Charter Communications Inc (CHTR) 2019 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Jessa, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Charter's Second Quarter Investor Call. (Operator Instructions) Thank you. You may begin your conference.

早安.我叫傑薩，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線生。在此，我謹代表Charter公司歡迎各位參加第二季投資人電話會議。（操作說明）謝謝。您可以開始會議了。

Good morning, and welcome to Charter's Second Quarter 2019 Investor Call.

早安，歡迎參加Charter公司2019年第二季投資人電話會議。

The presentation that accompanies this call can be found on our website, ir.charter.com, under the Financial Information section.

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 and also our 10-Q 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.

在繼續之前，我想提醒各位，我們在提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中包含許多風險因素和其他警示性聲明，包括我們最新的 10-K 表格以及今天早上提交的 10-Q 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.

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。

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.

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。

On today's call, we have Tom Rutledge, Chairman and CEO; and Chris Winfrey, our CFO. With that, let's turn the call over to Tom.

在今天的電話會議上，我們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。那麼，我們把電話交給湯姆吧。

Good morning. Our core connectivity business is strong and continue to execute well, and we continue to benefit from consolidating cable operations under our centralized operating strategy in the ways we expected, including lower customer churn, fewer service transactions per customer and improving customer satisfaction, resulting in industry-leading growth of over 1 million customer relationships year-over-year and Internet customer growth of over 1.3 million year-over-year.

早安.我們的核心連接業務實力雄厚，持續保持良好運營，並且我們繼續受益於將有線電視業務整合到集中運營戰略下，正如我們預期的那樣，包括降低客戶流失率、減少每位客戶的服務交易次數以及提高客戶滿意度，從而實現了行業領先的客戶關係同比增長超過 100 萬，互聯網客戶同比增長超過 130 萬。

In the second quarter, we had a net gain of over 200,000 customer relationships with customer growth nearly 4% over the last 12 months. We added over 250,000 Internet customers, and we also added 208,000 mobile lines, accelerating as our high-quality, attractively priced mobile product is beginning to resonate with customers to penetrate the marketplace.

第二季度，我們淨增加了超過 20 萬個客戶關係，過去 12 個月客戶成長率接近 4%。我們新增了超過 25 萬網路用戶，同時新增了 20.8 萬條行動線路，隨著我們高品質、價格誘人的行動產品開始引起客戶的共鳴並打入市場，這一增長速度正在加快。

We grew cable adjusted EBITDA by 5.4%, which, combined with our lower cable capital expenditures, yielded strong year-over-year cable free cash flow growth of over 50%. That's nearly over 40% when including our investment in Spectrum Mobile.

我們的有線電視調整後 EBITDA 成長了 5.4%，加上我們較低的有線電視資本支出，使得有線電視自由現金流年增超過 50%。如果算上我們對 Spectrum Mobile 的投資，這個比例接近 40%。

We remain focused on a number of service-oriented initiatives, and we have a clear pathway to drive higher customer satisfaction and retention with positive growth and financial effects. Our in-sourced and high-quality workforce is driving an improved customer experience. In the second quarter, well over 90% of phone call volume was handled by our in-house agents with billing and service-related calls down by 10% year-over-year. And over 80% of truck rolls were handled by our in-house field techs with total trucks rolls down nearly 7% year-over-year.

我們將繼續專注於多項服務導向舉措，並已製定明確的路徑，以提高客戶滿意度和留存率，從而帶來積極的成長和財務效益。我們內部高素質的員工隊伍正在推動顧客體驗的提升。第二季度，超過 90% 的電話通話量由我們的內部代理商處理，計費和服務相關的電話量比去年同期下降了 10%。超過 80% 的卡車出動由我們內部的現場技術人員處理，卡車出動總數較去年同期下降近 7%。

Our call center virtualization plans remain on track. We've gone from 13 billing instances to one front-end service environment, meaning better quality service and lower costs. Our self-installation program is also ramping quickly with customer self-installations now representing over 40% of our sales volume. Our online selling and service platforms are also becoming increasingly successful.

我們的呼叫中心虛擬化計劃仍在按計劃進行。我們已經從 13 個計費實例簡化為一個前端服務環境，這意味著更高的服務品質和更低的成本。我們的自助安裝計畫也迅速發展，客戶自助安裝目前已占我們銷售額的 40% 以上。我們的線上銷售和服務平台也越來越成功。

All of these initiatives are having meaningful impact on our core business, including enhanced customer experience by allowing customers to interact with us on their terms, either through digital platforms or highly skilled employees; reducing selling friction and service transaction volumes, all of which reduce our cost service per customer relationship now and for many years to come.

所有這些措施都對我們的核心業務產生了有意義的影響，包括透過讓客戶以自己的方式（透過數位平台或高技能員工）與我們互動來增強客戶體驗；減少銷售摩擦和服務交易量，所有這些都降低了我們現在以及未來很多年內每個客戶關係的服務成本。

We're using our transactional selling machine and improving brand recognition to generate sales of our Spectrum Mobile product with the ultimate goal of driving faster overall relationship growth. With over 0.5 million Spectrum Mobile lines at the end of the second quarter, we're pleased with the progress we've made since launching in September of last year. In late May, we expanded the availability of our Bring Your Own Device program to all of our sales channels with a positive impact on sales. Previously, our Bring Your Own Device program was only available by visiting select Spectrum Mobile stores. Now customers can purchase Spectrum Mobile while bringing their own device through all of our sales channels, including our inbound, retail, online and direct channels. Later this year, we'll expand the availability of Spectrum Mobile service to our small and medium business customers. Mobile remains a key focus of Charter, and we continue to work on broadening our mobile capabilities.

我們正在利用交易型銷售機制和提高品牌知名度來促進 Spectrum Mobile 產品的銷售，最終目標是推動整體關係的更快成長。截至第二季末，Spectrum Mobile 的線路數量已超過 50 萬條，我們對自去年 9 月推出以來的進展感到滿意。5 月下旬，我們將自帶設備 (BYOD) 計劃的適用範圍擴大到所有銷售管道，對銷售產生了積極影響。先前，我們的「自備設備」計畫只能透過前往指定的 Spectrum Mobile 門市才能使用。現在，客戶可以透過我們所有的銷售管道（包括我們的入站通路、零售通路、線上通路和直銷通路）購買 Spectrum Mobile 服務，並自備設備。今年晚些時候，我們將擴大 Spectrum Mobile 服務在中小企業客戶中的覆蓋範圍。行動業務仍然是Charter的重點領域，我們將繼續努力拓展我們的行動業務能力。

We also remain focused on opportunities to continue to develop our core asset, our hybrid fiber coax wireline network and its capacity. And we have a cost-efficient pathway to do that. Our infrastructure today delivers low-latency service and superior capacity and speed. And we have a scalable, relatively low-cost upgrade path that allows for further low-latency superiority, 10-gig symmetrical speeds with DOCSIS 4.0, also called Full Duplex, and expanded network throughput. Specifically, over time, we can expand our network from 750 megahertz to up to 3 gigahertz to meaningfully increase our total throughput and capacity, all of which positions us to continue to be the network of choice for a wide array of application such as gaming, 8K video, developing high-capacity, low-latency product, such as virtual reality, and medical and educational use cases. And we're doing that on a development path that is faster and more cost efficient than can be achieved by our competitors.

我們將繼續專注於發展我們的核心資產——混合光纖同軸電纜有線網路及其容量的機會。而且我們有一條成本效益高的途徑來實現這一點。我們目前的基礎設施可提供低延遲服務以及卓越的容量和速度。我們擁有可擴展、成本相對較低的升級路徑，可進一步提升低延遲優勢，實現 DOCSIS 4.0（也稱為全雙工）的 10G 對稱速度，並擴展網路吞吐量。具體來說，隨著時間的推移，我們可以將網絡從 750 兆赫茲擴展到 3 吉赫茲，從而顯著提高總吞吐量和容量，所有這些都將使我們繼續成為各種應用的首選網絡，例如遊戲、8K 視頻、開發高容量、低延遲產品（如虛擬現實）以及醫療和教育應用案例。而且，我們正在以比競爭對手更快、更有經濟高效的方式實現這一目標。

So now I'll turn the call over to Chris.

現在我把電話交給克里斯。

Thanks, Tom. Turning to our results on Slide 5 of today's presentation. Total residential and SMB customer relationships grew by over 1 million in the last 12 months and by 203,000 in the second quarter. Including residential and SMB, Internet grew by 258,000 units in the quarter. Video declined by 141,000. Wireline voice declined by 182,000, and we added 208,000 higher ARPU mobile lines.

謝謝你，湯姆。接下來請看今天簡報第5頁的成果。過去 12 個月，住宅和中小企業客戶關係總數增加了 100 多萬，第二季增加了 20.3 萬。包括住宅用戶和中小企業用戶在內，本季網路用戶成長了 25.8 萬戶。影片觀看量下降了14.1萬次。固話用戶減少了 18.2 萬，而我們新增了 20.8 萬條 ARPU 更高的行動線路。

82% of our residential customers, including Legacy Charter, were in Spectrum pricing and packaging at the end of the second quarter. And residential customer growth relationship growth continued to increase to 3.4% year-over-year.

截至第二季末，我們 82% 的住宅客戶（包括 Legacy Charter）都採用了 Spectrum 的定價和套餐服務。住宅客戶關係成長持續年增至 3.4%。

In residential Internet, we added a total of 221,000 customers in the highest seasonal disconnect order, just above last year's second quarter, resulting in residential Internet customer growth of 5.1% year-over-year. Both Legacy Charter and Legacy Bright House net additions were meaningfully better year-over-year in the second quarter with residential Internet relationship growth rates of 5.9% and 7.7%, respectively, despite higher penetrations than the Legacy TWC footprint.

在住宅網路方面，我們在季節性斷網高峰期新增了 22.1 萬用戶，略高於去年第二季度，使得住宅網路用戶年增 5.1%。第二季度，儘管 Legacy Charter 和 Legacy Bright House 的滲透率高於 Legacy TWC，但其新增淨用戶數與去年同期相比仍有顯著增長，住宅互聯網關係增長率分別為 5.9% 和 7.7%。

So while Legacy TWC's residential Internet growth rate of 4.3% year-over-year is still good, the relative size of that footprint and the time it has taken for growth rates to mirror Charter impacts the consolidated results.

因此，儘管傳統 TWC 的住宅互聯網同比增長 4.3% 的增長率仍然不錯，但其相對規模以及增長率趕上 Charter 所需的時間，都對綜合業績產生了影響。

Key metrics, like calls per customer, truck rolls per customer and churn are all moving in the right direction across the company, and we remain confident in our ability to continue to accelerate residential customer relationship and Internet customer growth for the full year 2019.

本公司各項關鍵指標，如每位客戶的通話次數、每位客戶的上門服務次數和客戶流失率，都在朝著正確的方向發展。我們仍有信心在 2019 年全年持續加速住宅客戶關係和網路客戶的成長。

Over the last year, our residential video customers declined by 2.5%. Similar to Internet and overall relationship churn, we benefited from the decline in total video churn year-over-year, but that was offset by lower video gross additions. Despite some video loss, we expect to continue to grow our EBITDA and cash flow at healthy rates. And as part of a bundle, video drives Internet sales and reduces churn for our connectivity services, it remains an integral part of our business strategy for connectivity services, even as it drives less standalone profit over time.

過去一年，我們的住宅視訊用戶數量下降了 2.5%。與網路和整體關係流失類似，我們受益於視訊用戶流失總量同比下降，但這被影片新增用戶數量的減少所抵消。儘管視訊業務有所損失，但我們預計 EBITDA 和現金流將繼續以健康的速度成長。作為捆綁銷售的一部分，視訊可以促進網路銷售，降低我們連接服務的客戶流失率，因此它仍然是我們連接服務業務策略中不可或缺的一部分，即使隨著時間的推移，它帶來的獨立利潤有所減少。

In wireline voice, we lost 207,000 residential customers in the quarter driven by lower sell-in following our transition to selling mobile into bundle and continued fixed to mobile substitution in the market generally.

在固話業務方面，由於我們轉型將行動電話業務捆綁銷售，導致銷量下降，以及市場上普遍出現固定電話被行動電話業務替代的趨勢，本季度我們流失了 207,000 名住宅用戶。

Turning to mobile. We added 208,000 mobile lines in the quarter versus 176,000 in the first quarter of 2019, so a nice acceleration driven by growing brand awareness and expansion of our Bring Your Own Device capabilities across all sales channels, which occurred late in the quarter.

轉向移動端。本季度我們新增了 208,000 條行動線路，而 2019 年第一季度為 176,000 條，這得益於品牌知名度的提高以及我們自帶設備 (BYOD) 功能在所有銷售渠道的擴展，而這一擴展是在本季度末實現的。

As of June 30, we had 518,000 lines with a healthy mix of both Unlimited and By the Gig lines, so mobile is ramping nicely. And the early results of this product launch remain promising. Over time, we not only expect Spectrum Mobile to become a meaningful driver of our connectivity sales and retention, we also expect it to be profitable on a standalone basis once it reaches scale. And beyond that, we believe there will be opportunities to further improve the economics of our mobile business and offer unique connectivity services.

截至 6 月 30 日，我們擁有 518,000 條線路，其中無限流量套餐和按流量計費套餐的比例均衡，因此行動業務正在穩步增長。該產品上市初期所取得的成果依然令人鼓舞。隨著時間的推移，我們不僅期望 Spectrum Mobile 成為我們連結銷售和客戶留存的重要驅動力，而且我們還期望它在達到一定規模後能夠獨立獲利。除此之外，我們相信還有機會進一步改善行動業務的經濟效益，並提供獨特的連結服務。

Over the last year, we grew total residential customers by 884,000 or 3.4%. Residential revenue per customer relationship grew by 0.3% year-over-year given a lower rate of SPP migration and promotional campaign roll-off and rate adjustments. Those ARPU benefits were partly offset by a higher mix of nonvideo customers, a higher mix of Choice and Stream within our video base and $24 million lower pay-per-view revenue year-over-year in the second quarter.

過去一年，我們的住宅用戶總數增加了 884,000 戶，增幅為 3.4%。由於 SPP 遷移率降低、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 0.3%。這些 ARPU 收益部分被非視訊客戶比例較高、視訊客戶群中 Choice 和 Stream 的比例較高以及第二季度按次付費收入同比下降 2400 萬美元所抵消。

As Slide 6 shows our cable customer growth, combined with our ARPU growth, resulted in year-over-year residential revenue growth of 3.7%. Keep in mind that our cable ARPU does not reflect any mobile revenue.

如投影片 6 所示，我們的有線電視用戶成長，加上我們的 ARPU 成長，使得住宅收入年增了 3.7%。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 4.7% in the second quarter. SMB revenue grew by 5.3%, faster than last quarter as the revenue effect from the repricing of our SMB products and Legacy TWC and Bright House continues to slow. Enterprise revenue was up by 4%. Excluding cell backhaul and NaviSite, enterprise grew by 6.7% with nearly 10% PSU growth year-over-year. Our enterprise group is at an earlier stage of its own pricing and packaging transition, similar to what we've done in our SMB and residential businesses over the last 2 years. And the process of moving customers to more competitive pricing pressures enterprise ARPU in the near term.

轉向商業用途。第二季中小企業和大型企業的總收入合計成長了4.7%。由於中小企業產品以及傳統TWC和Bright House產品重新定價帶來的收入影響持續放緩，中小企業收入成長了5.3%，比上一季成長更快。企業收入成長了4%。剔除蜂窩回傳和 NaviSite 後，企業業務成長 6.7%，其中 PSU 年增近 10%。我們的企業集團目前正處於定價和包裝轉型的早期階段，這與我們過去兩年在中小企業和住宅業務中所做的類似。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。

Second quarter advertising revenue declined by 7.5% year-over-year exclusively due to less political revenue in 2019. Other revenue declined by 11.3% year-over-year in the second quarter driven primarily from lower late fees with fewer delinquent accounts, which is also reflected in lower bad debt year-over-year.

第二季廣告收入較去年同期下降 7.5%，完全是由於 2019 年政治收入減少所致。第二季其他營收則是年減 11.3%，主要原因是逾期帳減少導致滯納金降低，也反映在年比壞帳減少。

Mobile revenue totaled $158 million with $111 million of that revenue being EIP device revenue.

行動業務收入總計 1.58 億美元，其中 EIP 設備收入為 1.11 億美元。

In total, consolidated second quarter revenue was up 4.5% year-over-year with cable revenue growth of 3.1% or 3.8% when excluding advertising and pay-per-view.

第二季綜合營收年增 4.5%，其中有線電視營收成長 3.1%，若不計廣告及按次付費收入，則成長 3.8%。

Moving to operating expenses on Slide 7. In the second quarter, total operating expenses grew by $359 million or 5.3% year-over-year. Excluding mobile, operating expenses increased 1.7%. Programming increased 0.9% year-over-year due to higher rates. That was offset by a video subscriber decline of 2.2% year-over-year, a higher mix of lighter video packages such as Choice and Stream and lower pay-per-view expenses year-over-year, which is roughly 0.5% of programming growth rate impact. Despite the lower overall growth rate, our programming expense can vary, and we do have some renewals in the back half of this year.

接下來是第 7 張投影片中的營運費用。第二季度，營運費用總額年增 3.59 億美元，增幅為 5.3%。剔除行動端費用後，營運費用增加了1.7%。由於利率上漲，節目製作量較去年同期成長0.9%。但這被視訊用戶年減 2.2%、Choice 和 Stream 等輕量級視訊套餐佔比增加以及按次付費支出同比下降所抵消，這大約對節目增長率的影響為 0.5%。儘管整體成長率較低，但我們的節目製作費用可能會有所波動，而且今年下半年我們確實有一些續約項目。

Regulatory, connectivity and produced content grew by 6.7% driven by cost of video CPE sold to customers, franchise and regulatory fees and original programming cost in that order. Cost to service customers declined by 0.9% year-over-year compared to 3.8% customer relationship growth. Even excluding some bad debt improvement, cost to service customers were essentially flat year-over-year. As Tom mentioned, we're meaningfully lowering our per relationship service cost through a number of operating efficiency improvements, which is core to our strategy.

監管、連接和製作內容增長了 6.7%，主要原因是向客戶銷售的視訊 CPE 成本、特許經營和監管費用以及原創節目成本。客戶服務成本年減 0.9%，而客戶關係成長率為 3.8%。即使不考慮一些壞帳改善情況，客戶服務成本與去年基本持平。正如湯姆所提到的，我們透過一系列營運效率改善措施，大幅降低了每筆客戶關係服務的成本，這是我們策略的核心。

Cable marketing expenses were essentially flat year-over-year, and other cable expenses were up 8.4% driven by software cost, insurance, property taxes and enterprise cost.

有線電視行銷費用與去年基本持平，其他有線電視費用增加了 8.4%，主要原因是軟體成本、保險、房產稅和企業成本。

Mobile expenses totaled $277 million and were comprised of mobile device costs tied to the EIP device revenue I mentioned, subscriber acquisition and usage cost and operating expenses to stand up and operate the business, including our own personnel and overhead cost and our portion of the JV with Comcast.

行動支出總計 2.77 億美元，包括與我提到的 EIP 設備收入相關的行動裝置成本、用戶獲取和使用成本以及建立和營運業務的營運費用，包括我們自己的人員和管理費用以及我們與 Comcast 合資企業的份額。

Cable adjusted EBITDA grew by 5.4% in the second quarter, including a roughly 1.5% negative growth rate impact from 2018 political advertising revenue, net of its associated expense. And when including the mobile EBITDA start-up loss of $119 million, the total company adjusted EBITDA grew by 3.3% in the quarter.

第二季有線電視業務調整後 EBITDA 成長 5.4%，其中包括 2018 年政治廣告收入（扣除相關費用後）約 1.5% 的負成長率影響。如果計入行動業務 EBITDA 新創公司虧損 1.19 億美元，公司本季調整後 EBITDA 總額成長 3.3%。

Turning to net income on Slide 8. We generated $314 million of net income attributable to Charter shareholders in the second quarter versus $273 million last year. The year-over-year increase was primarily driven by higher adjusted EBITDA and lower depreciation and amortization expense, partly offset by higher interest expense, a greater noncash loss on financial instruments and higher GAAP tax expense.

接下來看投影片 8 的淨收入。第二季度，我們實現了歸屬於 Charter 股東的 3.14 億美元淨收入，而去年同期為 2.73 億美元。年增幅主要得益於調整後 EBITDA 增加和折舊攤銷費用降低，但部分被利息支出增加、金融工具非現金損失增加以及 GAAP 稅收支出增加所抵消。

Turning to Slide 9. Capital expenditures totaled just under $1.6 billion in the second quarter with our cable CapEx declining by over $800 million year-over-year driven by lower scalable infrastructure primarily driven by the completion of DOCSIS 3.1 last year and the associated bandwidth benefit in 2019; lower CPE and installation CapEx due to fewer SPP migrations year-over-year; and the completion of all-digital in 2018. There's also the positive capital effect of increasing self-installation, lower video sales, a newer average life of boxes deployed and the higher mix of boxless video outlets. Support spending for cable was also lower driven by declining investments related to in-sourcing and integration, and that was partly offset by higher spend on line extensions as we continue to build out and fulfill our merger conditions.

翻到第 9 張投影片。第二季度資本支出總額略低於 16 億美元，其中有線電視資本支出同比下降超過 8 億美元，這主要是由於去年 DOCSIS 3.1 的完成以及 2019 年相關的頻寬優勢，導致可擴展基礎設施減少；由於 SPP 遷移數量同比減少，導致 CPE 和安裝資本支出減少；以及 2018 年完成了全數字化。此外，自助安裝的增加、視訊銷售的下降、已部署機上盒的平均使用壽命延長以及無機上盒視訊商店比例的增加，也帶來了積極的資本效應。由於與內部採購和整合相關的投資減少，有線電視支援支出也有所下降，但隨著我們繼續推進業務拓展並滿足合併條件，線路擴展方面的支出增加，部分抵消了這一下降。

We spent $93 million on mobile-related CapEx this quarter, which is mostly accounted for in support capital and was driven by retail footprint upgrades for mobile and software, some of which is related to our JV with Comcast. As a reminder, for the full year 2019, our internal plan reflects roughly $7 billion of total cable CapEx in 2019, and that's despite a lower run rate in the first half of this year.

本季我們在行動相關資本支出上花費了 9,300 萬美元，其中大部分用於支援資本，主要由行動和軟體的零售通路升級推動，部分與我們和 Comcast 的合資企業有關。提醒一下，2019 年全年，我們的內部計劃反映出 2019 年有線電視資本支出總額約為 70 億美元，儘管今年上半年的運行速度有所下降。

As Slide 10 shows, we generated $1.1 billion of consolidated free cash flow this quarter, including just under $300 million of investment in the launch of mobile. Excluding mobile, we generated $1.4 billion of cable free cash flow, up nearly $500 million versus last year's second quarter. The year-over-year growth was driven by the higher adjusted EBITDA and the lower cable CapEx I mentioned, and that was partly offset by a negative cash contribution from cable working capital of $284 million during the second quarter, primarily due to continued lower payables from lower CapEx and a onetime receivables impact from standardizing our residential bill cycle timing. And that was to simplify our bill for customers and reduce related billing inquiries to push out collections of customer payments by a few days.

如投影片 10 所示，本季我們產生了 11 億美元的合併自由現金流，其中包括近 3 億美元的行動端產品推出投資。不計行動業務，我們創造了 14 億美元的有線電視自由現金流，比去年第二季增加了近 5 億美元。年比成長主要得益於調整後 EBITDA 的增加和有線電視資本支出的減少（我之前提到過），但第二季度有線電視營運資本的負現金貢獻 2.84 億美元部分抵消了這一增長，這主要是由於資本支出減少導致應付賬款持續下降，以及規範住宅應付賬款時間帶來的一次性收益影響。這樣做是為了簡化客戶的帳單，減少相關的帳單查詢，從而將客戶付款的收取時間推遲幾天。

Although I expect our full year change in capital -- working capital to be negative driven by the reasons we've discussed on these calls, the second half of this year should have a more net neutral impact to free cash flow. And as we move beyond this 2019 calendar year, I would expect changes in our cable working capital to be neutral to beneficial to our full year free cash flow results.

儘管我預計由於我們在這些電話會議中討論的原因，我們全年的資本變動（營運資本）將為負值，但今年下半年對自由現金流的影響應該會更加淨中性。隨著 2019 年日曆年的結束，我預計我們有線電視業務營運資本的變化將對我們全年的自由現金流結果產生中性或有利的影響。

On the mobile side, we continue to add mobile customers, which drives handset-related working capital needs as we accelerate growth rates. And we expect that trend to continue for the foreseeable future due to growth.

在行動業務方面，我們不斷增加行動客戶，隨著成長速度的加快，這推動了與手機相關的營運資金需求。我們預計，由於經濟成長，這種趨勢在可預見的未來還將持續。

We finished the quarter with $72.6 billion in debt principal. Our current run rate annualized cash interest, including the impact of issuing investment-grade and high-yield notes earlier this month is $3.9 billion. As of the end of the second quarter, our net debt to last 12-month adjusted EBITDA was 4.4x. We intend to stay at or below the high end of our 4 to 4.5 leverage range, and we included the upfront investment in mobile to be more conservative than looking at cable-only leverage, which was 4.28x at the end of Q2 and it's declining.

本季末，我們的債務本金為726億美元。我們目前的年化現金利息運作率（包括本月稍早發行投資等級和高收益債券的影響）為 39 億美元。截至第二季末，我們的淨債務與過去 12 個月調整後的 EBITDA 比率為 4.4 倍。我們打算將槓桿率保持在 4 到 4.5 倍的區間上限或以下，並且我們把移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要保守一些。有線電視業務的槓桿率在第二季末為 4.28 倍，而且還在下降。

During the quarter, we repurchased 2.7 million Charter shares and Charter Holdings common units totaling about $1 billion at an average price of $370 per share. In September of 2016, we've repurchased 21% of Charter's equity at an average price of $330 per share.

本季度，我們以每股 370 美元的平均價格回購了 270 萬股 Charter 股票和 Charter Holdings 普通股，總計約 10 億美元。2016 年 9 月，我們以每股 330 美元的平均價格回購了 Charter 21% 的股權。

So our operating model, network capabilities now and in the future and our balance sheet strategy all work together over long periods of time. We expect our results to continue to reflect a growing infrastructure asset with a lot of ancillary products used for and sell on top of our core connectivity services with good value and service to our customers to grow cash flow with tax-advantaged levered equity returns.

因此，我們的營運模式、現在和未來的網路能力以及資產負債表策略，在長期內都是相互配合的。我們預計，我們的業績將繼續反映出不斷增長的基礎設施資產，以及大量用於我們核心連接服務並與之配套銷售的輔助產品，這些產品將為我們的客戶提供良好的價值和服務，從而通過享有稅收優惠的槓桿股權回報來增加現金流。

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

操作員，我們現在可以進入問答環節了。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Ben Swinburne from Morgan Stanley.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的本·斯溫伯恩。

Wanted to ask you guys, first, about mobile and a couple of questions. Are you now sort of in full sales mode across the footprint in terms of devices you're supporting, all your sales channels, full marketing push? I know you've introduced more BYOD in May, but just as we think about the second half of the year, should we expect that business to continue to accelerate? And are we going to see sort of the full push on that product? And I'm wondering also as you think about profitability and your ability to use WiFi offload to sort of manage your bandwidth costs, and if there are opportunities to get better at that as you move through the year. And then just as a question, Chris, on CapEx. I know you reiterated the $7 billion, but I just wanted to come back because as you mentioned, you're run rating below that. You've got a spend about $4 billion or accrue, $4 billion in the second half to get to $7 billion. So just curious if maybe there -- what's driving that second half step-up in CapEx given sort of we know what the sort of $7 billion trends are?

首先想問大家關於手機的一些問題。現在，就您支援的設備、所有銷售管道和全面的市場推廣而言，您是否已經全面進入銷售模式？我知道你們在五月推出了更多自帶設備辦公室 (BYOD) 服務，但當我們展望下半年時，我們是否應該預期這項業務會繼續加速發展？我們會看到該產品的全面推廣嗎？我還想知道，您在考慮盈利能力以及利用 WiFi 卸載來管理頻寬成本的能力時，是否有機會在今年內在這方面做得更好。克里斯，我還有一個關於資本支出的問題。我知道你重申了70億美元的目標，但我只是想再說一遍，因為正如你所說，你的實際估值低於這個數字。你需要在下半年花費或累積約 40 億美元，才能達到 70 億美元。所以我很好奇，鑑於我們大致了解了70億美元的趨勢，是什麼因素推動了下半年資本支出的大幅成長？

All right. Ben, so are we in full sales mode? Yes, I would say we're just getting to full sales mode at the end of the second quarter. And will that accelerate our ability to -- will our ability to grow accelerate? Yes, we think it will, and will continue to grow the mobile business at a more rapid rate with all of our sales channels available with a fully supported device inventory. We're not 100% there from devices, but we're nearly there in terms of the market share distribution of devices. And so we do expect the mobile business to accelerate. And we expect our ability to close sales and through our transaction volume at a higher and higher rate.

好的。本，我們現在全面進入銷售模式了嗎？是的，我認為我們才剛進入全面銷售模式，大約在第二季末。那會加快我們的發展速度嗎？是的，我們認為行動業務將會，並且隨著我們所有銷售管道的開放以及設備庫存的全面支持，行動業務將繼續以更快的速度成長。從設備層面來說，我們還沒有 100% 達成目標，但就設備市佔率分佈而言，我們已經接近目標了。因此，我們預期行動業務將會加速發展。我們預計我們的銷售成交能力和交易量將以越來越高的速度成長。

In terms of bandwidth cost on WiFi, I think on a relative basis, I don't expect that will improve this year on a per-unit basis, but a significant portion of the traffic is already on our WiFi network on a per-customer basis. There are opportunities that we're experimenting with using additional Spectrum, like CBRS, which is also free Spectrum-like, like WiFi is, and using that to offload traffic, but I don't expect that to be a meaningful contributor in 2019.

就 WiFi 的頻寬成本而言，我認為相對而言，我預計今年單位用戶的成本不會有所改善，但就每位客戶而言，我們 WiFi 網路已經承擔了相當大的流量。我們正在嘗試利用額外的頻譜，例如 CBRS（它也是像 WiFi 一樣的免費頻譜），並利用它來分流流量，但我預計這在 2019 年不會產生實質的影響。

Ben, on CapEx, if you take a look at traditional cable capital expenditure, it does tend to be back ended through the course of the year. At the end of 2018, we're coming off a pretty large investment cycle as it related to big integration projects, DOCSIS 3.1, all-digital. And so some of that has pushed out our planning and spend for this year a little bit later than, frankly, what we'd even budgeted for. It doesn't mean that I don't think that the business is capable of spending it and that they're not good ROI projects and they need to get done. So it is going to be a little bit of a challenge to get to the $7 billion. And -- but in a sort of perverse way, we're hopeful that, that can get done because it's good capital to spend and it benefits the business. So time will tell. But for now, that's still our goal is in spending at or just below $7 billion. And by the way, that's just for cable CapEx just be clear. And I know I said it before, but...

Ben，關於資本支出，如果你看一下傳統的有線電視資本支出，你會發現它往往是在一年中的某個階段逐步發生的。2018 年底，我們剛結束了一個相當大的投資週期，這與大型整合專案、DOCSIS 3.1 和全數位化有關。因此，坦白說，其中一些因素導致我們今年的計劃和支出比我們原先的預算要晚一些。這並不意味著我不認為公司有能力支出這筆錢，也不代表這些專案沒有良好的投資報酬率，需要完成。所以要達到70億美元的目標會有點挑戰性。但從某種扭曲的角度來看，我們希望這件事能夠完成，因為這是一筆值得投入的資金，對企業有利。時間會證明一切。但就目前而言，我們的目標仍然是支出控制在 70 億美元或略低於 70 億美元。順便說一句，這只是有線電視資本支出，這一點要明確。我知道我之前說過，但是…

Your next question comes from the line of Craig Moffett from MoffettNathanson.

你的下一個問題來自 MoffettNathanson 的 Craig Moffett。

Two questions, if I could. First, there were reports that you had been -- that you had submitted a bid for at least certain Sprint assets. I'm wondering if you can just share some insight into what assets you were interested in and if you could just add some color to that story. And then second, the -- obviously, the bulk case for your shares is, at this point, very focused on margin expansion. Your margins did expand in the quarter, perhaps not quite as quickly as some had hoped, but I wonder if you could just share some observations about the trajectory for your margins going forward, particularly given that your margins are still some 10 points lower than what our best-in-class margins in the sector now. Is there any reason why we shouldn't expect to see those kinds of numbers from you at some point down the road?

如果可以的話，我想問兩個問題。首先，有報告指出你已經——你已經提交了一份競標書，目標是至少收購 Sprint 的某些資產。我想請您分享您感興趣的資產類型，並補充一些細節。其次，很顯然，目前貴公司股票的主要賣點是利潤率擴張。貴公司本季的利潤率確實有所增長，雖然可能沒有一些人希望的那樣快，但我很想知道您能否分享一下對未來利潤率走勢的一些看法，特別是考慮到貴公司的利潤率目前仍然比業內最佳水平低約 10 個百分點。我們有什麼理由不期待在未來的某個時候看到你取得這樣的成績呢？

Well, I don't want to give you any color, but we've read a lot of reports about us over the last several months and weeks, and many of them weren't accurate.

我不想透露太多細節，但過去幾個月甚至幾週以來，我們看到了很多關於我們的報道，其中許多都不準確。

In terms of margin expansion, we are seeing margin expansion. We expected to see margin expansion, and that's occurring because of the nature of the products that are more predominant in our selling machine today. We're getting significant impacts from our costs to serve. But you can get high margins a variety of ways. You could cut your cost dramatically, but inhibit your ability to grow, and we have industry-leading growth. And so that has an impact on our margins. But we think that the free cash flow generation by having a high-growth machine in the long run is a significantly greater asset valuation builder. So we're not trying to be the highest-margin company in the country by any means. That said, we expect our margins to continue to go to -- to improve because as you penetrate deeper into the market, your cost -- your network costs are allocated over bigger customer base and, therefore, your average cost per customer goes down. The change in videos means that there's less transaction activity associated with that service, which is relatively low margin from a gross margin perspective. And the cost to serve using digital buy flows and using self-service that's now capable in an all-digital environment takes cost out of the business. So we think the fundamental output of our business is lower-capital intensity, higher free cash flow and higher operating margins.

就利潤率擴張而言，我們看到了利潤率擴張。我們預期利潤率會上升，而這種情況的出現是因為目前我們銷售體系中占主導地位的產品的特性所致。我們的服務成本對我們產生了重大影響。但你可以透過多種方式獲得高利潤。你可以大幅削減成本，但會抑制你的發展能力，而我們擁有領先業界的成長能力。因此，這會對我們的利潤率產生影響。但我們認為，從長遠來看，擁有高成長機器所帶來的自由現金流，對資產估值的提升作用要大得多。所以我們絕對不是要成為全國利潤率最高的公司。也就是說，我們預期利潤率將繼續提高，因為隨著你更深入地滲透市場，你的成本——你的網路成本會分攤到更大的客戶群上，因此，你的每個客戶的平均成本會下降。視訊內容的改變意味著與該服務相關的交易活動減少，從毛利率的角度來看，其利潤率相對較低。在全數位化環境下，利用數位購買流程和自助服務可以降低企業的成本。因此，我們認為我們業務的根本產出是較低的資本密集度、較高的自由現金流和較高的營業利益率。

Just to piggy back on what Tom said that what is our target is to be the highest free cash flow growth in the industry, not only on a gross basis, but also on a per-share basis. And we feel pretty good about that opportunity given the operating strategy.

我只是想補充一下 Tom 所說的，我們的目標是成為業內自由現金流成長最快的公司，不僅要實現毛現金流成長，還要實現每股自由現金流成長。鑑於我們的營運策略，我們對這個機會感到非常樂觀。

Your next question comes from the line of John Hodulik from UBS.

你的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的約翰‧霍杜利克。

Great. First maybe a couple of quick follow-ups on the longer-term wireless strategy for Tom. You obviously don't want to comment on those press reports, but have you guys looked at or are you looking at eventually providing wireless service outside your footprint? And then as relates to the Spectrum strategy, you guys have been active in terms of C-Band and I think it makes a lot of sense to talk about the -- and look at the CBRS, but would you also look at Spectrum opportunities from third parties? Or is it just sort of CBRS and upcoming auctions? And then one more question on video. It seems pretty clear that the pace of change in the video ecosystem is accelerating. And we've heard from sort of a change in strategy, I would say, at Comcast and certainly at AT&T to focus more on profitability. How would you characterize your own sort of video strategy? And should we expect the mix of Choice customers and Stream customers to continue to increase from here going forward?

偉大的。首先，或許可以快速跟進一下湯姆的長期無線策略。顯然你們不想對這些新聞報導發表評論，但是你們有沒有考慮過或最終是否考慮在你們的服務範圍之外提供無線服務？至於頻譜策略方面，你們在 C 頻段方面一直很活躍，我認為討論一下 CBRS 很有意義，但你們是否也會考慮來自第三方的頻譜機會呢？或者它只是關於CBRS和即將舉行的拍賣？然後還有一個視頻問題。視訊生態系統的變化速度似乎正在加快，這一點顯而易見。我們已經聽說，康卡斯特和AT&T的策略發生了一些變化，更加重視獲利能力。你會如何描述自己的影片策略？我們是否應該預期 Choice 用戶和 Stream 用戶的比例在未來會持續成長？

Well, so in terms of wireless, we don't have plans today to serve outside of our footprint. As you know, we're a fundamentally regional operator, and wireless companies are national companies. We do have joint venture with Comcast, so that you have 2 regional companies providing on a similar platform wireless services nationwide. Customers who buy from us in our footprint and move out of our footprint can remain our customers. But our fundamental wireless objective today is to drive our overall customer relationships inside our physical assets using wireless and video and broadband and wireline and all new products to drive those customer relationships on the existing physical infrastructure.

嗯，就無線網路而言，我們目前還沒有在現有服務範圍之外提供服務的計劃。如您所知，我們本質上是一家區域性運營商，而無線公司都是全國性公司。我們與康卡斯特（Comcast）成立了合資企業，因此有兩家區域性公司在類似的平台上為全國提供無線服務。在我們業務覆蓋範圍內購買我們產品的客戶，即使搬離了我們的業務覆蓋範圍，仍然可以繼續成為我們的客戶。但我們今天無線業務的基本目標是利用無線、視訊、寬頻、有線以及所有新產品，在我們現有的實體基礎設施內推動我們整體的客戶關係。

Will we use third-party Spectrum? Of course. We are looking at CBRS. There are other opportunities to improve in specific locations in a cost-efficient way our ability to provide high-capacity mobile services to our customers. And we will, to the extent they develop for us, take advantage of them.

我們會使用第三方頻譜嗎？當然。我們正在研究CBRS。在特定地點，還有其他機會以經濟高效的方式提高我們向客戶提供高容量行動服務的能力。而且，在它們為我們發展壯大的情況下，我們將充分利用它們。

Our video strategy is really, today, to not look at video as a standalone business. There's still a lot of value in the bundle to a lot of consumers. The problem with the bundle of video today is that the content companies that supply it have essentially put their service for free, available everywhere through TV everywhere and excessive streams and password sharing and free over-the-air television, which can be received through antennas, all of which are unencrypted and essentially free. And it's hard to compete with free. We look at video as an attribute of our overall customer relationship. We want to have the best video services of all kinds available and make it easy for consumers to consume video on our product, but we don't look at it as a business -- as a standalone business. We look at it as an attribute of the connectivity relationship that we've established with the customer. And so we have gross margins in that business. And I don't think we want to go underwater from a gross margin perspective. But we look at that as a product enhancement to our connectivity, not as a standalone individual line of business.

如今，我們的視訊策略實際上是不把視訊視為一項獨立的業務。對許多消費者來說，這個套裝仍然很有價值。如今視訊捆綁包的問題在於，提供視訊內容的公司基本上已經將其服務免費提供給所有人，透過無處不在的電視、大量的串流媒體、密碼共享以及可以透過天線接收的免費無線電視，所有這些都未加密且基本上是免費的。而且，免費的東西很難競爭。我們將影片視為我們整體客戶關係的一個組成部分。我們希望提供各種最好的視頻服務，讓消費者能夠輕鬆地在我們的產品上觀看視頻，但我們並不把它看作一項獨立的業務。我們將其視為我們與客戶建立的連結關係的屬性。因此，我們在這個行業中實現了毛利率。而且我認為，從毛利率的角度來看，我們不想虧損。但我們認為這是對我們連線功能的增強，而不是一項獨立的業務線。

Your next question comes from the line of Jonathan Chaplin from New Street Research.

你的下一個問題來自新街研究公司的喬納森·查普林。

Two quick ones for Chris. Generally, Chris, you guys generate more broadband ads in the second half of the year than the first half of the year. I'm just wondering if there's any reason why that trend wouldn't continue this year. And then just curious following up, Tom, on your comment on profitability in video. The cash flow contribution from a wireless sub when you get to scale, how different is that from the cash flow contribution you get from a video sub today?

給克里斯兩個簡短的問題。克里斯，一般來說，你們下半年的寬頻廣告投放量比上半年要多。我只是想知道，今年這種趨勢是否有可能不延續。湯姆，我還想就你之前關於影片獲利能力的評論追問一下。當無線訂閱規模擴大後，其現金流貢獻與目前視訊訂閱的現金流量貢獻相比有多大區別？

The second one's an interesting question. The -- I don't think I'll answer that without going too deep. So broadband, you're right. Trends tend to be better the second half of the year than the first half. There's nothing going on that would change that normal seasonality. And for all the reasons that Tom spoke about earlier, and I did as well, all the operating metrics are moving in the right direction. And we expect that -- our target and our goal is to be accelerating customer and Internet relationship growth rate for the full year. And I think that implies also even doing pretty well in the second half as well. We'll see where we end up, but that's the goal.

第二個問題很有趣。——我覺得如果不深入探討，我無法回答這個問題。所以，寬頻，你說得對。通常來說，下半年的發展趨勢比上半年好。沒有任何事件會改變這種正常的季節性規律。正如湯姆之前提到的，也是我之前提到的，所有營運指標都在朝著正確的方向發展。我們預計－我們的目標是全年加快客戶和網路關係的成長率。我認為這也意味著下半年也能取得相當不錯的成績。我們拭目以待，看看最終結果如何，但這就是我們的目標。

Cash flow contribution from a wireless customer once we've reached scale. Yes, I think you have 2 opposing trends. You have -- when you think about cash flow contribution going all the way down to EBITDA and including the effects of CapEx, you're comparing a video business where the contribution margin is declining over time, its utility to Internet is not, but its cash flow on a standalone basis, which Tom just went through why, it's not the right way to look at it. But those lines will cross. At what point in time, I'm not going to get into exactly what our models would say, but I think your premise is generally right.

一旦達到規模，無線客戶就能貢獻現金流。是的，我認為有兩種相反的趨勢。當你考慮現金流貢獻直至 EBITDA 並包括資本支出的影響時，你實際上是在比較一個視頻業務，其貢獻毛利率隨著時間的推移而下降，它對互聯網的效用卻沒有下降，但就其獨立現金流而言（湯姆剛才已經解釋了原因），這不是正確的看待方式。但這些界限終究會交會。至於具體時間點，我不想深入探討我們的模型會給出什麼結論，但我認為你的前提大致上是正確的。

I would add that the mobile contribution as the networks converge, the opportunity to move that to a higher contribution exists. And the other aspect of the mobile contribution is its pull-through to the overall relationship and how significant that is. And so it's -- you have to look -- you can look at it as a standalone business with a margin contribution, but you can also look at it, as I just described, video, which is the product that you carry on a network that is ultimately an attribute of the network and drives your overall customer relationships.

我想補充一點，隨著網路融合，行動端的貢獻有機會提升到更高的水平。行動端貢獻的另一個面向是它對整體關係的影響以及這種影響的重要性。所以——你得看看——你可以把它看作一個獨立的業務，它能帶來利潤貢獻，但你也可以像我剛才描述的那樣，把它看作視頻，它是你在網絡上推廣的產品，最終是網絡的一個屬性，並推動著你的整體客戶關係。

Your next question comes from the line of 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。

Tom, I just wanted to follow up on something you said in your prepared remarks. Can you elaborate on your plans to upgrade to 3 gigahertz? I know you said you could, but you also alluded to, like, a whole new suite of products and services. So I guess what's the plan, time frame, cost and what are you -- what services?

湯姆，我只是想就你事先準備好的演講稿中提到的一些內容再補充一點。能否詳細說明昇級到 3 GHz 的方案？我知道你說過你可以，但你也暗示過會推出一整套全新的產品和服務。所以我想問的是，計劃是什麼？時間安排、費用是多少？你們提供哪些服務？

Yes. Well, I would say we just upgraded the network to 1 gig, and we did that for less than $10 per home passed. And so every home passed that we currently have, which is 51 million, has a 1 gig capable network sitting in front of it. And we think there's a significant amount of product development that can occur within that capacity that we're making available everywhere right now. And so we don't have any plans to immediately upgrade our network. And in fact, because we have the 1 gig everywhere, certain costs of network development have actually come out of the business because we have so much more capacity in the network, and what we call contention costs, the cost of continuously upgrading your network to make the volume of data go through it. And so capital intensity has come out of the business as a result of the last upgrade we did.

是的。嗯，可以說我們只是把網路升級到了 1 Gbps，而且每戶家庭的升級費用不到 10 美元。因此，我們目前擁有的每一戶家庭（共 5,100 萬戶）都配備了 1Gbps 的網路。我們認為，在這個範圍內可以進行大量的產品開發，而我們現在正在向世界各地提供這種能力。因此，我們目前沒有任何升級網路的計劃。事實上，由於我們到處都有 1 Gbps 的網絡，網絡開發的某些成本實際上已經從業務中消失了，因為我們的網絡容量大大增加，還有我們所說的爭用成本，也就是不斷升級網絡以處理大量數據的成本。因此，由於我們上次進行的升級改造，企業的資本密集度降低。

All I'm saying is that we have a relatively inexpensive pathway to future services, which are even hard to describe, but that can be very high capacity, very low latency, high compute -- distributed high compute. And we can make new products and services develop over time more efficiently than our competitors. And that is a great asset over the long term.

我只是想說，我們有一條相對便宜的途徑來實現未來的服務，這些服務甚至很難描述，但它們可以實現非常高的容量、非常低的延遲、高運算能力——分散式高運算能力。而且，我們能夠比競爭對手更有效率地開發新產品和服務。從長遠來看，這是一筆巨大的財富。

Your next question comes from the line of Philip Cusick from JPMorgan.

你的下一個問題來自摩根大通的菲利普‧庫西克。

Chris, you've expressed confidence in accelerating broadband growth in the back half and you've talked a lot about the sort of slow changes that are happening in the business. But I'm still having a hard time seeing what needs to change for that to happen versus the stable broadband adds from last year this quarter. And then second, as you -- and we've talked about this before, but as you think about pricing, can you get this business to double-digit broadband revenue growth without taking more price, especially as this -- as video trends weaken?

克里斯，你曾表示對下半年寬頻成長加速充滿信心，也多次談到該產業正在發生的緩慢變化。但我仍然很難看出，要實現這一點，需要做出哪些改變，才能與去年同期穩定的寬頻新增用戶數量相比有所改善。其次，正如您——我們之前也討論過這個問題——在考慮定價時，您能否在不提高價格的情況下，使這項業務的寬頻收入實現兩位數的增長，尤其是在視頻趨勢減弱的情況下？

Repeat the second question. Your question was double-digit broadband revenues.

重複第二個問題。你的問題是關於兩位數寬頻收入的。

Yes. So we get to a double-digit broadband revenue growth as video trends weaken. And is that sort of dragging broadband down with it?

是的。因此，隨著視訊趨勢減弱，寬頻收入實現了兩位數的成長。那會不會也拖累寬頻發展呢？

Yes. And let me start with the first question. I think pretty sure, whether it's at your conference or whether it was the last earnings call I mentioned, Q2 is a seasonal disconnect quarter. So trying to evaluate the success of a multiyear strategy based on a seasonal disconnect quarter, it's a little fraught. And we had a really good year-over-year in Q1. We expect accelerated customer relationship and Internet growth for the full year. I just commented, I think, the back half will be better. It's also true that during the first half of last year, even we were still working through a number of different integration issues, and it's also true that churn is coming down across every single type of churn, 3 major types of churn across 3 different companies or legacy platforms, so 9 different metrics of churn that are all going south in a good way. And so all you need to do is maintain or increase your sales to have -- to improve net adds. And given everything that we've been talking about in the business, while it's not guaranteed, we're pretty confident that, that's where we're heading. It's not -- it doesn't mean a single quarter. It means for a year, which I think is more important than a single quarter, that's where we're heading. And we're pretty confident.

是的。讓我先回答第一個問題。我覺得可以肯定，無論是在你的會議上，還是在我提到的上次財報電話會議上，第二季度都是一個季節性脫節的季度。因此，試圖根據季節性脫節季度來評估多年戰略的成功與否，是有點冒險的。我們第一季的業績年增率非常出色。我們預計全年客戶關係和互聯網業務將加速成長。我剛才評論說，我覺得後半部會更好。去年上半年，我們仍在努力解決各種不同的整合問題，而且所有類型的客戶流失率都在下降，3 家不同公司或傳統平台的 3 種主要類型的客戶流失率都在下降，因此 9 種不同的客戶流失指標都在朝著好的方向發展。因此，你只需要維持或提高銷售額，就能－提高淨增銷售額。鑑於我們一直在討論的業務內容，雖然不能保證一定是如此，但我們相當有信心，這就是我們前進的方向。不是的——它指的不是整個季度。這意味著在接下來的一年（我認為這比一個季度更重要），我們將朝著這個方向努力。我們相當有信心。

As it relates to double-digit broadband revenue growth, keep in mind that GAAP forces us to reallocate revenue across all these products. So I wouldn't spend too much time on a single product line looking at the revenue growth of that. What makes more -- the bigger difference is customer relationship growth and on the bill to the extent that we have a change in rate, either because of higher amount of single play that's coming through or because of some additional speed upticks, which we are getting a fair amount of that going into the 400 megabit service more than we probably expected, I think the broadband business has the ability and the potential to grow at a really healthy rate for a long period of time. Whether or not with GAAP allocations that are moving across voice back into broadband and video or not, I think it's going to be healthy for a long time, and I think that's where I'd leave it.

關於兩位數的寬頻收入成長，請記住，GAAP 要求我們在所有這些產品之間重新分配收入。所以我不會花太多時間關注單一產品線的收入成長。真正起作用的是客戶關係的成長，以及帳單上的變化，無論是由於單次服務量的增加，還是由於速度的提升（例如，400兆位元服務的用戶數量比我們預期的要多），我認為寬頻業務有能力和潛力在很長一段時間內保持非常健康的成長速度。無論 GAAP 分配是否從語音業務重新轉移到寬頻和視訊業務，我認為這種情況在很長一段時間內都會保持健康，我想就此打住。

Can I clarify that for a second? It sounds like if churn is down and units are flat year-over-year, then sales must be down as well.

我可以解釋一下嗎？聽起來，如果客戶流失率下降，銷量較去年同期持平，那麼銷售額也必然下降。

Yes. But if you go back to where...

是的。但如果你回到…

With more efficient sales, I would think margins would be better than they're showing if sales are down.

如果銷售效率更高，即使銷售額下降，我認為利潤率也會比現在顯示的更好。

Margins are up, what, 0.8% year-over-year in cable, and that's not a small move. And then -- so I don't know. I don't -- I think it's pretty healthy and attractive. And the -- what I mentioned in the prepared remarks is if you think about the -- and I disclosed it because I think it matters, the growth rates, if you take a look at Legacy Charter growing in the high 5s and Bright House growing at even 7.7% and TWC growing at 4.3%, 4.3% is a great growth rate, but it's not where we'd like to get it. And so to your point, the -- in the second quarter of having slightly lower sales that was occurring in the TWC footprint, and I don't think there's anything systemic there. We're just now hitting our stride, and I think we'll look at it throughout the year.

有線電視的利潤率年增了0.8%，這可不是個小幅度的成長。然後——所以我也不知道。我不這麼認為——我覺得這很健康也很有吸引力。我在準備好的發言稿中提到過，如果你仔細想想——我之所以透露這一點，是因為我認為這很重要——增長率，如果你看看 Legacy Charter 的增長率接近 5%，Bright House 的增長率甚至達到了 7.7%，而 TWC 的增長率為 4.3%，4.3% 的增長率固然很好，但這並不是我們希望達到很好的水平。所以，正如您所說，第二季度TWC業務範圍內的銷售額略有下降，我認為這其中並沒有什麼系統性問題。我們現在正步入正軌，我想我們會全年持續關注這個問題。

Your next question comes from the line of Brett Feldman from Goldman Sachs.

你的下一個問題來自高盛的布雷特·費爾德曼。

Yes, and just to follow up on that, I mean, is there an incremental color around the competitive backdrop within the Legacy Time Warner footprint that we need to be thinking more about? Or is it just normal ebbs and flows in the business because it would seem like with that being your biggest subsidiary, that's the biggest opportunity for a needle mover in terms of improved broadband trends? And then just a question on the billing cycle migration or standardization. You mentioned the working capital impact. Were there any other impacts, whether it was a subscriber trends or ARPUs or anything else we should adjust for as we work through our models?

是的，我再補充一點，我的意思是，在原時代華納的業務範圍內，競爭格局中是否存在一些需要我們更多考慮的細微變化？或者這只是業務中正常的起伏波動？因為作為你最大的子公司，它似乎是推動寬頻趨勢改善最大的機會？然後還有一個關於計費週期遷移或標準化的問題。您提到了營運資金的影響。還有其他影響因素嗎？例如用戶成長趨勢、每用戶平均收入或其他任何我們在完善模型時需要調整的因素？

So Brett, Tom. As -- I think that the performance of all of that assets, Bright House, Time Warner Cable and Charter should converge. And that's our expectation. And there's nothing that we see specific about the marketplace or the competitive environment that would prevent that. So we think that there are still execution issues that we can improve on as we consolidated the company and consolidated the call flow and workflow and sales flow, so that we get similar results across the platform. And that has taken us some time, but we're getting there. And we anticipate that we'll get to a kind of a converged output, which will be higher than what we have today.

所以，布雷特，湯姆。我認為，Bright House、時代華納有線電視和Charter這三家公司的業績應該會趨於一致。這就是我們的預期。我們目前沒有發現任何市場或競爭環境的具體因素會阻止這種情況發生。因此，我們認為在整合公司、整合呼叫流程、工作流程和銷售流程的過程中，仍存在一些執行方面的問題需要改進，以便在整個平台上獲得類似的結果。這花了一些時間，但我們正在取得進展。我們預計最終會達到一種趨於一致的產量，而且產量會高於我們目前的水平。

And on the billing standardization, Brett, really, it's a small change, but it just had a working capital impact. It actually has a meaningful impact on the number of billing calls that we expect to receive, so we expect a significant reduction. And then -- and as a result of having less service calls, improved churn over time. But there is no impact to ARPU. There's no impact to subs. And there's no financial impact other than the working capital and -- that I mentioned on the call. So net-net, a onetime change and should be for the long-term benefit of the company.

至於計費標準化，Brett，這確實是一個很小的變化，但它確實對營運資金產生了影響。它實際上對我們預計收到的計費電話數量產生了重大影響，因此我們預計會大幅減少。然後－由於服務電話減少，客戶流失率隨著時間的推移而降低。但對每用戶平均收入（ARPU）沒有影響。對替補球員沒有影響。除了營運資金之外，沒有其他財務影響——我在電話會議上提到過這一點。總而言之，這是一次性的改變，應該會對公司的長期發展有利。

Your next question comes from the line of Vijay Jayant from Evercore.

你的下一個問題來自 Evercore 的 Vijay Jayant 的一句話。

Mostly for probably Chris. So obviously, there's a lot of question about margins given the sub trends. So I just wanted to come back to a comment you made that in second quarter, there was a 1.5% negative growth impact from advertising to EBITDA. I didn't quite understand. So advertising had negative contribution. So I just want to understand that. And second, the other operating expenses, which normally grow by 5% was up more like 8% this quarter, and there are some property taxes and enterprise costs. Is that the new run rate? If you can help us with that.

主要可能是為了克里斯。顯然，考慮到各種細分趨勢，利潤率方面有許多問題需要探討。所以我想回應一下你之前提到的，第二季廣告對 EBITDA 產生了 1.5% 的負成長影響。我不太明白。因此，廣告產生了負面影響。所以我想弄明白這一點。其次，其他營運費用通常增加 5%，但本季增加了 8% 左右，此外還有一些房產稅和企業成本。這是新的運作率嗎？如果您能在這方面幫助我們，那就太好了。

Sure. So the 1.5% EBITDA impact from advertising, that's net of the cost related to political advertising. So we're in a nonpolitical year. And where you had political advertising last year, you don't this year. And it's just to say if you didn't have political advertising impacting the EBITDA margin for cable, it would have been 1.5% higher. The reason I provided that is I didn't want people to just flow through the revenue effects without taking into account that there is some cost attached to political advertising as well. So I think for this quarter, if we wanted to provide it, we'll probably do the same in Q3 and Q4 just so people can take a look at it on an apples-to-apples basis.

當然。因此，廣告帶來的 1.5% EBITDA 影響，已經扣除了與政治廣告相關的成本。所以今年是個非政治年。去年有政治廣告的地方，今年就沒有了。也就是說，如果沒有政治廣告影響有線電視的 EBITDA 利潤率，利潤率會高出 1.5%。我之所以這樣解釋，是因為我不想讓人們只關注收入影響而不考慮政治廣告也需要一定的成本。所以我覺得，如果本季我們想提供這項服務，我們可能也會在第三季和第四季做同樣的事情，這樣大家就可以在同等條件下進行比較。

And sorry, the second question was related to -- other expenses. Yes, oddly enough, some of that expense is actually being driven by our in-sourcing where property, casualty, I know this is in the weeds, but it's the truth. Property and casualty, insurance expense related to in-sourcing your labor force is flowing through us as opposed to contract labor. Now that we're towards the tail end of in-sourcing the labor force to the target levels, I think, over time, I'm not telling you Q3 or Q4, I'm telling you, looking out into next year beyond, my hope is that, that's not the new run rate.

抱歉，第二個問題與──其他費用有關。是的，奇怪的是，其中一些費用實際上是由我們的內部業務推動的，例如財產險、意外險等等。我知道這有點離題，但這就是事實。與內部勞動力相關的財產和意外保險費用將透過我們支付，而不是透過合約工支付。現在我們已經接近將勞動力內部化至目標水平的尾聲，我認為，隨著時間的推移——我不是說第三季度或第四季度，而是說展望明年及以後——我希望，這不會是新的運行速度。

Your next question comes from the line of Doug Mitchelson from Crédit Suisse.

你的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的道格·米切爾森。

Tom, I guess, if you look at what AT&T is trying to do in terms of bending the cost curve on programming cost. And obviously, you got Disney next week and Fox in the not-too-distant future, sort of at the end of the year, do you sort of think there's an opportunity for pay TV companies to get tougher with the programmers and -- or is that something -- or do you sort of see the other side of it and say, "You know what? Let's just keep raising the price of our video services enough, so that our dollar gross margin stays unchanged on a per customer basis?" And so programmers want to pursue price increases and basically price the product out of the business. That's okay because your sort of baseline here is you're a connectivity company. And they're not going to get those video services any cheaper outside piracy anyway. So any thought on just your video strategy around programming cost and how to manage it would be helpful.

湯姆，我想，如果你看看 AT&T 在降低節目製作成本方面所做的努力，你就會明白了。顯然，下週迪士尼就要來了，不久的將來，大概在年底，福斯也要來了。你認為付費電視公司是否有機會對節目製作商採取更強硬的立場？或者說，這是好事嗎？還是你看到了事情的另一面，然後說：「你知道嗎？我們是不是應該不斷提高視訊服務的價格，直到每個客戶的毛利率保持不變？於是，程式設計師就想辦法提高價格，最終讓產品因價格過高而失去市場。那也沒關係，因為你的基本定位就是網路連結公司。而且，除了盜版之外，他們也無法以更低的價格獲得這些影片服務。所以，如果您能就影片製作策略中有關節目製作成本以及如何控製成本方面提出一些想法，那就太好了。

Well, I feel strongly both ways, and there -- and I'm not really trying to be funny. I don't like raising the prices to our customers. Customers don't know what the value -- where that price increase is coming from. And they attribute it to us, and that affects our overall satisfaction. It affects our overall relationship and our brand equity, so to speak, with the customer. And so I think hitting rates and asking people to disconnect is not a very attractive way to manage the video business.

嗯，我對此兩種看法都很強烈，而且──我並不是真的想開玩笑。我不喜歡提高顧客的消費價格。顧客不知道產品的價值所在－價格上漲的原因是什麼。他們把責任歸咎於我們，這影響了我們的整體滿意度。它會影響我們與客戶的整體關係以及我們的品牌資產。所以我認為，透過提高收費標準來要求用戶斷開連接，並不是管理視訊業務的有效方法。

On the other hand, if you don't fight with programmers to maintain some sort of price integrity for your customer, you'll pass through a lot of product. So it's a balancing act from my point of view. What I really wish is that the price value of programming wasn't being destroyed by the programmers. And the reason I say that is if you do a 10% programming price increase and you lose 10% of your customers, you don't really get anywhere. And yet, you've alienated a lot of people. And in fact, that's actually happening and has been happening. The reason is price increases aren't able to go through. And if you look at the difference between where prices have gone and where revenues have gone, the content companies, they're not able to realize their price increases in their revenue line. And the reason is the product is available for free everywhere: over the air, TV everywhere, all sorts of excess streams being sold through virtual multichannel video providers and through TV everywhere. And there's absolutely no security on the product whatsoever. That changes the price-value relationship to customers and makes it impossible to raise prices and generate revenue. So my wish would be that the content industry would manage their content and their copyright to their own benefit, instead of pushing through price. And we still think that we have a lot of video customers, and they don't want to have price increases. And so I expect continuous fighting for the foreseeable future.

另一方面，如果你不與程式設計師抗爭，為客戶維護某種價格完整性，你就會損失很多產品。所以從我的角度來看，這是一種平衡之舉。我真正希望的是，程式設計的價值不要被程式設計師破壞掉。我這麼說的原因是，如果你將程式價格提高 10%，卻因此失去 10% 的客戶，那你其實什麼都得不到。然而，你卻疏遠了許多人。事實上，這種情況正在發生，而且一直都在發生。原因是價格上漲無法實現。如果你看看價格走勢和收入走勢之間的差異，你會發現內容公司無法​​在收入中實現價格上漲。原因在於該產品隨處可免費取得：透過無線廣播、電視等各種管道，以及透過虛擬多頻道視訊供應商和電視等管道銷售的各種剩餘串流媒體。本產品完全沒有任何安全保障。這改變了顧客對價格和價值的關係，使得漲價和增加收入成為不可能。所以我希望內容產業能夠為了自身利益而管理好內容和版權，而不是一味地壓低價格。我們仍然認為我們有很多視訊客戶，他們不希望價格上漲。因此，我預計在可預見的未來，戰鬥將持續不斷。

This might not be something you have at your fingertips, Tom, but you can see what people are doing on broadband. Is there any sort of quantification you can give us relative to piracy? Or are you sort of seeing in the traffic sort of obvious increases in piracy over time?

湯姆，這或許不是你能夠輕易取得的訊息，但你可以看到人們在寬頻上做什麼。您能否提供一些關於盜版的量化數據？或者，您是否從流量中觀察到盜版行為隨著時間的推移而顯著增加？

Yes. It's massive. And essentially, all the customers that are lost to video are still watching TV.

是的。它非常龐大。本質上，所有流失到視訊領域的客戶仍然在看電視。

Your next question comes from the line of Bryan Kraft from Deutsche Bank.

你的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的布萊恩‧克拉夫特。

I had 2. The first one is a free cash flow question. Chris, as we think about mobile CapEx next year, should we expect it to continue at this, call it, a little less than $100 million per quarter beyond this year? Or at some point, does it tail off as you complete your structure and retail footprint build-out? And then the other question I had is if you were to build out your own wireless network capacity over a licensed spectrum, would your existing MVNO agreement have to have been modified? In other words, does the MVNO agreement allow you to incorporate your own network capacity into the service model and have customers switching between Verizon's network and your own?

我有兩個問題。第一個問題是關於自由現金流的。克里斯，當我們考慮明年的行動領域資本支出時，我們是否應該預期它將繼續保持目前每季略低於 1 億美元的水平？或者，隨著建築結構和零售空間的逐步完善，這種情況會逐漸消失？我還有另一個問題，如果您要在授權頻譜上建立自己的無線網路容量，您現有的 MVNO 協定是否需要修改？換句話說，MVNO 協定是否允許您將自己的網路容量納入服務模式，並讓客戶在 Verizon 的網路和您自己的網路之間切換？

So mobile CapEx, actually, is a function primarily of the retail footprint upgrade. We won't need 100% done by the end of this year. So I think some of that will continue, at least, through the first half of next year. But it has a finite life attached to it, so that CapEx is going to be largely nonrecurring. There is some software development CapEx, which is elevated as you get into the business, and that should also come down. It won't -- that piece won't 100% disappear.

因此，行動資本支出實際上主要取決於零售佈局的升級。我們不需要在今年年底前完成100%的工作。所以我認為，至少在明年上半年，這種情況還會持續下去。但它的使用壽命有限，因此資本支出將主要為一次性支出。隨著業務的深入，軟體開發方面的資本支出會不斷增加，但這些支出也應該會下降。不會的──那塊碎片不會完全消失。

And as it relates to the MVNO, what we talked about, particularly on the last call, was Tom went through is we are testing aggressively what's called dual SIM. And that under our current MVNO would give us the ability in a high quality way to offload traffic that comes from any small cell build that we did using the CBRS or other unlicensed or licensed spectrum. That all looks really promising at this point. It would be ROI based to the extent that we were doing any of that small cell build in the home, in the business or on strand. And that would have an implication, positive ROI, but it would have an implication on some CapEx associated with that tying to your first question.

至於 MVNO，我們討論的內容，尤其是在上次通話中，湯姆提到我們正在積極測試所謂的雙 SIM 卡。而根據我們目前的 MVNO 模式，這將使我們能夠以高品質的方式卸載來自我們使用 CBRS 或其他免許可或許可頻譜構建的任何小型基地台的流量。目前看來，一切進展都非常順利。這取決於我們在家庭、企業或電網中建造小型基地台的程度，以及我們是否正在進行此類建設。這將帶來正向的投資報酬率，但也會對你的第一個問題相關的一些資本支出產生影響。

And the other thing, Bryan, I would add to that is 80% of all the bits in the wireless mobile platform are currently being carried on our WiFi network. And that's true, all of this of all the carriers. And so our -- I said last time, our average customers using over 250 gigs a month and if you look at our average customer who's on broadband only and who's still watching TV, all of the last discussion we just had, but they're watching it for free or they're paying for Netflix or some other service, and watching it for free, they are using over 450 gigs a month. And so the average cellular customer is using between 6 and 8. So you have this tremendous offload already occurring on our network, and we expect that churn to continue and we go -- and take advantage of it from an investment and cost of service perspective.

布萊恩，我還要補充一點，目前無線行動平台中 80% 的數據都是透過我們的 WiFi 網路傳輸的。沒錯，所有業者都是如此。所以，正如我上次所說，我們的平均客戶每月使用超過 250 GB 的流量，如果你看看我們僅使用寬頻且仍在看電視的平均客戶，就像我們剛才討論的那樣，無論他們是免費觀看還是付費觀看 Netflix 或其他服務，即使免費觀看，他們每月也會使用超過 450 GB 的流量。因此，普通手機用戶平均使用 6 到 8 個流量。所以我們的網路已經出現了龐大的流量卸載，我們預計這種流量流失會持續下去，我們將從投資和服務成本的角度來利用它。

Your next question comes from the line of Mike McCormack from Guggenheim Partners.

你的下一個問題來自古根漢合夥公司的麥克‧麥考馬克。

Maybe just a quick comment on the Stream product, what you're seeing there as far as the demographic just picking it up by presuming you might know the answer. And then maybe just frame how you think about that from a success-based standpoint. Like how successful is it so far? And then thinking about the plant. I know Tom, you've talked about the 1 gig ubiquitous product. When you get into the neighborhood, what's the real experience there if we need to think about the longer term and having all those subs guaranteed at 1 gig? What might be required from a CapEx standpoint to do that?

或許我想簡單談談 Stream 產品，你觀察到的使用者群體似乎只是因為覺得你可能知道答案而選擇它。然後，或許可以從成功的角度來思考這個問題。目前來看，它的成功程度如何？然後我開始思考那株植物。我知道湯姆，你之前也談到1G的普及型產品。當你進入這個社群時，如果我們需要考慮長遠發展，並且要保證所有訂閱用戶都能獲得 1 G 的服務，那麼那裡的真實體驗會是什麼樣的呢？從資本支出角度來看，要做到這一點可能需要哪些投入？

So the Stream issue, we are selling more Stream products proportionally to video products. That's cost driven for consumers. There are a lot of -- the price of the bundle is very expensive. And we talked about content companies trying to push rate buttons. And so there are a lot of customers who can't afford it, don't necessarily know how to go over-the-top and take it for free or wouldn't consider doing that. And so they're downgrading to Stream, both from existing packages and going there from -- on the increment. And it's really to save money. Most consumers would like to have it all. And so we are -- we're trying to smartly market Stream products to those consumers who are income constrained. And it's -- we're generally pretty good at targeting that, but it's not a perfect science. So there's a tension between our strategies and trying to sell full packages and to sell Stream at the same time to those who are income constrained. And we're just weighing the marketplace and trying to be responsive to consumers' video needs. So I don't know where it goes and I don't know where our contractual relationships will allow us to take it either.

所以就串流媒體產品而言，我們銷售的串流媒體產品與視訊產品的比例更高。對消費者而言，這是成本驅動因素。有很多——這個套裝價格非常昂貴。我們也討論了內容公司如何試圖推動價格上漲。因此，有很多顧客負擔不起，也不一定知道如何做到極致，免費獲得，或者根本不會考慮這樣做。因此，他們正在將現有套餐降級到 Stream，並且將從增量套餐升級到 Stream。其實就是為了省錢。大多數消費者都希望擁有一切。因此，我們正在努力——嘗試巧妙地向那些收入有限的消費者推銷 Stream 產品。而且──我們通常很擅長瞄準目標，但這並非一門完美的科學。因此，我們的策略有一種矛盾：一方面要銷售完整的套餐，另一方面要向收入有限的人銷售 Stream 服務。我們正在權衡市場情勢，努力滿足消費者的視訊需求。所以我不知道它會走向何方，也不知道我們的合約關係會允許我們把它帶到哪裡。

With regard to upgrading throughput in the plant, we have a lot of capacity in the plant already. And we don't expect material changes in our capital trends as a result of the growth of data throughput in a sort of a foreseeable future. We do think there's a long run opportunity to create new products that can't work in today's environment -- for relatively small capital investments. But if you look at the concurrent operating model, the current marketplace, we don't anticipate, even with the rate of data consumption increasing, that we're going to have any sort of outsized trend in capital required.

關於提升工廠產能的問題，我們工廠已經擁有很大的產能。我們預計，在可預見的未來，資料吞吐量的成長不會對我們的資本趨勢產生實質影響。我們認為，從長遠來看，存在著以相對較小的資本投入來創造在當今環境下無法運作的新產品的機會。但如果你觀察目前的營運模式和市場，即使數據消費速度加快，我們也不預期資本需求會出現任何異常大的趨勢。

Your last question comes from the line of Kannan Venkateshwar from Barclays.

你的最後一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Kannan Venkateshwar。

I guess one for Chris and one for Tom. So Chris, I guess, the programming expense on account of some of the new content that you're producing, some of the exclusives, I think they show up in the franchise fees line. And I think that number has been growing mid-single digits recently. So how long should we expect that line to be elevated in terms of content? And Tom, from your perspective, I think you've expressed an interest in potentially other cable assets if they do become available. So just wanted to get your updated thoughts on priorities relative to wireless. If there are opportunities that do come up, how you stack up those priorities?

我想一個給克里斯，一個給湯姆。所以克里斯，我想，由於你製作的一些新內容，一些獨家內容，所產生的節目製作費用，我認為都體現在特許經營費這一項目裡了。而且我認為，最近這個數字一直以個位數的幅度成長。那麼，我們該預期這種內容上的提升狀態會持續多久呢？湯姆，從你的角度來看，我認為你已經表達了對其他有線電視資產的潛在興趣，如果它們有機會出售的話。所以想了解一下您對無線網路相關優先事項的最新看法。如果機會出現，你會如何衡量這些機會的優先順序？

On a original content programming expense, if you take a look at, I think, what's in the Q as well as in the prepared remarks I had, it's the tiniest of all the drivers in that line. We're talking single-digit millions, and that's a function of the cost of production being amortized over the life of the asset, which is typical content industry accounting. So it's not a material driver inside of Q2 and it's not going to be significant in any way, particularly when you look at it as it relates to our programming. So very, very small. We just mentioned it because I think it's the third or fourth largest driver in that category.

就原創內容節目製作費用而言，我認為，如果你看一下問題以及我準備好的發言稿，你會發現它是該領域所有驅動因素中最小的一個。我們說的是數百萬美元，這是因為生產成本在資產的使用壽命內攤銷，這是內容行業典型的會計方法。因此，它不是第二季的實質驅動因素，也不會產生任何重大影響，尤其是在與我們的計劃相關的方面。非常非常小。我們之所以提到它，是因為我認為它是該類別中第三或第四大驅動因素。

And so to your second question about what's more important from an asset perspective if you're doing M&A, look, I think the cable business is a great business. And I think it's well positioned to be the connectivity infrastructure going forward. And it has cost opportunities that can't be easily replicated and, therefore, makes it a wonderful business that allows you to move massive capacity through it. And it's fully deployed. And I think there are scale advantages to having more cable. And so I would look at the cable asset as the most valuable asset. We don't have any need today to do any wireless M&A, and I don't know that I would do any if it were available. Obviously, it depends on what it cost. But the cable business is the predominant distribution vehicle for data, even in a mobile environment, because as you think about the future of mobile, the cells are very small. We already are a small cell provider through our WiFi platform. And as other small cell technologies become available, we have a fully distributed high-capacity, easy-to-upgrade, efficient to upgrade network pretty much everywhere on the streets and byways, and that gives -- makes the cable business a great business.

所以對於你的第二個問題，即從資產角度來看，如果你進行併購，什麼更重要，你看，我認為有線電視業務是一個很棒的業務。我認為它已做好充分準備，成為未來連接基礎設施的重要組成部分。它具有難以複製的成本優勢，因此，它是一項絕佳的業務，可以讓你透過它轉移大量的產能。而且已經全面部署。我認為增加電纜數量會帶來規模優勢。因此，我認為有線電視資產是最有價值的資產。我們目前沒有任何進行無線領域併購的必要，即使有機會，我也不確定自己是否會進行併購。顯然，這取決於價格。但即使在行動環境中，有線電視業務仍然是數據的主要分發管道，因為展望行動通訊的未來，蜂窩網路會變得非常小。我們已經透過我們的WiFi平台成為了一家小型基地台供應商。隨著其他小型蜂窩技術的出現，我們幾乎在街道和小路上都能擁有完全分佈式、高容量、易於升級、高效升級的網絡，這使得有線電視業務成為一項偉大的業務。

Thank you. Thanks, everyone, for being on the call today.

謝謝。謝謝大家今天參加電話會議。

This will conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線了。