著行動用戶數量的持續成長，現金流將進一步減少，這主要得益於手機相關營運資金需求的增加。我們將繼續把這部分支出與有線電視資本支出分開計算。同時，有線電視資本支出在 2019 年第一季就已大幅下降，這意味著我們全年的有線電視資本支出應付帳款餘額將立即出現顯著下降，這可能使我們 2019 年第一季的有線電視營運資金與 2018 年第一季的情況類似。

The drivers for both of these working capital impacts are logical. And while over the longer term, it's a question of timing, both drivers will have outsized quarterly and full year impacts.

造成這兩種營運資本影響的驅動因素都是合乎邏輯的。從長遠來看，這只是時間問題，但這兩個因素都會對季度和全年產生巨大的影響。

We finished the quarter with $72 billion in debt principal. Our run rate annualized cash interest at year-end was $3.9 billion, whereas our P&L interest expense in the quarter suggests a $3.6 billion annual run rate. That difference is primarily due to purchase accounting. As of the end of the third quarter, our net debt to last 12 months adjusted EBITDA was 4.45x, at the high end of our target leverage range of 4 to 4.5x. We intend to stay at or below 4.5x leverage, and we include the up-front investment in mobile to be more conservative than looking at cable-only leverage, which stands at 4.38x and is declining.

本季末，我們的債務本金為720億美元。截至年末，我們的年化現金利息支出為 39 億美元，而本季的損益表利息支出顯示，年化利息支出為 36 億美元。這種差異主要是由於採購會計處理方式所造成的。截至第三季末，我們的淨負債與過去 12 個月調整後的 EBITDA 比率為 4.45 倍，處於我們 4 至 4.5 倍目標槓桿率範圍的高端。我們打算將槓桿率保持在 4.5 倍或以下，並且我們把行動業務的前期投資也考慮在內，這樣比只考慮有線電視業務的槓桿率（目前為 4.38 倍，而且還在下降）要保守得多。

At the end of the quarter, we held nearly $3.4 billion in liquidity from cash on hand and revolver capacity. And in January, we issued $3.7 billion of investment-grade bonds in bank debt as shown on Slide 22. And we increased the size of our revolver, all of which will be used for general purposes pending maturities and buybacks.

截至季末，我們手頭現金和循環信貸額度共擁有近 34 億美元的流動資金。1 月份，我們發行了 37 億美元的投資等級銀行債券，如投影片 22 所示。我們增加了循環信貸額度，所有資金都將用於一般用途，直到到期和回購。

Pro forma for the repayment of our $3.25 billion of investment-grade notes maturing in February and April, our weighted average cost of debt declines to 5.2%. Our weighted average life of debt is over 11 years. Over 90% of our debt matures beyond 2021, and over 80% of our debt will be fixed rate. So we have a prudent and unique capital structure.

考慮到我們將於 2 月和 4 月到期的 32.5 億美元投資等級票據的償還，我們的加權平均債務成本將下降至 5.2%。我們的加權平均債務期限超過 11 年。超過 90% 的債務將在 2021 年以後到期，超過 80% 的債務將是固定利率債務。因此，我們擁有審慎且獨特的資本結構。

And consistent with how we regularly evaluate our leverage target, we don't currently expect to be a material cash income taxpayer until 2021 at the earliest, meaning $1 of EBITDA at Charter is not the same as elsewhere from a leverage or free cash flow perspective. We also have strong visibility on EBITDA growth and accelerating cash flow growth, meaning we can mechanically delever quickly if we see a permanent increase in refinancing cost, a change in business outlook or investment opportunities.

與我們定期評估槓桿目標的方式一致，我們目前預計最早也要到 2021 年才會成為重要的現金所得稅納稅人，這意味著從槓桿或自由現金流的角度來看，Charter 的 1 美元 EBITDA 與其他地方的 1 美元 EBITDA 並不相同。我們對 EBITDA 成長和現金流成長加速也有著清晰的預期，這意味著如果我們看到再融資成本永久增加、業務前景發生變化或出現投資機會，我們可以迅速機械地降低槓桿率。

During the quarter, we also repurchased 4.3 million Charter shares and Charter Holdings common units totaling $1.4 billion at an average price of $314 per share during the fourth quarter. In September -- and since September of 2016, we've repurchased about 19% of Charter's equity.

本季度，我們也以每股 314 美元的平均價格回購了 430 萬股 Charter 股票和 Charter Holdings 普通股，總計 14 億美元。9 月—以及自 2016 年 9 月以來，我們已經回購了 Charter 約 19% 的股權。

Briefly turning to our taxes on Slide 13. Our tax assets are primarily composed of our NOL and our tax receivables arrangement with Bright House, and they're worth over $3 billion.

簡要地談談我們第 13 張投影片中的稅務問題。我們的稅務資產主要由我們的淨營業虧損和與 Bright House 的應收稅款安排組成，價值超過 30 億美元。

So we're looking forward to 2019. Our customer, revenue and EBITDA growth, combined with declining capital intensity and tax assets, will drive accelerating free cash flow growth. And we expect that free cash flow growth, combined with an innovative capital structure and reasonable leverage target and an ROI-based capital allocation, to drive healthy levered equity returns.

所以我們很期待2019年。我們的客戶數量、收入和 EBITDA 成長，加上資本密集度和稅收資產的下降，將推動自由現金流加速成長。我們預計，自由現金流成長，加上創新的資本結構、合理的槓桿目標以及基於投資回報率的資本配置，將推動健康的槓桿股權回報。

Operator, we're now ready for Q&A.

操作員，我們現在可以開始問答環節了。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question will come from Jonathan Chaplin from New Street Research.

（操作說明）您的第一個問題將來自 New Street Research 的 Jonathan Chaplin。

Chris, thanks for breaking with tradition and giving CapEx guidance. I think it's extremely helpful. Just 2 quick questions, if I may. On CapEx, during the prepared remarks, you mentioned that CapEx declines would continue. Did you mean that CapEx will continue at sort of around this level for cable of around $7 billion? Or is there a path for it to move even lower than that in future years? And then similarly on the cost side, you mentioned the reduction in activity, now that you've got most of the customer-facing integration efforts behind you. Should we think of non-programming costs being stable at these levels with all of that activity behind you? Or could non-programming costs in sort of aggregate dollar terms come down a little bit from here?

克里斯，感謝你打破傳統，為資本支出提供指導。我覺得這非常有幫助。如果可以的話，我只想問兩個問題。關於資本支出，您在事先準備好的發言中提到，資本支出下降的趨勢將會持續。您的意思是說，有線電視領域的資本支出將繼續維持在70億美元左右的水準嗎？或者說，未來幾年它是否有可能進一步下跌？同樣地，在成本方面，您也提到了活動量的減少，因為現在您已經完成了大部分面向客戶的整合工作。鑑於所有這些活動已經結束，我們是否應該認為非程式成本將穩定在目前的水平？或者說，非程式成本（以美元計）能否從目前的水準稍微下降一些？

So Jonathan, it's Tom. On the CapEx guidance, going forward, we do think that in general going forward, beyond 2019 and beyond our guidance, that capital intensity will come down. That's a function of revenue growth and continued opportunities to be more efficient with our capital spending. But I think the best way to think about it is that it really depends on how fast you're growing, to some extent, and how fast the opportunities to become more efficient are in terms of your customer service infrastructure. So I think that we'll leave it, as we said, that it's generally getting more efficient because of the operating opportunities that the network configuration provides us, meaning cloud-based services, IP-based services, lower CPE. But connected to your other question about non-programming costs, we think that, that will also be down materially going forward as a result of our ability to self-service customers and our ability to provide a better customer service experience, which will reduce transactions in general. That reduces capital, and it reduces operating costs. So we actually think we end up in a world with higher margins and lower capital intensity.

喬納森，我是湯姆。關於資本支出指引，展望未來，我們認為整體而言，展望未來，2019 年以後以及超出我們指引範圍之後，資本密集度將會下降。這取決於收入成長以及我們不斷提高資本支出效率的機會。但我認為最好的思考方式是，這在某種程度上取決於你的成長速度，以及你在客戶服務基礎設施方面提高效率的機會有多快。所以我認為我們可以就此打住，正如我們所說，由於網路配置為我們提供的營運機會（即基於雲端的服務、基於 IP 的服務、更低的 CPE），它總體上變得越來越高效。但關於您提出的非程式成本問題，我們認為，隨著我們能夠為客戶提供自助服務以及提供更好的客戶服務體驗，這部分成本也將大幅下降，從而總體上減少交易量。這樣既能減少資本投入，又能降低營運成本。所以我們認為，最終我們會進入一個利潤率更高、資本密集度更低的世界。

Just to add one thing to that, Jonathan, in case you're modeling it, which I suspect you will be. The OpEx per customer relationship is going to come down materially, as Tom said. Depending on growth, if you're -- today, we're growing customer relationships by 3.5%. Our goal is to accelerate that customer relationship. So when we talk about the cost curves related in the context of cost per relationship having a material decline. Given the fact that we had elevated bad debt last year and that's now behind us, I do think there's an opportunity to also reduce it on a gross basis. But I think the key point here is it's tied to customer relationship growth, and the cost per customer relationship is going to decline substantially this year.

喬納森，我再補充一點，如果你正在建模的話，我猜你會的。正如湯姆所說，每個客戶關係的營運成本將會大幅下降。根據成長情況，如果您—今天，我們的客戶關係成長了 3.5%。我們的目標是加快與客戶的關係發展。所以，當我們談論成本曲線時，要考慮到每單位成本的實質下降。鑑於我們去年的壞帳較高，而現在這種情況已經過去，我認為我們有機會在總額上降低壞帳。但我認為關鍵在於它與客戶關係成長有關，而今年每個客戶關係的成本將會大幅下降。

Your next question today will come from Ben Swinburne from Morgan Stanley.

今天的下一個問題將來自摩根士丹利的本·斯溫伯恩。

Just sticking with CapEx. Tom, can you talk a little bit about your vision for the video business, particularly as it relates to sort of Bring Your Own Device? You guys have that Apple announcement recently. It seems like that's becoming a bigger part of how the customers are consuming your product. I know your app is a top app on Roku. Just sort of theoretically and philosophically, how do you think about embracing that change and what it means to the business? And then just for Chris, the CapEx step down in '19 on cable is more significant, at least, than we were expecting. We knew about 3.1 rolling off, all-digital, but those are relatively modest numbers in the grand scheme of the decline you're pointing out. So maybe if you could just enumerate the other drivers of that step down that are material, just to help us think about what happened over the longer term, that would be helpful.

就按資本支出來說吧。湯姆，你能談談你對影片產業的願景嗎？特別是關於自備設備辦公室（BYOD）的願景？你們最近有蘋果公司的發表會。看來這正逐漸成為顧客消費你產品方式中越來越重要的一環。我知道你們的應用程式是 Roku 上的熱門應用程式。從理論和哲學層面來說，您如何看待接受這種變化以及它對企業意味著什麼？就克里斯而言，2019 年有線電視資本支出的下降幅度比我們預期的要大得多。我們知道 3.1 版本即將發布，而且是全數位化的，但與你指出的整個衰退趨勢相比，這些數字相對較小。所以，如果您能列舉導致這一下滑的其他實質因素，以便我們思考從長遠來看發生了什麼，那將很有幫助。

All right, Ben. So on the video business, which we've talked about a lot, obviously, the video business is going through changes. But there's a lot of consistency as well in the video business in terms of the way bundled packages still remain the primary services that we offer. I think we embrace where the marketplace is going. And we want to have people use video services on our network. And we think there are ways for us to be in the connected video business in a way that continues to provide incremental margins for us being in that business, at the same time, using the video business to drive our core business, which is connectivity. And the mix of direct to consumer and the mix of direct-to-consumer hardware, Bring Your Own Device in the video space, I think will change through time. And we're going to allow it to change as the market dictates and try to make our products work best on every device that we provide. There are still significant opportunities for us providing CPE devices to consumers, bringing all of their services together in one consistent way. That said, there are consumers that definitely want CPE, and there may be CPE vendors that create great CPE. And we're open to being a supermarket of video services, however those services develop. And we think that we can run our traditional models and new models simultaneously. And when we look at video usage on our network, it's actually going up.

好的，本。所以，關於我們已經談了很多次的影片產業，很顯然，影片產業正在經歷變革。但視訊業務也保持著許多一致性，捆綁套餐仍然是我們提供的主要服務。我認為我們應該順應市場的發展趨勢。我們希望人們使用我們網路上的視訊服務。我們認為，我們可以以一種既能持續為我們帶來增量利潤，又能利用視訊業務推動我們核心業務（即連接業務）的方式，進入互聯視訊業務領域。我認為，視訊領域中直接面向消費者的模式、直接面向消費者的硬體模式以及自帶設備模式的組合，會隨著時間的推移而改變。我們將根據市場情況進行調整，並努力使我們的產品在我們提供的每台設備上都能發揮最佳效果。我們仍然有很多機會向消費者提供 CPE 設備，以統一的方式將他們的所有服務整合在一起。也就是說，確實有一些消費者想要 CPE，也可能有一些 CPE 供應商能夠生產出優秀的 CPE。我們願意成為視訊服務的超市，無論這些服務如何發展。我們認為我們可以同時運行傳統模型和新模型。當我們查看網路上的視訊使用情況時，會發現它實際上正在上升。

Ben, on the CapEx step down, the question related to the amount of -- the significant amount of step down, which is already going to start to occur in the first quarter of this year. You hit on some of the big ones on the head. It's all-digital, is now complete. DOCSIS 3.1 is now complete. Another item is that SPP migration naturally starts to slow. We now have over 70% of the acquired customers that are now migrated already into SPP. And just as you get further up the curve, that level of migration slows. And we've been in 2.5 years of pretty intense integration, and a lot of those integration programs have either completed or the heavy expenditure related to them is completed. I'll give you 1 big example. A lot of the software development that we've talked about in order to be able to put all of the call center and field operations into a national standardized, virtualized and specialized structure, a lot of that spend has occurred. And while some of those platforms are still being rolled out during 2019 and there's capital associated with that, the level of CapEx attached to that is lower. The same thing would apply for a lot of the insourcing, where we've done -- where there's tools, trucks -- tools and equipment. And the big one there is also real estate. When you think about call centers, it doesn't mean that some of that activity is not still going on in 2019. It is, but it's just at a significantly lower level. So those are big programs that are either wound up or winding up. There are a couple of other trends that exist inside the business that will be continuing to go forward to improve the capital expenditure per passing or the capital expenditure per customer relationship. Some of it also ties to OpEx as well, as we are increasing our self-installation rate. And so that has an impact, both on OpEx as well as CapEx. And then the other areas that, for a lot of the reasons that Tom just mentioned, we are having a lower amount of new video CPE per installation. Some of that comes about because of the market trends that Tom was talking about and our ability to service that marketplace. The other piece comes from the fact that we just deployed so much new CPE in the context of all-digital and through the SPP migration that you have a fully populated base of really capable video set-top boxes that are both QAM and IP capable in the marketplace. That means on the increment, when you're replacing a churning customer with a new customer, the need to go out and buy new CPE is significantly reduced from what it's been in the past couple of years.

Ben，關於資本支出逐步減少的問題，涉及的金額——大幅減少的金額，今年第一季就將開始出現。你一語中的，說中了幾個關鍵點。它完全數位化，現在已經完成了。DOCSIS 3.1 現已完成。另一個問題是，SPP遷移自然會開始減慢。目前，我們收購的客戶中已有超過 70% 遷移到 SPP 平台。隨著海拔升高，移民速度逐漸放緩。我們已經進行了兩年半的密集整合，許多整合項目要么已經完成，要么與之相關的巨額支出已經完成。我舉一個大例子。我們討論過許多軟體開發工作，目的是為了將所有呼叫中心和現場營運納入一個全國性的標準化、虛擬化和專業化的結構，而這方面的投入也相當多。雖然其中一些平台在 2019 年仍在推出，並且需要資金投入，但相關的資本支出水準較低。同樣的道理也適用於我們已經進行的許多內部採購——那裡有工具、卡車——工具和設備。而其中最重要的一點就是房地產。提到呼叫中心，並不代表這類活動在 2019 年就完全停止了。確實如此，但程度要低得多。所以這些都是已經結束或即將結束的大型專案。企業內部也存在其他一些趨勢，這些趨勢將繼續發展，以提高每次交易的資本支出或每次客戶關係的資本支出。部分原因也與營運支出有關，因為我們正在提高自主安裝率。因此，這會對營運支出和資本支出都會產生影響。而其他一些領域，由於湯姆剛才提到的許多原因，我們每個安裝項目中新增的視訊 CPE 數量較少。部分原因是湯姆所說的市場趨勢以及我們服務該市場的能力。另一個原因是，我們在全數位化和SPP遷移的背景下部署了大量新的CPE，因此市場上已經擁有了功能強大的視訊機上盒，這些機上盒既支援QAM又支援IP。這意味著，在增量階段，當你用新客戶取代流失客戶時，購買新 CPE 的需求與過去幾年相比顯著減少。

The one thing I would also add is that the mix of capital that we're allocating and the capital we do spend is increasing toward the network, which is the Internet, and the speed and the capability of the Internet. And so while video, the cost to provide video CPE are coming down and the cost to provide customer connectivity in the home and service throughout the home are coming down due to the ability to self-provision relationships, the actual investment in the network capability itself is going up. All the while, capital intensity is coming down in aggregate for the whole business.

我還要補充一點，我們分配的資本和我們實際花費的資本越來越多地流向網絡，也就是互聯網，以及互聯網的速度和能力。因此，雖然視訊、提供視訊 CPE 的成本正在下降，以及由於自助配置關係的能力，在家中提供客戶連接和服務的成本也在下降，但對網路能力本身的實際投資卻在上升。與此同時，整個產業的資本密集度總體上正在下降。

The next question comes from Doug Mitchelson from Crédit Suisse.

下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的道格·米切爾森。

Tom, I know it's early, but are you seeing the benefits from the reduced service interactions so far in 2019 are perhaps better as would be for systems that have already completed customer-facing integration efforts previously? Any comments on sort of progress on customer comps would be helpful. And for Chris, I'm a bit confused on margins. If I look at 4Q ex advertising, it looks like margins are down slightly year-over-year. And you talked about growth in customers, which is good for margins, there was -- Tom, I think, mentioned lower churn, which is good for margins. Would I have it right that investment in integration and insourcing is still hitting the margins in 4Q? And if that's right, how does that progress in 2019? Does it get better right away in 1Q '19? Or does it get better throughout the year?

湯姆，我知道現在還為時過早，但你是否看到，2019 年至今服務互動減少帶來的好處，或許比那些之前已經完成面向客戶的整合工作的系統更好？任何關於客戶補償進展的意見都將不勝感激。至於克里斯，我對邊距有點困惑。如果剔除廣告費用，只看第四季度，利潤率似乎較去年同期略有下降。您談到了客戶成長，這對利潤率有好處；湯姆也提到了客戶流失率降低，這對利潤率也有好處。我理解的沒錯吧，第四季對整合和內部資源投入的增加仍然影響著利潤率？如果情況屬實，那麼 2019 年的發展如何？2019年第一季情況會立即好轉嗎？或者情況會隨著時間而好轉？

Well, on the cost to serve issue, Doug, we did say in the fourth quarter that we saw churn reductions. Those churn reductions come from our ability to manage the operation better, including how we create new customers, but also the quality of the service infrastructure that we're providing and its impact on customer life. And so to the extent that we're able to create a satisfied customer base by creating products at reasonable prices that have low friction in them from a relationship perspective, meaning we have less service calls, and we will have less friction in the transaction and scheduling of activity, that creates an environment where the average customer life gets greater, and you have less transactions per consumer. And that means that you have less cost per consumer. And so you can have -- so in a static environment, without growth, you get significant margin improvements. And in a growth environment, you get a less expensive growth environment. And so that's how we see the business developing and why we made the investments we did.

關於服務成本問題，Doug，我們確實在第四季度說過，我們看到了客戶流失率的下降。客戶流失率的降低源於我們更好地管理營運的能力，包括我們如何創造新客戶，以及我們提供的服務基礎設施的品質及其對客戶生活的影響。因此，如果我們能夠透過創造價格合理、關係摩擦小的產品來建立滿意的客戶群，這意味著我們可以減少服務電話，減少交易和活動安排方面的摩擦，從而創造一個平均客戶生命週期更長、每個消費者交易次數更少的環境。這意味著每個消費者的成本更低。因此，即使在靜態環境下，沒有成長的情況下，你也能獲得顯著的利潤率提升。而且，在成長型環境中，成長成本也會更低。所以，這就是我們對業務發展的看法，也是我們進行這些投資的原因。

Doug, your question on Q4, not looking at the analysis that you're starting to do, my guess is that you've either included mobile operating costs and/or you haven't backed out advertising costs associated with political. So advertising, if you just took out the political advertising but didn't take out the expense related to that, you might be able to get to where you were coming out. But our margins, when adjusted for political advertising margin and when leaving mobile outside, increased year-over-year. As it relates to 2019, our goal for the entire year 2019 is on the cable side to increase our margin. Some of that will depend on product mix and rate of growth. But our goal is to increase margin year-over-year in the cable spot -- side despite, as you pointed out, the lack of political advertising inside 2019. So that means, organically, quite a good development on the margin front. As it relates to quarter-to-quarter, there's seasonality depending on the level of connects, typical in most cable companies, Q1 through Q4. So I'd rather not get drawn into the seasonality and sequential development. But for the full year, that's our goal, subject to some of the caveats I mentioned.

道格，關於你第四季的問題，暫且不看你開始做的分析，我的猜測是，你要嘛把行動營運成本算進去了，要嘛沒有扣除與政治相關的廣告成本。所以，如果只扣除政治廣告費用，而不扣除其他與之相關的費用，你或許就能達到你預期的目標。但若扣除政治廣告利潤率，並將行動端利潤率排除在外，我們的利潤率將年增。就 2019 年而言，我們 2019 年全年的目標是在有線電視方面提高利潤率。其中一部分取決於產品組合和成長率。但我們的目標是逐年提高有線電視廣告位的利潤率——儘管正如你所指出的，2019 年缺乏政治廣告。所以從自然成長的角度來看，利潤率方面出現了相當不錯的進展。就季度而言，由於連接量的變化，存在季節性波動，這在大多數有線電視公司中很常見，通常從第一季到第四季。所以我寧願不去考慮季節性和順序發展的問題。但就全年而言，這就是我們的目標，當然，也需要遵守我所提到的一些限制。

Your next question comes from Jessica-Reif Ehrlich from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

你的下一個問題來自美國銀行美林證券的傑西卡·雷夫·埃利希。

A couple of questions. First, I guess, a video question. NBCU's used direct-to-consumer potential offer seems really interesting for the pay-TV industry. And I'm just wondering what your view is on that service. Is it a churn reducer or a revenue generator? On the advertising, I mean, your growth, while it may have been expensive, your growth was really at the top end of anybody's numbers. So I'm wondering what you're doing differently. And then finally, on 5G, I would love to get your reaction to what AT&T said yesterday on their call, that 5G will replace fixed broadband. Can you talk about your views of Charter positioning as 5G rolls out?

幾個問題。首先，我想問一個視訊問題。NBCU 的直接面向消費者的潛在優惠方案對付費電視行業來說似乎真的很有吸引力。我想知道您對這項服務有何看法。它是降低客戶流失率的工具還是增加收入的工具？就廣告而言，我的意思是，雖然你們的成長可能很昂貴，但你們的成長確實達到了任何人的頂尖水平。所以我想知道你們的做法有什麼不同。最後，關於 5G，我很想聽聽您對 AT&T 昨天在電話會議上所說的「5G 將取代固定寬頻」的看法。您能否談談您對Charter在5G推廣過程中市場定位的看法？

Sure. There's a lot there. On the NBCU opportunity, I think they have a good point. And there is a huge opportunity in creating advertiser-generated programming services for the business, and that are less expensive. And so I think there's details to work out there. But I think, conceptually, it makes a lot of sense. In terms of our ad sales growth, I do think we have created, using analytics and other methods, a better advertising model that allows us to create higher CPMs for our advertising business, and therefore, to generate more money out of that business than other advertisers in the broadcast space who don't have those capabilities. We have a unique two-way interactive plant. We have the ability to target advertising and to help our advertising customers get more effective advertising in the television space, and we're taking advantage of that. We've also built a great sales force, and we're on the streets. And we own a lot of local markets in terms of our capabilities as a sales group. And we've reaped the benefit of that in our ad sales growth in 2018. With regard to 5G, we're going to 10G. And our network is highly capable. And we have a pathway to 10-gig symmetrical now specced out that we announced at CES as an industry. We just went to 1 gig, as you know, in 2018 and rolled that out across our footprint. That's faster than the 5G fixed wireless deployments that have been spoken about so publicly. And we think that broadband consumption, data consumption, will continue to grow at a very fast rate and that our network is easy to upgrade, inexpensive to upgrade and quick to upgrade to take advantage of the future marketplace that this massive data throughput, that growth dictates will be required. So when we look at 5G as a fixed mobile business, it is possible to use it that way. It's not very efficient from a capital expenditure perspective in our view, because you need essentially to get -- to spend an awful lot of capital to get close enough to the home to actually make 5G work effectively. So we're comfortable with our network and its capability. We're comfortable that broadband data consumption will continue to grow rapidly and that we can provide a better broadband experience at less cost than alternatives.

當然。那裡有很多東西。關於NBCU提供的機會，我認為他們說得很有道理。為企業創造廣告商產生的節目服務，而且成本更低，這其中蘊藏著巨大的商機。所以我覺得還有一些細節需要再改進。但我認為，從概念上講，這很有道理。就我們的廣告銷售成長而言，我認為我們已經利用分析和其他方法創建了一個更好的廣告模式，使我們能夠為廣告業務創造更高的 CPM，因此，與廣播領域其他不具備這些能力的廣告商相比，我們從這項業務中賺取了更多的錢。我們擁有一座獨特的雙向互動工廠。我們有能力進行廣告定向投放，幫助我們的廣告客戶在電視領域獲得更有效的廣告效果，我們正在充分利用這一點。我們還建立了一支優秀的銷售團隊，並且我們已經深入街頭巷尾。就銷售團隊的能力而言，我們擁有許多本地市場。而我們在 2018 年的廣告銷售額成長中也因此受益。關於 5G，我們將邁向 10G。我們的網路效能非常強大。我們已經制定了通往 10G 對稱網路的路徑，並在 CES 上向業界宣布了這項方案。如您所知，我們在 2018 年推出了 1 場演出，並將其推廣到我們業務涵蓋的所有地區。這比之前公開討論過的 5G 固定無線部署速度更快。我們認為寬頻消費、數據消費將持續以非常快的速度成長，而我們的網路易於升級、升級成本低廉且升級速度快，可以充分利用未來市場對大量數據吞吐量和成長的需求。因此，當我們把 5G 看作是固定行動業務時，它是可以這樣使用的。從資本支出的角度來看，我們認為這種方式效率不高，因為基本上需要花費大量的資金才能讓 5G 真正有效地覆蓋到家庭附近。所以我們對自身的網路及其效能感到滿意。我們相信寬頻數據消費將繼續快速成長，並且我們可以以比其他替代方案更低的成本提供更好的寬頻體驗。

Your next question comes from Vijay Jayant from Evercore.

下一個問題來自 Evercore 的 Vijay Jayant。

I just wanted to come back on the video product. Can you talk about where we are on sort of the Spectrum Guide rollout? Has it sort of been a real differentiator in terms of reducing churn and sort of takeup? And then, obviously, your broadband product has really improved over the last year. Can you talk about how share shifts are trending in markets where there is a fiber alternative by the telcos versus taking just your share? Where is really the fight coming out right now?

我只是想再談談視訊產品。您能談談我們目前在頻譜指南推廣方面進展如何嗎？它在降低客戶流失率和提高客戶接受度方面是否起到了真正的差異化作用？而且，很顯然，你們的寬頻產品在過去一年確實有了很大的改進。能否談談在電信公司提供光纖替代方案的市場中，市場佔有率的變化趨勢與電信公司僅佔據市場份額的情況有何不同？現在真正的戰鬥在哪裡爆發？

So Vijay, we're rolling our guide out on the increment as a result of the transaction and the bringing of the networks together, which were all somewhat incompatible from a CPE and network architectural perspective. We changed our guide architecture to some extent. But we're now rolling it out on the increment pretty much everywhere. And it is a significant improvement, not that our existing experience in most of our markets isn't good, but the guide that we have is better. And we think, without a lot of data yet, that it will provide a more lasting experience for the consumer. We've also put that guide on our apps, and we put the guide in our CPE that we're retailing and in the CPEs that others are retailing for us. And it's actually getting distributed quite rapidly in that space. So we think it's an excellent consumer experience, and we think that it'll add to our ability to do what I said earlier in the video business, which is to both sell bundled packages, Stream packages, à la carte packages and to do those in a way that is coherent and consumer-friendly across all devices in the home, including our own mobile devices. In terms of share shift, we continued to shift share pretty much everywhere we operate, and I guess, some more than others. But our share is generally, with very few exceptions, shifting toward us.

所以 Vijay，我們正在推出我們的指南，介紹由於此次交易和網路整合而帶來的成長，從 CPE 和網路架構的角度來看，這些網路在某種程度上是不相容的。我們對指南架構做了一些改變。但我們現在幾乎在所有地方都逐步推出這項功能。這是一個顯著的改進，並不是說我們在大多數市場上的現有經驗不好，而是我們現在的指導方針更好。雖然目前數據還不多，但我們認為它將為消費者提供更持久的體驗。我們還在我們的應用程式中放置了該指南，並在我們零售的 CPE 和其他零售商為我們零售的 CPE 中放置了該指南。而且它在這個領域的傳播速度實際上相當快。所以我們認為這將帶來極佳的消費者體驗，並且我們認為這將增強我們在視頻業務方面的能力，正如我之前所說，我們既可以銷售捆綁套餐、串流媒體套餐，也可以銷售單點套餐，並且以一種連貫且對消費者友好的方式，在家庭中的所有設備（包括我們自己的移動設備）上進行銷售。就市場佔有率變化而言，我們在幾乎所有營運地區都持續發生了市場佔有率變化，而且我想，有些地區的市佔率變化幅度比其他地區更大。但總體而言，除極少數例外情況外，我們所佔的份額正在向我們轉移。

Your next question comes from Philip Cusick from JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的菲利普‧庫西克。

Nice to see that we're coming out of this transition. And I'm thinking about churn. You said churn is coming down, it's what we'd expect. Can you remind us how churn in the legacy Time Warner and Bright House bases compare now to Charter? And I'll go from there.

很高興看到我們正在走出這個過渡時期。我在考慮客戶流失問題。你說客戶流失率正在下降，這也在我們的預料之中。您能否提醒我們一下，時代華納和 Bright House 這兩家傳統營運商的用戶流失率現在與 Charter 相比如何？然後我再從那裡開始。

Chris, why don't you do that?

克里斯，你為什麼不那麼做呢？

So across all 3 legacy entities, Phil, churn is coming down year-over-year, which means that Charter just continues -- legacy Charter just continues to get better. There's still a marked difference between the churn rate at legacy Charter, which is below us and TWC and Bright House. Bright House, because it has the Florida market, is probably going to have a more elevated churn, just due to the mover ratio that exists in those markets. Otherwise, the service...

因此，菲爾，就所有 3 個傳統實體而言，客戶流失率逐年下降，這意味著 Charter 將繼續——傳統的 Charter 將繼續變得更好。與我們相比，Charter（其前身）和 TWC 以及 Bright House 的客戶流失率仍有明顯差異。由於 Bright House 擁有佛羅裡達州市場，因此其客戶流動率可能會更高，這主要是由於這些市場的客戶流動率較高。否則，該服務…

The snowbird effect.

候鳥效應。

That's right. And so I think there's still a long runway for both TWC and Bright House. And Charter, even over the past 2.5 years, has continued to get better and better on a churn ratio. But there's at least 10% differential that exists in the churn rate for legacy Charter to those other entities.

這是正確的。所以我認為TWC和Bright House都還有很長的發展道路。而且，即使在過去的2.5年裡，Charter的客戶流失率也一直在穩定下降。但傳統 Charter 的客戶流失率與其他實體相比至少有 10% 的差異。

But just to put that into -- in legacy Charter, the SPP or the pricing and packaging that we use is well into the 90, high 90% range. And so you get the effect of the lower churn in that environment. And we're seeing the churn come down consistent with historic trends in legacy Charter. But interestingly, legacy Charter comes down while Time Warner and Bright House come down. So the whole trend is improving, but there's still more significant upside in Time Warner.

但需要說明的是——在傳統的 Charter 系統中，我們使用的 SPP 或定價和包裝方案的利潤率通常在 90% 到 90% 之間。因此，在這種環境下，客戶流失率會更低。我們看到客戶流失率正在下降，這與Charter傳統航空公司的歷史趨勢一致。但有趣的是，老牌的Charter倒閉了，而時代華納和Bright House卻倒閉了。所以整體趨勢正在改善，但時代華納仍有更大的上漲空間。

And the first derivative is bad debt. Can you remind us where bad debt was sort of early in the process versus in 4Q? And I guess that will continue to come down as well.

而一階導數就是壞帳。您能否提醒我們一下，在流程早期階段，壞帳情況與第四季相比如何？我猜這個價格還會繼續下降。

Fourth quarter was a reduction year-over-year, and I expect that to improve.

第四季同比有所下降，我預計情況會有所改善。

And last thing, you were very clear that the fourth quarter was a tough comp year-over-year on subs. Should we think of 1Q as a fairly easy comp? Or is anything else going on that we should consider?

最後一點，您非常明確地指出，第四季度替補人數與去年同期相比差距很大。我們是否應該把第一季度看作是一場比較容易的比賽？或是有其他需要考慮的因素嗎？

I wouldn't call it an easy comp. I mean, the things that we've always said before, and I want to make clear, I'm glad you raised it, the -- just because you hit January 1 and a lot of these programs and a lot of this disruption has slowed down quite a bit, it doesn't mean that there's a complete seismic shift overnight. And similar to what we saw at legacy Charter, there's momentum that gets built up in the marketplace. And most customers, existing or non-subs, don't wake up on January 1 and say, "Now that disruption has stopped, then let me either retain the service or subscribe." So I think it's still going to be a continuous improvement over longer periods of time. And I think looking at single quarters as an indication of long-term success of the operating strategy isn't really the right way to do it. So I'm not saying it's an easy or difficult comp, but I don't think that there's anything that makes it an easy comp in Q1 year-over-year and we expect to continue to improve throughout the year.

我不會說這是一場簡單的比賽。我的意思是，我們以前一直說的那些事，我想澄清一下，我很高興你提出了這個問題——僅僅因為到了 1 月 1 日，很多項目和很多幹擾都放緩了很多，但這並不意味著一夜之間就會發生徹底的改變。與我們之前在Charter航空公司看到的情況類似，市場中會形成一種發展勢頭。大多數客戶，無論是現有客戶還是非訂閱客戶，都不會在1月1日醒來後說：「既然中斷已經停止，那我要么繼續使用這項服務，要么訂閱吧。」所以我認為這仍然是一個需要長期持續改進的過程。我認為，僅憑單一季度的業績來判斷經營策略的長期成功與否，並不是正確的方法。所以我不是說這是一個容易或困難的比較，但我認為第一季同比來看並沒有什麼容易比較的地方，我們預計全年都會繼續進步。

Your next question comes from John Hodulik from UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的約翰‧霍杜利克。

Great. Maybe, guys, if you could just talk a little bit about the ramifications of your new way of selling voice, substituting the wireless in for the wireline. First of all, does that mean we should see accelerating losses on the traditional voice side? Or are we at the right run rate? And then two, is there any margin implications? Or would that be swamped by what you guys are doing on the non-programming side? And I guess, maybe just wrapping up together in terms of margins, I mean, you still show a sort of meaningful gap in terms of overall margins, cable margins versus, say, your larger competitor. I mean, how do we expect that to trend over time? And is there any reason why that gap shouldn't close, as you guys get through these duplicative costs and see all the initiatives you're doing on the non-programming side play out?

偉大的。各位，或許你們可以稍微談談你們新的語音銷售方式——用無線方式取代有線方式——會帶來哪些影響。首先，這是否意味著我們應該看到傳統語音業務的損失加速？或者說，我們的運行速度是否合適？其次，是否存在利潤率方面的問題？或者，你們在非程式設計方面所做的事情會掩蓋這一點嗎？我想，或許總結一下利潤率，我的意思是，就整體利潤率而言，有線電視利潤率與你的大型競爭對手相比，仍然存在相當大的差距。我的意思是，我們預計這種情況會如何隨時間推移而發展？隨著你們逐步消除這些重複成本，並看到你們在非程式設計方面所做的所有舉措取得成效，那麼有什麼理由認為這種差距不會縮小呢？

Well, yes. I'll speak to the mobile selling question. Yes, it's a significant transaction change, which changed in our model. And yes, it has implications to wireline. We've seen -- as you know, as part of that, we reduced the cost of wireline to less than $10, with the idea that it was a bolt-on product to a Triple Play with mobile. And so it has some implications to what will happen to wireline sell-in. If we look at our wireline performance relative to all other wireline providers, it's significantly better. But how much of an impact that marketing change will have against the general trend of wireline substitution, hard to say. But we don't think it's that material a driver to our economic performance. And we do think it's a good value for a lot of consumers.

是的。我將回答有關行動銷售的問題。是的，這是我們模型中一項重大的交易變更。是的，這會對有線通訊產生影響。我們已經看到——正如您所知，作為其中的一部分，我們將有線網路的成本降低到 10 美元以下，其理念是將其作為行動三重播放的附加產品。因此，這對有線通訊銷售的未來走向有一定的影響。如果我們比較我們公司的固網業務表現與其他所有固網服務供應商相比，就會發現我們公司的表現明顯更好。但這種行銷策略的改變會對有線電視網路替代的整體趨勢產生多大影響，還很難說。但我們認為它並不是我們經濟表現的主要驅動因素。我們認為這對許多消費者來說都很划算。

I think it gives you a good retention price point over time. And those new customers coming in, they're not subject to the same rate roll-off discussion, because it's a $10 add-on both at promotion as well as at roll off. And so it's always a tack-on, value-added service. And that $10, it's less attractive to turn it off at a later point in time. In terms of the margin implications, John, in the majority of our markets, our Double Play acquisition pricing is at $90, whereas our Triple Play in the majority of our markets used to be $90. So I don't think there's any dramatic margin market implications on an incremental basis going forward of what we're doing. So we sell a Double Play in the majority of our markets, video and Internet, at $90, plus the mobile add-on. To the extent somebody values the voice, fixed-line voice service, it's a $10 tack-on from there, which is an attractive price, and it's not subject to some of the roll-off churn that you would've seen in the past. In terms of cable margin gap, I don't see anything between us, and for example, another large-scale cable operator that prevents us from being able to get to similar cable margins over time. The only caveat I'd say is that we are a pure-play cable operator, which means all of our corporate and overhead costs are embedded inside of when you look at cable for us, it's there. And so there's a bit of a dissimilarity, which is inherent. If we were a conglomerate and had a whole host of different businesses, the Tom Rutledge and the Chris Winfrey equivalents wouldn't be inside the cable business, per se, but that's...

我認為從長遠來看，這能為你提供良好的客戶留存價格。而那些新來的客戶，他們不受同樣的費率遞減討論的影響，因為無論是促銷期間還是遞減期間，都是額外收取 10 美元。因此，它始終是一項附加的、增值服務。而且，花掉那 10 美元，以後再關掉就沒那麼吸引人了。約翰，就利潤率的影響而言，在我們大多數市場，我們的雙重播放收購價格為 90 美元，而我們大多數市場的三重播放價格以前也是 90 美元。因此，我認為我們目前所做的事情不會對未來的利潤率市場產生任何重大影響。因此，我們在大多數市場銷售雙重套餐（影片和網路），售價 90 美元，外加行動附加服務。如果有人重視語音服務，固定電話語音服務，那麼只需額外支付 10 美元，這是一個很有吸引力的價格，而且它不會像過去那樣受到用戶流失的影響。就有線電視利潤率差距而言，我認為我們和例如其他大型有線電視營運商之間沒有什麼能阻止我們隨著時間的推移達到類似的有線電視利潤率。我唯一要補充的是，我們是一家純粹的有線電視服務商，這意味著我們所有的公司營運成本和管理費用都包含在我們的有線電視服務價格中。因此，兩者之間存在一些差異，這是固有的。如果我們是一家擁有眾多不同業務的集團公司，那麼像湯姆·拉特利奇和克里斯·溫弗瑞這樣的人就不會直接屬於有線電視行業，但那是…

We're not knocking the -- knocking the margins down that much.

我們並沒有大幅降低利潤率。

No. So that's the only thing. But I think as a general notion, we've always said that we thought there was an ability to, despite having programming cost increases year-over-year, to be in a business that could generate over 40% EBITDA margins in cable, and our view on that hasn't...

不。就只有這件事。但總的來說，我們一直認為，儘管節目製作成本逐年上漲，我們仍然有能力在有線電視領域實現超過 40% 的 EBITDA 利潤率，而我們對此的看法至今未變…

And still be a growth business.

而且仍然是成長型企業。

And still be a growth business, and our view on that hasn't changed.

而我們仍然要保持成長勢頭，我們對此的看法沒有改變。

So our final question today will come from Amy Yong from Macquarie.

今天的最後一個問題來自麥考瑞大學的Amy Yong。

Chris, I guess, just following up on the voice question. Can you help us think through ARPU going forward? There just seems to be a lot of moving parts. It looks like you pushed through a surcharge, but you're obviously also retooling the sales process. Just wondering how we should think about it going forward.

克里斯，我猜我只是在跟進語音方面的問題。您能幫我們思考一下未來每位使用者平均收入（ARPU）的發展方向嗎？感覺牽涉的環節很多。看起來你們增加了附加費，但顯然你們也在調整銷售流程。我只是在想我們今後該如何看待這件事。

Yes. Look, given what I just said to John, I don't think the voice changed itself from a total relationship perspective is going to have that much impact on customer relationship ARPU. If anything, you might argue that it could be slightly positive. But the GAAP allocation of revenue amongst these products is a hornet's nest. And I for years said I think that the best way to take a look at what's happening with ARPU is take a look at ARPU per customer relationship and the trend there. And when you get down to that, then it's pretty simple. You have the promotional pricing of the bundle of products you sell, you have the roll-off, you have any rate increases. And the big one that folds in there, which is pretty easy to model, is the amount of Single Play Internet sell-in, which even though it's attractive, has the impact of lowering your per relationship ARPU. And that's the biggest offset to the other factors that I just mentioned. So I would not try to model individual product line ARPUs, because I think it's a pretty deep GAAP allocation question. I'm not sure it's that useful to the public. I think the customer relationship ARPU is the way to look at it, which is why we talk about that metric as opposed to some of the others.

是的。你看，鑑於我剛才跟約翰說的話，我認為從整體關係的角度來看，聲音本身的變化不會對客戶關係 ARPU 產生太大影響。如果非要說有什麼影響的話，或許可以說它略微有點正面作用。但是，按照美國通用會計準則（GAAP）在這些產品之間分配收入，卻是一個棘手的問題。多年來我一直認為，要了解 ARPU 的發展狀況，最好的方法是查看每個客戶關係的 ARPU 及其趨勢。歸根究底，其實很簡單。您有銷售產品組合的促銷價格、滾動折扣以及任何價格上漲。其中最重要的一點，也是最容易建模的一點，就是單次網路銷售量，儘管它很有吸引力，但卻會降低你的每筆客戶關係平均收入 (ARPU)。這是抵消我剛才提到的其他因素的最大因素。所以我不會嘗試對單一產品線的 ARPU 進行建模，因為我認為這是一個非常複雜的 GAAP 分配問題。我不確定它對公眾來說有多大用處。我認為應該以客戶關係平均每用戶收入 (ARPU) 來衡量，這也是為什麼我們討論這個指標而不是其他一些指標的原因。

That concludes our call. Thanks, everyone.

通話到此結束。謝謝大家。

Thank you, all.

謝謝大家。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you, everyone. This will conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

謝謝大家。今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連線了。