Charter Communications Inc (CHTR) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to the Charter Communications second quarter investor call. (Operator Instructions) Also, as a reminder, this conference is being recorded today. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time.

您好，歡迎參加 Charter Communications 第二季投資人電話會議。（操作員指示）另外，提醒一下，今天正在錄製本次會議。如果您有任何異議，請立即斷開連接。

I'll now turn over the call to Stefan Anninger.

現在我將電話轉給 Stefan Anninger。

Thanks, operator, and welcome, everyone. the presentation that accompanies this call can be found on our website, ir.charter.com. I would like to remind you that there are a number of risk factors and other cautionary statements contained in our SEC filings, and we encourage you to read them carefully.

謝謝接線員，歡迎大家。本次電話會議的簡報可以在我們的網站 ir.charter.com 上找到。我想提醒您，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告聲明，我們鼓勵您仔細閱讀。

Various remarks that we make on this call concerning expectations, predictions, plans, and prospects constitute forward-looking statements, which 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.

我們在本次電話會議上就期望、預測、計畫和前景所作的各種評論均構成前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與歷史或預期結果不同。任何前瞻性陳述僅反映管理階層目前的觀點，Charter 不承擔修改或更新此類陳述的義務。

On today's call we have Chris Winfrey, our President and CEO, and Jessica Fischer, our CFO. With that, let's turn the call over to Chris.

今天的電話會議由我們的總裁兼執行長 Chris Winfrey 和財務長 Jessica Fischer 主持。說完這些，我們將電話轉給克里斯。

Thanks, Steffan. During the second quarter, we lost 149,000 Internet customers, most of which was driven by the end of the affordable connectivity program. We added over 550,000 Spectrum Mobile lines in close to 2.2 million lines year over year. Revenue was up slightly in the quarter, while adjusted EBITDA grew by 2.6%.

謝謝，史蒂芬。第二季度，我們失去了 149,000 名網路客戶，其中大部分是由於平價連線計畫的結束。我們年復一年地增加了超過 55 萬條 Spectrum Mobile 線路，總線路總數已接近 220 萬條。本季營收小幅成長，調整後 EBITDA 成長 2.6%。

We put a lot of effort into the ACP program and it wasn't renewed. Beginning early this year, we've been actively working with customers to preserve their connectivity. Our service and retention teams are handling the volume of calls well, and we've retained the vast majority of ACP customers so far. The real question is customers' ability to pay not just now, but over time. I expect we'll have a better view of the total ACP impact once we're inside the fourth quarter. The lack of ACP will also drive higher levels of market churn and selling opportunities for connectivity services over time.

我們為 ACP 計劃投入了大量精力，但該計劃並未續簽。從今年年初開始，我們就一直積極與客戶合作，以維護他們的連結。我們的服務和保留團隊很好地處理了大量的呼叫，到目前為止我們已經保留了絕大多數 ACP 客戶。真正的問題是客戶不僅現在有支付能力，而且將來也有支付能力。我預計，進入第四季後，我們將對 ACP 的整體影響有更好的了解。隨著時間的推移，ACP 的缺乏也將導致市場流失率上升，並減少連接服務的銷售機會。

Turning back to today's results. The second quarter already tends to be a seasonally weak quarter. Loss of ACP impacted both churn and low income broadband connects, helping drive the mobile-only broadband category back to pre-pandemic levels. That shift added to an already low level of move activity and overall market connect volume. That said, we performed better than our expectations for Internet in the quarter and we competed well compared to previous quarters against both wireline overbuilds and cellphone Internets each with expanded footprints.

回顧今天的結果。第二季已經趨向季節性疲軟時期。ACP 的損失對客戶流失和低收入寬頻連線都產生了影響，有助於將純行動寬頻類別推回到疫情前的水平。這種轉變進一步加劇了原本就很低的行動活動和整體市場連結量。儘管如此，我們本季的網路表現優於預期，與前幾季相比，我們在與有線過度建設和手機網路的競爭中表現出色，各自的覆蓋範圍都有所擴大。

Overall churn remains at low levels, even with the end of the ACP program, and we remain confident in our ability to return to healthy, long-term growth. Our Internet product is faster and more reliable. Our pricing is lower when similarly bundled with mobile. We expect market activity and selling opportunities to pick up over time, and the cellphone companies will face challenges as the customer bandwidth demands continue to grow.

即使 ACP 計劃已經結束，整體客戶流失率仍然處於較低水平，我們仍然對恢復健康的長期成長的能力充滿信心。我們的網路產品更快、更可靠。當與行動裝置捆綁銷售時，我們的定價會更低。我們預計市場活動和銷售機會將隨著時間的推移而增加，隨著客戶頻寬需求的不斷增長，手機公司將面臨挑戰。

If we take a step back, our success will be premised on our high capacity fully deployed network and the products that can deliver. We already have a 1 gigabit network everywhere we operate across 58 million passings. And when our network evolution initiatives complete, we'll have a ubiquitous, symmetrical, multi-gig capable network, supporting continued growth in data demand from customers and new applications such as AR, VR, and AI, all at an incremental investment of just $100 per passing.

如果我們退一步來說，我們的成功將取決於我們高容量的全面部署的網路和能夠交付的產品。我們營運的所有地方都已擁有 1 千兆網絡，服務乘客達 5,800 萬人。當我們的網路演進計畫完成後，我們將擁有一個無所不在、對稱、支援多千兆的網絡，支援客戶資料需求的持續成長以及 AR、VR 和 AI 等新應用，而所有這些都只需增加投資每次通過收費100 美元。

Those wireline network capabilities are combined with mobile capabilities everywhere we operate, creating the nation's first converged network, uniquely providing seamless connectivity and the fastest mobile service where 87% of traffic is delivered by our own gigabit capable WiFi network. And our converged connectivity product set is poised to get better through speed upgrades and over 43 million access points, which will grow with our own and our partners' ongoing WiFi router and CBRS access point deployment. That converged network is also expanding covering more passings as we grow our footprint with high ROI construction opportunities in both rural and non-rural areas.

這些有線網絡功能與我們營運所在地的行動功能相結合，打造了全國第一個融合網絡，以獨特的方式提供無縫連接和最快的行動服務，其中87％ 的流量由我們自己的千兆WiFi網路傳輸。我們的融合連接產品組合將透過速度升級和超過 4,300 萬個存取點變得更好，並且隨著我們自己和合作夥伴的持續 WiFi 路由器和 CBRS 存取點部署而成長。隨著我們透過農村和非農村地區的高投資回報率建設機會擴大我們的業務範圍，融合網路也在不斷擴大，覆蓋範圍也正在擴大。

As we show on slide 4 of today's investor presentation, we are very well positioned competitively with higher quality products, lower pricing, and the ability to deliver a converged bundle of products. In Internet, data usage continues to grow and demand for faster speeds will grow with it. During the second quarter, roughly 30% of residential Internet customers who do not buy traditional video from us, used over 1 terabyte of data per month, which together with overall usage is increasing. This quarter, we saw the most additions to our gig speed tier ever, an area we can grow.

正如我們在今天的投資者簡報第 4 張幻燈片中所展示的那樣，我們憑藉更高品質的產品、更低的價格以及提供融合產品包的能力，在競爭中佔據了非常有利的地位。在網路中，數據使用量持續成長，對更快速度的需求也將隨之成長。第二季度，大約 30% 未向我們購買傳統影片的住宅網路客戶每月使用的資料超過 1TB，而且整體使用量也在增加。本季度，我們的千兆速度層級出現了有史以來最多的新增，這是我們可以成長的領域。

Our mobile offering continues to evolve driving strong results. Our second quarter mobile line net add performance was better than the first quarter results, even without the incremental benefit of our free mobile retention offer to former ACP customers, and we also had our highest [port ends] quarter ever.

我們的行動產品持續發展並取得強勁業績。即使沒有向前 ACP 客戶提供免費行動保留服務的增量收益，我們第二季度的行動線路淨增加業績也好於第一季度的業績，並且我們創下了有史以來最高的[端口結束]季度。

In April, we began offering Anytime Upgrade to new and existing Unlimited Plus customers. Anytime Upgrade allows Unlimited Plus customers to upgrade their phones whenever they want eliminating traditional wait times, upgrade fees, and condition requirements. And during the second quarter, customers increasingly chose our Unlimited Plus package priced at $40 versus $30.

從四月起，我們開始向新的和現有的 Unlimited Plus 客戶提供隨時升級 (Anytime Upgrade) 服務。隨時升級 (Anytime Upgrade) 讓 Unlimited Plus 客戶隨時升級他們的手機，無需傳統的等待時間、升級費用和條件要求。在第二季度，越來越多的客戶選擇我們的 Unlimited Plus 套餐，價格為 40 美元，而不是 30 美元。

In April, we also launched a new repair-and-replacement plan for just $5 per month. That price point is very competitive and driving higher take rates. These new affordable value added services, enhance our profitable growth and competitively open access to new customer segments. Along those lines in May, we launched our new phone balance buyout program. Now when a customer switches to the Spectrum Mobile from another provider and purchases at least three lines, we'll pay off their existing phone balance on ported lines up to $2,500 for five lines. This new program helps multi-line mobile customer prospects with device balances and other providers to more easily switch to Spectrum Mobile.

今年 4 月，我們還推出了一項新的維修和更換計劃，每月只需 5 美元。這個價格非常有競爭力，並且推動了更高的接受率。這些新的、價格合理的增值服務增強了我們的獲利成長，並在新的客戶群中具有競爭力。為此，我們在五月推出了新的手機餘額買斷計畫。現在，當客戶從其他供應商前往 Spectrum Mobile 併購買至少三條線路時，我們將支付其現有移植線路的電話餘額，五條線路最高支付 2,500 美元。這項新計畫可以幫助擁有設備餘額和其他供應商的多線行動客戶潛在客戶更輕鬆地切換到Spectrum Mobile。

And of course, Spectrum One continues to perform well at both connect and at promotional roll-off, offering the fastest connectivity with differentiated features. Today, approximately 8% of our total passings take our converged offering of Internet and mobile. We remain underpenetrated despite having a differentiated and superior offering with market-leading pricing at promotion and at retail.

當然，Spectrum One 在連接和促銷方面繼續表現出色，提供最快的連接和差異化的功能。如今，我們約有 8% 的總客流量是透過我們融合網路和行動服務所獲得的。儘管我們在促銷和零售方面擁有差異化、優質的產品以及市場領先的定價，但我們的滲透率仍然較低。

Finally, turning to video, losses continued in video where we have seen downgrade churn from programmer rate increases we pass through. The loss of ACP in the second quarter also impacted video downgrades as customers make choices based on affordability. Over the last several years due to margin pressure from programming increases, we've moved away from selling bundles with traditional discounts.

最後，談到視頻，視頻業務的虧損仍在繼續，我們看到，由於程式設計師費率上漲，視頻業務的降級流失也隨之增加。由於客戶會根據經濟承受能力做出選擇，因此第二季 ACP 的損失也影響了影片降級。過去幾年來，由於節目製作增加帶來的利潤壓力，我們不再以傳統的折扣方式銷售捆綁節目。

But as we look to better differentiate ourselves in a competitive marketplace, we are considering ways to better leverage our unique capabilities across our full set of products, including video, particularly now that we're adding significant value back into the video product for consumers with hybrid linear DTC bundles, more economical package choices, and with our Xumo Box.

但當我們尋求在競爭激烈的市場中脫穎而出時，我們正在考慮如何更好地利用我們全套產品（包括視頻）的獨特功能，特別是現在我們正在為視頻產品增加顯著的價值，以便為消費者提供混合線性 DTC 捆綁、更經濟的封裝選擇以及我們的 Xumo Box。

In May, we reached a new agreement with Paramount that gives us the ability to offer the ad-supported versions of Paramount's direct to consumer services, Paramount Plus and BET Plus to our traditional cable package customers at no additional costs. We plan to launch the Paramount DTC inclusion offer to our customers around Labor Day.

五月份，我們與派拉蒙達成了一項新協議，該協議使我們能夠免費向傳統有線電視套餐客戶提供派拉蒙直接面向消費者的服務、Paramount Plus 和 BET Plus 的廣告支援版本。我們計劃在勞動節前後向客戶推出派拉蒙 DTC 包容性優惠。

Earlier this month, ViX, the leading Spanish language DTC product from TelevisaUnision became available to a large number of customers with eligible Spectrum video packages at no extra cost. We launched Disney Plus basic to TV Select customers as a DTC inclusion in January. And we'll begin to offer Disney Plus premium, the ad-free version of Disney Plus to customers as a $6 upgrade later this quarter.

本月初，TelevisaUnision 旗下領先的西班牙語 DTC 產品 V​​iX 開始向大量擁有符合條件的 Spectrum 視訊套件的客戶免費提供。我們於一月向 TV Select 客戶推出了 Disney Plus 基本版，作為 DTC 內容。我們將在本季稍後開始向客戶提供 Disney Plus Premium（無廣告版本 Disney Plus），升級費用為 6 美元。

We also plan to offer Hulu to our TV Select customers at the incremental retail price for Disney's Duo Basic Bundle $2 in the fourth quarter. So our efforts to deploy new hybrid DTC linear model first for the industry remain on track, and we expect it to be fully deployed next year. Together with Xumo, our goal is to deliver utility and value for our customers, irrespective of how they want to view content, and better and more stable economics for programming partners.

我們還計劃在第四季度以迪士尼 Duo Basic Bundle 2 美元的增量零售價向我們的 TV Select 客戶提供 Hulu。因此，我們為業界首先部署新型混合 DTC 線性模型的努力仍在進行中，預計明年將全面部署。與 Xumo 一起，我們的目標是為客戶提供實用性和價值（無論他們希望如何查看內容），並為節目合作夥伴提供更好、更穩定的經濟效益。

But the associated DTCs have to be part of the full package service. Customers can't be forced to pay twice. And if the DTC standalone pricing is less expensive at retail, than that's what we really should help programmers sell instead. Fundamentally, we believe that evolving the video business, even if it isn't growing helps customer acquisition and retention, still has positive cash flow, and provides us with option value. And over time, we believe a high-quality video product gives us the opportunity to reintroduce more value into the converged connectivity relationship.

但相關的 DTC 必須是全套服務的一部分。不能強迫顧客支付兩次費用。如果 DTC 獨立定價在零售端更便宜，那麼我們真的應該幫助程式設計師銷售它。從根本上來說，我們相信，即使視訊業務沒有成長，它也有助於吸引和留住客戶，仍然能帶來正的現金流，並為我們提供選擇權價值。隨著時間的推移，我們相信高品質的視訊產品將使我們有機會在融合連接關係中重新引入更多價值。

So stepping back, we're executing well on many multi-year transformational programs. We're growing EBITDA despite the loss of ACP and a competitive cycle by driving efficiency without impacting our service and sales capabilities. We remain fully focused on driving growth using our unique set of scaled assets and the highest quality products and services in order to create long-term value for shareholders.

回顧一下，我們許多多年的轉型計畫都執行得很好。儘管失去了 ACP 和競爭週期，但我們在不影響服務和銷售能力的情況下提高效率，從而實現了 EBITDA 成長。我們將繼續全心全意地利用我們獨特的規模資產和最高品質的產品和服務來推動成長，從而為股東創造長期價值。

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

說完這些，我現在將電話轉給傑西卡。

Thanks, Chris. And let's turn to our customer results on slide 6. including residential and SMB. We lost 149,000 Internet customers in the second quarter. While in mobile, we added 557,000 mobile lines. Video customers declined by 408,000 and wireline voice customers declined by 280,000. As Chris mentioned, our second quarter Internet losses were primarily driven by the end of the ACP program. ACP program connects ended in early February. In May, the program's original $30 subsidy was reduced to $14. And in June, that subsidy was reduced to zero.

謝謝，克里斯。讓我們來看看投影片 6 上的客戶結果，包括住宅和 SMB。我們在第二季度失去了149,000名網路客戶。在行動領域，我們新增了55.7萬條行動線路。視訊客戶減少40.8萬戶，有線語音客戶減少28萬戶。正如克里斯所提到的，我們第二季的網路損失主要是由於 ACP 計劃的結束。ACP 計劃連線於二月初結束。五月份，該計畫原來的30美元補助減少到14美元。今年6月，這項補貼降至零。

We estimate that the end of the program's impact on our second quarter Internet gross additions and churn drove over 100,000 of our 149,000 Internet losses in the quarter. And from a financial perspective, there was an approximately $30 million headwind to second quarter revenue from onetime nonrecurring ACP related items in the quarter.

我們估計，該計劃的結束對我們第二季度互聯網總新增用戶和流失用戶的影響導致本季度互聯網用戶損失超過 10 萬，而本季度互聯網用戶損失為 149,000 名。從財務角度來看，第二季一次性非經常性 ACP 相關專案為收入帶來了約 3,000 萬美元的阻力。

In addition, similar to the end of the Keep Americans Connected program in June 2020, many of our ACP customers had past-due balances that had been fully reserved for accounting purposes. We took steps to eliminate a portion of those back balances for certain customers and put a portion of the remaining balances on payment plans. For certain customers with a low likelihood to pay post-ACP, we have been recognizing revenue on a cash basis, resulting in slightly less revenue and less bad debt in the second quarter than we would have otherwise had.

此外，與 2020 年 6 月「保持美國人聯繫」計畫結束的情況類似，我們的許多 ACP 客戶都有逾期餘額，這些餘額已完全保留用於會計目的。我們採取措施，消除某些客戶的部分欠款，並將部分剩餘餘額納入付款計畫。對於某些在 ACP 後付款可能性較低的客戶，我們一直以現金方式確認收入，因此第二季的收入和壞帳比原本會略有減少。

So far we're performing well with ACP retention, but the largest driver of Internet customer losses associated with the end of the ACP program will be in nonpay disconnects. And they will occur in the third and fourth quarters likely weighted to the third. We continue to do everything we can to preserve connectivity for former ACP subsidy recipients. We have a number of products and offers to assist those that have lost their ACP subsidy, including our Spectrum Internet Assist program, our Internet 100 product, and we've been offering all of our ACP customers, a free mobile line for one year. And we continue to market offers targeted at low income customers, a segment that we have historically served well.

到目前為止，我們在 ACP 保留方面表現良好，但 ACP 計劃終止後導致網路客戶流失的最大原因將是未付費斷線。這些變化將發生在第三和第四季度，並且很可能集中在第三季度。我們將繼續竭盡全力為前非加太集團補貼接受者保留連通性。我們有多種產品和優惠來幫助那些失去 ACP 補貼的人，包括我們的 Spectrum Internet Assist 計劃、我們的 Internet 100 產品，而且我們還為所有 ACP 客戶提供為期一年的免費行動線路。我們將繼續針對低收入客戶提供行銷服務，而這群人過去一直是我們的優質服務對象。

Turning to rural we ended the quarter with 582,000 subsidized rural passing. We grew those passings by 89,000 in the second quarter and by 345,000 over the last 12 months. We had 36,000 net customer additions in our subsidized rural footprint in the quarter. We continue to expect to activate approximately 450,000 new subsidized rural passings in 2024, about 50% more than in 2023. We also continue to expect our RDOF build to be completed by the end of 2026, two years ahead of schedule.

談到農村，我們在本季結束時的農村補貼通行量為 582,000。第二季度，死亡人數增加了 89,000 人，過去 12 個月，死亡人數增加了 345,000 人。本季度，我們在補貼的農村地區淨增加了 36,000 名客戶。我們預計，2024 年將新增約 45 萬名農村補貼申請人，比 2023 年增加約 50%。我們也預計我們的 RDOF 建設將於 2026 年底完成，比計劃提前兩年。

Moving to second quarter financial results, starting on slide 7. Over the last year, residential customers declined by 1.3%. Residential revenue per customer relationship grew by 0.4% year over year, given promotional rate step-ups, rate adjustments, and the growth of Spectrum Mobile, partly offset by a higher mix of non-video customers, growth of lower-priced video packages within our base, and some Internet ARPU compression related to retention offers extended to customers that previously received an ACP subsidy.

轉到第二季的財務業績，從第 7 頁開始。去年，住宅用戶數量下降了 1.3%。由於促銷費率上調、費率調整和 Spectrum Mobile 的增長，每客戶關係住宅收入同比增長 0.4%，但非視頻客戶比例增加、低價視頻套餐增長等因素部分抵消了這一增長。以及與向先前收到ACP 補助的客戶提供保留優惠相關的一些網路ARPU 壓縮。

As slide 7 shows in total, residential revenue declined by 0.6% year over year. Turning to commercial, SMB, revenue grew by 0.6% year over year, reflecting SMB customer growth of 0.2% year over year and higher monthly SMB revenue per SMB customer, primarily due to rate adjustments. Enterprise revenue grew 4.5% year over year, driven by Internet -- enterprise PSU growth of 6.1% year over year. And when excluding all wholesale revenue, enterprise grew by 5.9%.

如第 7 張投影片所示，住宅收入年減了 0.6%。轉向商業，中小企業收入同比增長 0.6%，反映出中小企業客戶同比增長 0.2% 以及每個中小企業客戶每月中小企業收入增加，這主要歸因於費率調整。企業營收年增 4.5%，主要得益於網路企業 PSU 年增 6.1%。而若除去所有批發收入，企業則成長了5.9%。

Second quarter. Advertising revenue grew by 3.3% year over year, given political revenue growth. Core ad revenue was down about 2% year over year. Other revenue grew by 6% year over year, primarily driven by higher mobile device sales. And in total, consolidated second quarter revenue was up 0.2% year over year and 0.1% year over year when excluding advertising revenue.

第二季。由於政治收入的成長，廣告收入較去年同期成長3.3%。核心廣告收入較去年同期下降約2%。其他收入較去年同期成長 6%，主要得益於行動裝置銷量的成長。整體而言，第二季綜合營收年增 0.2%，若不包括廣告收入則較去年同期成長 0.1%。

Moving to operating expenses and adjusted EBITDA on slide 8. In the second quarter, total operating expenses declined by 1.4% year over year. Programming costs declined by 9.8% year over year due to a 9.5% decline in video customers year over year and a higher mix of lighter video packages, partly offset by higher programming rates.

前往第 8 頁的營業費用和調整後的 EBITDA。第二季度，總營業費用較去年同期下降1.4%。節目製作成本較去年同期下降 9.8%，原因是視訊客戶數量年減 9.5%，且輕量級視訊套餐數量較多，但節目製作費率上升部分抵消了這一影響。

Other cost of revenue increased by 12.6%, primarily driven by mobile service, direct costs and higher mobile device sales. Cost to service customers declined 4.2% year over year, given productivity from our 10-year investments, including lower labor costs and lower bad debt expense as we saw some favorability in our mobile bad debt as a portion of revenue due to an improved customer tenure and credit profile and as I mentioned earlier, a portion of our uncollectible billings offset revenue in the quarter. Sales and marketing costs grew by 1.9% as we remain focused on driving customer acquisition. Finally, other expense grew by 4.7%, mostly driven by an insurance expense benefit from the prior year quarter.

其他收入成本增加了 12.6%，主要原因是行動服務、直接成本和行動裝置銷售額增加。服務客戶成本年減4.2%，這得益於我們10 年投資帶來的生產力提升，包括勞動成本降低和壞帳費用降低，因為由於客戶使用期限延長，我們看到行動壞帳在收入中所佔比例有所改善和信用狀況，正如我之前提到的，我們的部分無法收回的帳單抵消了本季的收入。由於我們仍然專注於推動客戶獲取，銷售和行銷成本成長了 1.9%。最後，其他費用增加了 4.7%，主要受去年同期保險費用收益的影響。

Adjusted EBITDA grew by 2.6% year over year in the quarter and when excluding advertising, EBITDA grew by 2.4% year over year. While we don't manage the business at a single product line P&L level, we continue to compute allocations internally. And this quarter for the first time, our standalone mobile adjusted EBITDA was positive even when including the headwind of subscriber acquisition costs and without the benefit of GAAP revenue allocation to mobile revenue.

本季調整後 EBITDA 年成長 2.6%，若不包括廣告，EBITDA 較去年同期成長 2.4%。雖然我們不以單一產品線損益層面管理業務，但我們會繼續在內部運算分配。本季度，即使考慮到用戶獲取成本的不利影響，且沒有 GAAP 收入分配給行動收入的好處，我們的獨立行動調整後 EBITDA 首次為正值。

Our mobile profitability this quarter marks a significant milestone. It shows that we're on the path to establishing a mobile business that is very profitable. Overall, our goal is to deliver solid EBITDA growth and we believe we can continue to do that even as we make significant investments in the business and face a challenging competitive environment and the end of the ACP program. Our expense management processes working with growing realization of impacts in the second quarter. We continue to expect accelerating EBITDA growth in the back half of the year, given our expense management initiatives Spectrum One promotional roll-off and political advertising revenue.

本季我們的行動獲利能力標誌著一個重要的里程碑。這表明我們正在建立一條非常有利可圖的行動業務之路。總體而言，我們的目標是實現穩健的 EBITDA 成長，我們相信，即使我們對業務進行了大量投資並面臨充滿挑戰的競爭環境和 ACP 計劃的結束，我們仍能繼續實現這一目標。我們的費用管理流程在第二季逐漸顯現影響。考慮到我們的費用管理計劃 Spectrum One 促銷活動和政治廣告收入，我們繼續預計今年下半年 EBITDA 成長將加速。

Turning to net income on slide 9, we generated $1.2 billion of net income attributable to Charter shareholders in the second quarter in line with last year as higher adjusted EBITDA was mostly offset by higher other operating expense, primarily due to restructuring and severance costs and net amounts of litigation settlement.

談到第9 頁的淨收入，我們在第二季度產生了12 億美元的歸屬於Charter 股東的淨收入，與去年同期持平，因為更高的調整後EBITDA 大部分被更高的其他營運費用所抵消，這主要是由於重組和遣散費用以及淨訴訟和解金額。

Turning to slide 10. Capital expenditures totaled $2.85 billion in the second quarter, in line with last year's second quarter spend. Line extension spend totaled $1.1 billion, $37 million higher than last year, driven by our subsidized rural construction initiative and continued network expansion across residential and commercial greenfields and market selling opportunities.

翻到第 10 張投影片。第二季的資本支出總計 28.5 億美元，與去年第二季的支出持平。線路延伸支出總計 11 億美元，比去年高出 3,700 萬美元，這得益於我們補貼的農村建設計劃以及住宅和商業綠地和市場銷售機會的持續網絡擴張。

Second quarter capital expenditures excluding line extensions, totaled $1.7 billion, which was similar to the prior year period. For the full year 2024, we now expect capital expenditures to total approximately $12 billion, down from between $12.2 billion and $12.4 billion previously. Our reduced outlook for 2024 capital spending reflects lower Internet and video customer net additions, including the impact of the end of the ACP program, which drives lower CPE costs.

第二季不包括產品線延伸的資本支出總計 17 億美元，與去年同期持平。我們目前預計 2024 年全年資本支出總額約為 120 億美元，低於先前的 122 億美元至 124 億美元。我們下調了對 2024 年資本支出的預期，這反映了互聯網和視訊客戶淨增量的減少，包括 ACP 計劃結束的影響，這導致 CPE 成本下降。

We're also actively managing vendor rates and construction materials to make our capital expenditures more efficient. We still expect line extension spend of approximately $4.5 billion and network evolution spend of approximately $1.6 billion.

我們也積極管理供應商價格和建築材料，以提高我們的資本支出效率。我們仍預期線路延伸支出約 45 億美元，網路演進支出約 16 億美元。

Turning to free cash flow on slide 11. Free cash flow in the second quarter totaled $1.3 billion, an increase of approximately $630 million compared to last year's second quarter. The year-over-year increase was primarily driven by higher adjusted EBITDA, lower cash taxes due to timing, and a favorable change in working capital. On that front, we've been managing the balance sheet to provide us better overall cash flow and increased flexibility.

轉向第 11 張投影片上的自由現金流。第二季自由現金流總計13億美元，較去年第二季增加約6.3億美元。年比成長主要得益於調整後 EBITDA 的提高、時間因素導致的現金稅的降低以及營運資本的有利變化。在這方面，我們一直在管理資產負債表，以便為我們提供更好的整體現金流量和更大的靈活性。

Over the last several quarters, we sold our towers portfolio, which generated almost $400 million in proceeds. We launched our EIP securitization program in the second quarter, which backs a new $1.25 billion credit facility at favorable interest rates. And we've been working with our vendor base to extend our payment terms, utilizing a supply chain financing tool to support our working capital favorability. We will continue to identify and capitalize on balance sheet opportunities to help fund our unique onetime capital investments.

在過去幾個季度中，我們出售了我們的塔樓投資組合，獲得了近 4 億美元的收益。我們在第二季啟動了 EIP 證券化計劃，該計劃以優惠利率支持了 12.5 億美元的新信貸額度。我們一直在與供應商合作，延長付款期限，並利用供應鏈融資工具來支持我們的營運資金優勢。我們將繼續尋找並利用資產負債表機會來為我們獨特的一次性資本投資提供資金。

We finished the quarter with $96.5 billion in debt principal. Our current run rate annualized cash interest is $5.1 billion, and we repurchased $1.5 million Charter shares and Charter Holdings common units totaling $404 million at an average price of $271 per share. Given our long-dated and 86% fixed rate debt structure, our sensitivity to higher rates is relatively low. If we refinanced all of our debt due in 2025 and 2026 at current rates, the impact to our run rate interest expense would be less than $60 million.

本季結束時，我們的債務本金為 965 億美元。我們目前的營運率年化現金利息為 51 億美元，我們以每股 271 美元的平均價格回購了 150 萬美元的 Charter 股票和 Charter Holdings 普通股，總額為 4.04 億美元。鑑於我們的長期和86％固定利率債務結構，我們對較高利率的敏感度相對較低。如果我們以當前利率對 2025 年和 2026 年到期的所有債務進行再融資，對我們的運行利率利息支出的影響將不到 6,000 萬美元。

As of the end of the second quarter, our ratio of net debt to last 12 months adjusted EBITDA moved down to 4.32 times. We expect to continue to move closer to the middle of our 4 to 4.5 times target leverage range through the end of this year. And we remain fully committed to maintaining our split rated debt structure, including access to the investment-grade market given the significant benefits that it offers to all of our capital providers.

截至第二季末，我們的淨負債與過去 12 個月調整後 EBITDA 的比率下降至 4.32 倍。我們預計，到今年年底，槓桿率將繼續接近 4 至 4.5 倍的目標槓桿範圍的中間值。我們仍然完全致力於維持我們的分割評級債務結構，包括進入投資等級市場，因為它為我們所有的資本提供者提供了巨大的利益。

We continue to be confident in the long-term trajectory of the business. We have the best products at the best prices in our industry, and we remain underpenetrated relative to our long-term potential. That, combined with the investments that we're making in the business and our expense savings initiative, will continue to drive strong EBITDA growth and value creation for many years to come.

我們仍然對業務的長期發展充滿信心。我們擁有業界最優質、價格最優惠的產品，但相對於我們的長期潛力，我們的滲透率仍較低。結合我們在業務上的投資和費用節約計劃，這將在未來許多年繼續推動強勁的 EBITDA 成長和價值創造。

And with that, I'll turn it over to the operator for Q&A.

現在，我將把時間交給接線員進行問答。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指令）

Craig Moffett, MoffettNathanson.

克雷格·莫菲特（Craig Moffett），莫菲特·納森森（MoffettNathanson）。

Thank you and perhaps no surprise, I'd like to drill down a little bit more on the ACP impacts. A couple of questions. First, to what extent are you seeing ACP showing up in reduced gross additions. That is just lower market activity because new customers can't sign up for or ACP customers who are moving can't continue to sign up for the program even before they -- you start to see non-pay disconnects?

謝謝，也許這並不奇怪，我想更深入地探討 ACP 的影響。幾個問題。首先，您在多大程度上看到 ACP 在總增加值的減少中反映出來。這只是較低的市場活動，因為新客戶無法註冊，或者正在轉移的 ACP 客戶甚至在他們開始看到未付費斷開連接之前就無法繼續註冊該計劃？

And then second, what impact is it having on ARPU? You reported 1.7% broadband ARPU, the same as last quarter, had it not been for ACP is it -- could you tell us what that would have been as you're starting to now lap some of the Spectrum One discounts that were included in the numbers in the past?

第二，它對 ARPU 有什麼影響？您報告的寬頻 ARPU 為 1.7%，與上一季相同，如果沒有 ACP，您能告訴我們這會是多少嗎，因為您現在開始享受 Spectrum One 中包含的一些折扣過去的數字？

Sure. Hey, Craig. I'll take the first one. Jessica will take the second. For ACP, we estimated the impact was well over 100,000 inside the quarter to net addition's loss. And for us to say, that means that we have a high level of confidence, probably higher than that. So half of which was from voluntary churn and the other half was coming from reduced gross additions, as you mentioned, from low-income segments that had been connecting at a higher rate at a much slower rate once ACP disappeared. Of course, we saw some of that impact already inside of Q1 and we saw the same inside of Q2.

當然。嘿，克雷格。我選擇第一個。傑西卡將獲得第二名。對於 ACP，我們估計本季淨增加價值的損失影響遠遠超過 100,000。對我們來說，這意味著我們有很高的信心，甚至可能比這更高。因此，其中一半是由於自願流失，另一半是由於總新增用戶的減少，正如您所提到的，低收入群體在 ACP 消失後，其連接速度一直以較高的速度下降。當然，我們在第一季就已經看到了一些影響，在第二季也看到了同樣的影響。

So that's the drivers inside there about half and half. And it's really the combination of those. When I mentioned that we saw a reversion to the pre-pandemic mobile-only broadband category where you've seen that category increase, which is taking out volume from the marketplace in terms of a source of acquisition, it's temporary. It's onetime in nature.

所以裡面的司機大約各佔一半。這其實是這些的結合。當我提到我們看到回歸到疫情前的僅限行動寬頻類別時，您已經看到該類別有所增加，從獲取來源的角度來看，這正在從市場上奪走數量，但這只是暫時的。這是自然界中一次性的事。

And so as we've spoken about before, it's really about just managing through that onetime impact and trying to make sure that we're doing all the right things for preserving that base and keeping them connected, which we're doing, but also making sure that we're making the right investments and the right moves for the business as usual, underlying growth trajectory. Jessica, on ARPU?

因此，正如我們之前所說的，這實際上只是要應對一次性影響，並努力確保我們正在做所有正確的事情來維護這個基礎並保持他們的聯繫，我們正在這樣做，但同時確保我們為正常的業務和潛在的成長軌跡做出正確的投資和正確的舉措。傑西卡，ARPU 是多少？

Yes. So Internet ARPU increased 1.7% year over year in the quarter. If you adjusted, Craig, for the $30 million in one-time ACP related items that I mentioned and for the impact of the mobile revenue allocation, that ARPU growth would have been 2.7%. I didn't incorporate the cash basis accounting impact that I mentioned earlier. It's small and unless those customers do end up paying at a rate that's higher than our expectation, I think it recurs in revenue going forward. But so I think you would have been -- but for those two items, that's a 2.7%.

是的。因此本季網路 ARPU 較去年同期成長 1.7%。克雷格，如果你針對我提到的 3000 萬美元的一次性 ACP 相關項目以及行動收入分配的影響進行調整，那麼 ARPU 成長率將達到 2.7%。我沒有考慮到之前提到的現金基礎會計的影響。這個數字很小，除非這些客戶最終支付的費用高於我們的預期，否則我認為它會在未來的收入中重複出現。但我認為你會 — — 但對於這兩項來說，這個比例是 2.7%。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thanks, Craig.

謝謝，克雷格。

Operator, we'll take our next question, please.

接線員，請我們回答下一個問題。

Sebastiano Petti, JPMorgan.

摩根大通的塞巴斯蒂亞諾·佩蒂。

Thanks for taking the question. I think, Chris, in the prepared remarks, you said you competed well against fixed wireless and fiber and though -- even though their footprints are expanding. Given the prevalence of what we're seeing in terms of open access and other wholesale provider in getting into the mix and increasing the fiber availability, have you seen a demonstrable change in the fiber deployments year to date as you think about that insurgent or nonincumbent fiber build to some extent?

感謝您回答這個問題。克里斯，我認為，在準備好的發言中，你說過，你在與固定無線和光纖的競爭中表現出色，儘管他們的足跡正在擴大。鑑於我們看到開放存取和其他批發提供者加入並增加光纖可用性的盛行，您是否看到今年迄今為止光纖部署發生了明顯變化，您是否考慮過叛亂者或非現任者纖維構造是否達到某種程度？

And again, just trying to think about that increase in open access and wholesalers, how does it change, if at all, to how you're thinking about the competitive environment on a go-forward basis in terms of other converged players or options moving into your footprint?

再一次，試著思考開放取用和批發商的成長，如果有的話，它如何改變你對未來競爭環境的看法，從其他融合參與者或選擇移動的角度來看進入你的足跡？

Sure. Look, the competitive fiber overbuild has maintained a relatively steady pace. If anything, it's slightly lower than what it had been. And so we don't see any dramatic change there. When I talked about maintaining our competitiveness, it means having a similar impact despite the fact that you have an expanding footprint. So you could -- if I was being bullish. I would argue that that's an improvement as opposed to just staying steady. And so we're competing well, both in the wireline overbuild space which is more permanent as well as the cellphone Internet space as well.

當然。從目前的情況來看，競爭性的光纖過度建設一直保持著相對穩定的步伐。如果有的話，它比以前稍微低了一點。因此我們沒有看到任何顯著的變化。當我談到保持我們的競爭力時，這意味著儘管你的足跡不斷擴大，但仍能產生類似的影響力。所以你可以——如果我是樂觀的話。我認為這是一種進步，而不是保持穩定。因此，我們在更持久的有線過度建設領域以及手機互聯網領域都擁有良好的競爭力。

In terms of some of the experiments that you're seeing as it relates to wholesale access and whatnot, it's still a fiber overbuild at the end of the day, and there's still economics that need to be deployed. And those economics are, in my mind, they are not very good and they haven't been for decades of the economics of an overbuild or for -- on an existing footprint.

就您所看到的與批發接入等相關的一些實驗而言，歸根結底這仍然是光纖過度建設，仍然需要部署經濟因素。在我看來，這些經濟效益並不是很好，而且幾十年來，過度建設或在現有足跡上的經濟效益一直不佳。

So I don't think it, A, dramatically changes the outputs that they can provide because the economics aren't any different. And B, it's really small. What you're talking about that's been done is just a very small percentage in the US footprint. So the ability to project products, both from a sales and marketing and service perspective really is impacted about by the ubiquitous nature of the technology that you have and the ability to provide those products in the marketplace.

因此，我認為 A，它不會顯著改變它們可以提供的產出，因為經濟學沒有任何不同。而且 B，它真的很小。你談到的已經完成的事情只是美國足跡中非常小的一部分。因此，從銷售、行銷和服務角度來看，產品推廣能力實際上受到您所擁有的技術的普遍性以及在市場上提供這些產品的能力的影響。

And so from our perspective, when we look at it and say what's unique about us is we have a gigabit network deployed everywhere we operate. In addition to that, we're upgrading that wireline network to have symmetrical and multi-gig speeds everywhere, not just in red line pockets, but everywhere that we operate.

因此從我們的角度來看，我們的獨特之處在於，我們在營運的每個地方都部署了千兆網路。除此之外，我們正在升級有線網絡，使其在任何地方都能實現對稱和多千兆的速度，不僅僅是在紅線區域，而且在我們運營的所有地方。

And then you combine that with our WiFi and CBRS capabilities and a very strategic relationship that we have with a great partner in Verizon, it gives us the ability to provide a seamless connectivity, converged broadband everywhere you go inside of our footprint. And that's unique. The only other operator, who has those type of capabilities really is Comcast.

然後將其與我們的 WiFi 和 CBRS 功能以及與 Verizon 的優秀合作夥伴建立的策略關係相結合，使我們能夠在我們的覆蓋範圍內提供無縫連接和融合寬頻。這是獨一無二的。真正擁有此類能力的唯一其他運營商是康卡斯特。

And so I think that's a real strategic advantage for us. And it's not because we have that capability in 2%, 3% or 5% of our footprint, we have it everywhere we operate. And it allows us to be loud in the marketplace, talk about not only the product advantages of having that seamless connectivity, but the ability to save customers hundreds and thousands of dollars really with a better product. And so I don't see anything that's really changed other than some of these joint ventures announcements that you've seen.

所以我認為這對我們來說是一個真正的戰略優勢。這並不是因為我們在 2%、3% 或 5% 的範圍內擁有這種能力，而是因為我們在營運的每個地方都擁有這種能力。它讓我們能夠在市場上大聲宣傳，不僅談論無縫連接的產品優勢，而且還能透過更好的產品為客戶節省數十萬美元。因此，除了您看到的一些合資公告之外，我沒有看到任何真正的改變。

If you really sit back and think about it from both a strategy and from a valuation perspective, I think it's flattering. It tells you the strategic asset that we have. And so if you take a look at the slide that we have on page 4 of the deck today, you think about everything that I said and our capabilities. And then you think about where others are trying to go to many of the MNOs, I do think that's flattering both from a strategic, from an operating, and from a valuation perspective of what we have and what we're capable of doing. It has people's attention.

如果你真的坐下來從策略和估值的角度考慮這個問題，我認為這是令人高興的。它告訴你我們擁有的策略資產。因此，如果你看一下我們今天的簡報第 4 頁的幻燈片，你就會思考我所說的一切以及我們的能力。然後你想想其他人正試圖進入許多 MNO 的領域，我確實認為從策略、營運和估值的角度來看，這都是令人欣喜的，因為我們擁有什麼以及我們能做什麼。它引起了人們的注意。

If I could ask a quick follow-up on wireless. It's sounds, I think you noted that even excluding the retention offer for the ACP subscribers, mobile lines would have been up. I mean, could you help us think about what you're seeing in terms of just the contract buyout and some of the other offers you have in the market? And does your maybe go-to-market need to evolve at all as we think about this fears or concerns about what an upgrade cycle might mean from the Apple iPhone, the back half of the year? Thank you.

如果我可以快速詢問有關無線的問題，請告訴我。聽起來，我想你注意到了，即使不考慮針對 ACP 用戶的保留優惠，行動線路價格也會上漲。我的意思是，您能否幫助我們思考一下您所看到的關於合約買斷以及市場上一些其他報價的情況？當我們考慮到對蘋果 iPhone 下半年升級週期可能意味著什麼的擔憂或顧慮時，你們的上市策略是否需要進行一些調整？謝謝。

Sure. Well, mobile wasn't just up. What I was saying, it was up quarter over quarter. We had a very good first quarter. It was clearly up even more this quarter and if you excluded the benefit of the ACP mobile-only, mobile retention offers, we still would have been better than a very strong first quarter. That reflects just the general momentum that we have, but also we have evolved the product.

當然。嗯，行動裝置並非剛興起。我剛才說的是，它比上一季有所成長。我們的第一季表現非常好。本季的漲幅顯然更大，即使排除 ACP 行動專屬和行動保留優惠帶來的好處，我們的業績仍會比非常強勁的第一季更好。這不僅反映了我們整體的發展勢頭，而且我們的產品也得到了改進。

And so we've rolled out the Anytime Upgrade program, which is unique in the market. We have a -- even though it sounds small, it's attractive to customer service-and-repair function. That's, I think, competitive. And now with the phone balanced buyout program, which is also pretty unique in the marketplace. All of those rolled out sequentially during the course of the quarter and have continued to improve our selling capabilities along the way.

因此我們推出了市場上獨一無二的隨時升級計劃。我們有一個——儘管聽起來很小，但對客戶服務和維修功能很有吸引力。我認為這是有競爭力的。現在還有電話平衡買斷計劃，這在市場上也是相當獨特的。所有這些舉措都在本季陸續推出，並在此過程中持續提升我們的銷售能力。

I think that positions us well in any market. I think where you were going, we've not been, we don't intend to be in the business of subsidizing phones, but we do have really good programs that make it attractive for customers to not only come into be a customer of Spectrum Mobile, but also to stay with us because we have the ability through the Anytime Upgrade program to really at a low competitive cost keep them current with their models of phones now and in the future.

我認為這使我們在任何市場都處於有利地位。我想你說的，我們並沒有這樣做，我們無意從事手機補貼業務，但我們確實有非常好的計劃，可以吸引客戶，讓他們不僅成為 Spectrum 的客戶移動，而且也繼續與我們合作，因為我們有能力透過隨時升級計劃以真正具有競爭力的低成本使他們現在和將來的手機型號保持最新。

And stating the obvious -- the biggest advantage here beyond just the devices really is the ability to provide a higher quality, faster mobile service, seamless connectivity and to be able to save them hundreds or thousands of dollars a year. I mean if you think about our pricing at $30 for unlimited and $40 for unlimited plus on one line and each incremental line, it's really competitive. It's very good. So we're happy with where we are with the product. We will continue to evolve it.

顯而易見的是——除了設備之外，這裡最大的優勢實際上是能夠提供更高品質、更快的行動服務、無縫連接，並且每年能夠節省數百或數千美元。我的意思是，如果您考慮我們的定價，無限套餐 30 美元，無限制加一條線路和每條增量線路 40 美元，這真的很有競爭力。非常好。我們對產品的現狀很滿意。我們將繼續改進它。

I think some of those feature sets that will evolve really include things like mobile speed boost, which ties to the capabilities that we have with WiFi and wireline and the ability to have Spectrum Mobile as an SSID. So those of you in the New York and LA markets for example, what you'll notice is as you travel outside of your home with a Spectrum Mobile, an auto-authenticated attached to Spectrum Mobile SSID, which boost your speed wherever you go and it increases your access and your reliability, which is the nature of seamless connectivity.

我認為將會發展的一些功能集實際上包括移動速度提升之類的功能，這與我們的 WiFi 和有線功能以及將 Spectrum Mobile 作為 SSID 的能力相關。例如，對於在紐約和洛杉磯市場的人來說，當你帶著Spectrum Mobile 出門時，你會注意到，一個連接到Spectrum Mobile SSID 的自動認證設備，無論你走到哪裡，它都會提高你的網速，它提高了您的訪問能力和可靠性，這是無縫連接的本質。

Thanks, Sebastian. And operator, we'll take our next question, please.

謝謝，塞巴斯蒂安。接線員，請我們回答下一個問題。

Jonathan Chaplin, New Street Research.

喬納森·卓別林（Jonathan Chaplin），New Street Research。

Thanks, guys. Two questions. One, just on broadband market growth for Chris and then one on free cash flow for Jessica. Chris, could you give us a little bit more context around the ACP impact from lower gross adds in 1Q? I think you said it was sort of roughly the same as in 2Q, so maybe it was 50,000. But what I'm trying to get to is an understanding of what's going on with underlying growth. It looks like, it actually improved for you a little bit sequentially. And so either the broadband market growth in aggregate isn't getting any worse maybe it's getting a little better or you're just doing better on market share relative to your competitors? Would love to understand that a little bit better.

謝謝大家。兩個問題。一是向克里斯介紹寬頻市場的成長情況，二是向傑西卡介紹自由現金流。克里斯，您能否向我們詳細介紹第一季新增業務量下降對 ACP 造成的影響？我認為您說的與第二季度大致相同，所以可能是 50,000。但我想要了解的是潛在成長的情況。看起來，它實際上為你逐漸改善了一點。那麼，寬頻市場整體成長要不是沒有變得更糟，就是可能稍微好一點，或者你們的市佔率相對於競爭對手來說更好？希望能夠更好地理解這一點。

And then, Jessica, it sounded like from your discussion of working capital that this isn't a timing impact in 2Q, you've changed how you manage working capital. And so you should expect to be able to sort of retain this benefit to free cash flow as we go through the year. I just wanted to confirm that. And then do you have to get all the way back to 4.2 to 4.25 times leverage before you would accelerate share repurchases again? Thanks.

然後，傑西卡，從你對營運資本的討論來看，這並不是對第二季的時間影響，你改變了營運資本的管理方式。因此，您應該期望能夠在全年中保留這種自由現金流優勢。我只是想確認一下。那麼，你是否必須將槓桿率提高到 4.2 至 4.25 倍才能再次加速股票回購？謝謝。

So Jonathan, there's I think, a few derivatives inside of your question. So let me try to give you what you're looking for in the way that we think about it. Inside of the first quarter, we had performed better relative to prior quarters and prior year on competitive switching. And so that was in the marketplace, so available subscriber adds and disconnects.

所以喬納森，我認為你的問題中有一些衍生詞。因此，讓我嘗試以我們思考的方式為您提供您所尋找的內容。在第一季度，我們在競爭性轉換方面的表現優於前幾季和去年。這就是在市場上，可用的用戶增加和斷開連接。

But we saw, as you highlighted as well once everybody had reported, we saw a significant reduction in the first quarter of this year in the available gross adds, a significant drop year over year, and that was due to housing starts, rental vacancies, but also the removal of ACP for new connects, all of which are driving your aversion to mobile-only back to pre-pandemic levels.

但正如大家報告時你也強調的那樣，我們看到今年第一季新增住房數量大幅減少，同比大幅下降，這是由於新屋開工、租賃空置率、而且還取消了新連接的ACP，所有這些都使你對僅使用行動裝置的厭惡情緒回到了疫情前的水平。

That mobile -- that broadband market growth rate overall, we still saw as significantly reduced for all those factors inside of Q1, but a dramatic drop. And so that put our performance in relative light, given the market overall market backdrop, a lot of which was onetime in nature.

總體而言，由於上述所有因素，我們在第一季仍然看到行動寬頻市場成長率大幅下降，但下降幅度很大。考慮到整體市場背景（其中許多都是一次性的），我們的表現相對較差。

In Q2, and while it's early because we don't have all the data, I think our evidence shows that for the first time and due to, again, all of the onetime factors and most dramatically due to loss of ACP, the broadband market actually shrunk. It's a one-time event. And so if you put our performance and then our statements about relative competition in context with that, I think we're doing pretty well. And that was the nature of the comments that I provided in the prepared remarks.

在第二季度，雖然現在還為時過早，因為我們還沒有掌握全部數據，但我認為我們的證據表明，這是第一次，同樣是由於所有一次性因素，最顯著的是由於ACP 的損失，寬頻市場事實上縮小了。這是一次性活動。因此，如果將我們的表現以及關於相對競爭的聲明放在這一背景下，我認為我們做得相當不錯。這就是我在準備好的評論中所提供評論的本質。

I do think that as I mentioned, moves will come back. It's hard to predict exactly when, but moves will come back, housing starts will return, apartment rental rates will go back up. And most importantly, the most dramatic effect is once you flush out the ACP impact between Q2 and Q3 predominantly, and you'll be able to get back into a much more normalized environment.

我確實認為，正如我所提到的那樣，舉動將會回歸。很難預測具體時間，但搬家數量將會回升，新屋開工數量將會回升，公寓租金率將會回升。最重要的是，最顯著的效果是，一旦你主要消除第二季和第三季之間的 ACP 影響，你將能夠回到更正常化的環境。

And I think the product investments that we're making in the attractiveness of the value that we provide puts us in great position for when that volume returns. And we're doing everything we can in the meantime, to preserve all the ACP customers doing really well, but at the same time, making sure that we're ready to come out in a good light on the back end once the volume does pick back up.

我認為，我們在提供的價值的吸引力方面進行的產品投資將使我們在銷售回升時處於有利地位。同時，我們正在盡一切努力，確保所有 ACP 客戶的利益得到充分保障，同時確保一旦產量恢復，我們就能以良好的狀態出現在後端。

On the free cash flow side, Jonathan, so I think we had previously talked about working capital for the year coming back to being in a place that was relatively flat. As I said, we're working on the balance sheet and trying to make sure we can extract appropriate cash on the balance sheet to support what we're doing across the business. I think that we'll probably do better than that on sort of flat working capital expectation, but I'm not prepared to say by exactly how much.

關於自由現金流方面，喬納森，我認為我們之前曾討論過今年的營運資本回到相對平穩的水平。正如我所說，我們正在研究資產負債表，並試圖確保我們能夠在資產負債表上提取適當的現金來支持我們在整個業務中所做的工作。我認為，在營運資本預期持平的情況下，我們可能會做得更好，但我還不準備說出具體多少。

The variability in working capital has a lot to do with exactly how expense timing and capital timing lands over the course of the year. And so while I think that we'll get good benefits out of just the balance sheet management side, we're not going to take up the total thoughts that we've had on working capital today.

營運資本的變動與一年內費用時機和資本時機的具體情況有很大關係。因此，雖然我認為我們將從資產負債表管理方面獲得良好的收益，但我們不會完全考慮今天對營運資本的看法。

On your other question, sort of how do we think about -- I think it was sort of a one and then the other. Do you have to get all the way back to the middle of your range before you accelerate buybacks? I'm in the same place that I was last quarter, which is that I think that we can continue to do buybacks over the course of the rest of the year and still do what we have said that we would do from a leverage perspective.

關於您的另一個問題，我們如何看待——我認為這是一個先有另一個的問題。在加速回購之前，你是否必須先回到區間的中間位置？我目前的想法與上個季度相同，我認為我們可以在今年剩餘時間內繼續回購，並且仍然按照我們從槓桿角度說過的方式去做。

And I don't think of it as do you have to do one and then the other. I'm pretty confident in the trajectory of the business for the second half of the year. And so I think that we can have good pacing on buybacks and meet our -- what we've said about leverage at the same time.

我不認為你必須先做這一件事，然後再做另一件事。我對今年下半年的業務發展方向非常有信心。因此，我認為我們可以在回購方面保持良好的節奏，同時滿足我們對槓桿率的要求。

That being said, the capital allocation strategy hasn't changed. We still go after high ROI organic investment first. We still look then at whether there's an accretive M&A opportunities next. And those come before sort of this balance sheet management and share buyback that happens as the last set of priorities there. And so we haven't given a guide around where we think that will go in terms of total buybacks. It's because we want to make sure that we maintain that flexibility to do what we think is most important for the business, which is to make the right investments to drive growth of the business going forward.

話雖如此，資本配置策略並沒有改變。我們仍然先追求高投資報酬率的有機投資。我們仍在關注接下來是否存在增值的併購機會。這些都排在資產負債表管理和股票回購之前，這是最後一組優先事項。因此，我們尚未就總回購規模給予指引。這是因為我們希望確保保持靈活性，去做我們認為對業務最重要的事情，也就是做出正確的投資來推動未來業務的成長。

Great. Thanks, guys.

偉大的。謝謝大家。

Thanks, Jonathan.

謝謝，喬納森。

Operator, we'll take our next question, please.

接線員，請我們回答下一個問題。

Ben Swinburne, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的本‧斯威伯恩 (Ben Swinburne)。

Thanks. Good morning. Chris, I believe you guys took some cost actions. I don't know if there were headcount reductions this year at Charter. But I know you guys have had a cost plan you've been working on. I wonder if you could just talk about what you guys are doing and how you're approaching that. And I think you had suggested you guys weren't going to touch any sort of customer facing resources. So just give us a sense of where you are on that and your philosophy as you look through the rest of the year and how we might think about that impacting the financials?

謝謝。早安.克里斯，我相信你們採取了一些成本行動。我不知道 Charter 今年是否有裁員。但我知道你們一直在製定成本計劃。我想知道你們是否可以談談您正在做什麼以及如何處理這些事情。我認為你們已經暗示過你們不會觸碰任何面向客戶的資源。那麼，請您向我們介紹一下您目前在這方面的進展以及您對今年剩餘時間的看法，以及我們如何看待這對財務的影響？

And then maybe for Jessica, I don't know if you have any visibility at this point into Q3 ACP impact from that 100,000. But if you do, I'd love to hear it. And trying to understand the decline in bad debt. I know you touched on in your prepared remarks. I don't know if that tells us something about your third quarter ACP expectation or if you still expect cost of service to be flat for the year. Would just love a little more color around those trends? Thank you, both.

然後也許對於傑西卡來說，我不知道你現在是否了解這 100,000 對第三季 ACP 的影響。但如果你願意的話，我很樂意聽聽看。並試著了解壞帳減少的原因。我知道您在準備好的發言中提到了這一點。我不知道這是否能告訴我們您對第三季 ACP 的預期，或者您是否仍預計全年服務成本將持平。您是否希望這些趨勢能更加豐富多彩？謝謝你們兩位。

Hey, Ben. So there's kind of three parts to that, which is -- I start with the second one you had, is the Q3 ACP, I'll handle that. And Jessica can comment on bad debt and then cost reductions. Jessica can go through and I can tag team there a bit. But from a Q3 ACP outlook, we're not going to be providing any customer net additions guidance today. But for sure, there's going to be, as we both mentioned, I think Jessica and I, there'll be more nonpaid disconnect in the third quarter, but there are a lot of other moving parts and we're competing well.

嘿，本。所以這有三個部分，也就是 - 我從你的第二個部分開始，即 Q3 ACP，我會處理它。傑西卡可以對壞帳和成本削減發表評論。傑西卡可以通過，然後我可以在那裡稍微組隊。但從第三季 ACP 的前景來看，我們今天不會提供任何客戶淨增量指引。但可以肯定的是，正如我們都提到的那樣，我認為傑西卡和我，第三季會出現更多無償斷連，但還有很多其他活動因素，而且我們的競爭很激烈。

I think may be the interesting tidbit here is maybe talk a little bit more about recent trends. June was oddly the best loss of the second quarter. And Internet net adds trends in July have been similar to what we saw in June. It sounds great. But the reality is the ACP related nonpay disconnect activity hasn't started yet. And we'll know really more about sustainable payment trends. There's nothing to be scared of today, but sustainable peniment trends really through August with the non-pay beginning then and trailing into a little bit to Q4.

我認為這裡有趣的點可能是多談論最近的趨勢。奇怪的是，六月的損失是第二季中最大的損失。七月網路淨增加值趨勢與六月類似。聽起來很棒。但實際情況是，與 ACP 相關的拖欠工資斷供活動還沒開始。我們將更了解永續支付趨勢。今天沒有什麼可怕的，但可持續的懺悔趨勢確實會持續到 8 月份，從那時起拖欠工資的情況就會持續到第四季度。

So when you step back, I know you know this, but ultimately this ACP transitions are one-time events. So we're very focused on really isolating the ACP impact internally and evaluating not only obviously our performance on retaining those customers because we want to keep them connected. We think it's very valuable and we can, but also what's the underlying trend absent ACP impact to make sure that we're getting better every day.

所以當你退一步時，我知道你知道這一點，但最終這個 ACP 轉換是一次性事件。因此，我們非常注重在內部真正隔離 ACP 的影響，並評估我們不僅明顯在留住這些客戶方面的表現，因為我們希望讓他們保持聯繫。我們認為這非常有價值，我們可以做到，但是，缺乏 ACP 影響的潛在趨勢是什麼，以確保我們每天都在進步。

So Jessica on the ACP -- the bad debt piece.

傑西卡 (Jessica) 談論的是 ACP —— 壞帳部分。

Yeah. So if you think about what happened in bad debt in the year-over-year, Ben, there's a few things going on. One, really with tenure and credit profile in our mobile customer base that's been improving, particularly for customers that have EIP plans with us. And on ACP front, we took a lot of bad debt along the way, particularly for customers who entered the ACP program and they had outstanding unpaid balances. And those have really been reserved throughout the ACP program.

是的。因此，本，如果你想想去年壞帳的情況，你會發現有幾件事正在發生。首先，我們的行動客戶群的任期和信用狀況確實一直在改善，特別是對於與我們擁有 EIP 計劃的客戶。在 ACP 方面，我們在過程中承擔了大量壞賬，特別是那些加入 ACP 計劃且有未付餘額的客戶。這些確實在整個 ACP 計劃中都被保留了。

I mentioned it in the remarks, that there also was a portion of the ACP customer base where we have a very low expectation of payment for them and so instead of taking their revenue into revenue and then taking bad debt expense as an offset, we actually didn't recognize revenue for those customers. So when you see that, it means that bad debt expense, I think absent that you might have had -- you would have had more bad debt expense if we had put that back in the other direction.

我在評論中提到，ACP 客戶群中也有一部分人，我們對他們的付款期望很低，因此，我們實際上沒有將他們的收入計入收入，然後將壞帳費用作為抵消，而是沒有確認這些客戶的收入。所以當你看到這一點時，這意味著壞帳費用，我認為如果我們把它放回另一個方向，你可能會有更多的壞帳費用。

And then the last point, we did have overall lower resi revenue in Q2 and the year over year and some mix changes. And so with other things being equal, that also drives a little bit of downward pressure on bad debt. All of that is to say I wouldn't read anything sort of into what is it that you think about Q3 and looking at what happened with bad debt in the year over year. I think there are a number of factors going on there.

最後一點，我們第二季和去年同期的住宅收入總體上確實有所下降，並且結構也有一些變化。因此，在其他條件相同的情況下，這也會對壞帳造成一定程度的下行壓力。所有這些都表明，我不會去解讀您對第三季度的看法，也不會去觀察去年同期壞帳的情況。我認為其中有多種因素。

As you think about then what's happening on overall cost reduction side, which I think was your other question, the expense management process is pretty extensive. While we're not doing anything that will impact our sales or service capabilities, we have things that are big, things that are small, some short, some medium, some long-term opportunities all across the business.

當您思考整體成本削減方面發生的情況時，我認為這是您的另一個問題，費用管理流程非常廣泛。雖然我們沒有做任何會影響我們的銷售或服務能力的事情，但是我們在整個業務中有一些大的事情，一些小的事情，一些短期的，一些中期的，一些長期的機會。

We've made progress with some vendor cost reductions with reduced spend around discretionary categories like real estate and third party services, some reductions to overhead expenses and implementing some tools to increase our efficiency. And actually, I think the benefits from those came in a little faster into 2Q than what we had anticipated. But we're already realizing the benefits of some of the changes. We'll continue to build on additional opportunities over time.

我們在降低一些供應商成本方面取得了進展，減少了房地產和第三方服務等可自由支配類別的支出，減少了一些管理費用，並實施了一些工具來提高我們的效率。實際上，我認為這些收益在第二季呈現的速度比我們預期的要快一些。但我們已經認識到一些變化的好處。隨著時間的推移，我們將繼續尋找更多的機會。

As you look at the rest of the year, I think we had given some thoughts on our outlook for expenses. We had expected programming cost per video customer to grow in the 1% to 2% range year over year. I now expect that to be flattish year over year. We previously had said that we expected cost to serve to be flat with 2023. I now expect that to decline by 1% to 2% inclusive of bad debt expense. And in sales to marketing, I think we had said 2% to 3% growth. And at this point I would expect us to be in the low end of that range, if not a bit below.

展望今年剩餘時間，我想我們已經對支出前景做了一些思考。我們預計每位視訊客戶的節目成本將年增 1% 到 2%。我現在預計這一數字將同比持平。我們之前曾表示，預計服務成本將與 2023 年持平。我現在預計將包括壞帳費用在內，這一數字將下降 1% 至 2%。在銷售與行銷方面，我認為我們的成長率為 2% 至 3%。而此時，我預期我們會處於這個範圍的低端，如果不是略低的話。

I also as an aside, just want to clarify something I said earlier, my comments on working capital, I want to be clear that the comments on working capital are on cable working capital. Mobile continues to have the detriment of the EIP notes. And so those will continue to be a drag, though the securitization plan that we did in the quarter does help that.

順便說一句，我只是想澄清一下我之前說過的事情，我對營運資本的評論，我想明確的是，對營運資本的評論是關於有線營運資本的。行動裝置繼續受到 EIP 條款的損害。儘管我們在本季實施的證券化計劃確實對此有所幫助，但這些仍將繼續成為拖累因素。

And on the cost, maybe just take one -- a different layer of look at the -- so Jessica's right, we're doing lots on vendor savings, overheads, organizational effectiveness in a lower growth environment. All that's true, but just want to make sure everybody understands that the key focus for us in terms of real permanent lasting and accelerating cost reduction is just to be a better service operator. So we're continuing to invest in our frontline, have better tools, processes, and systems to make the investments that we've made in 10 year, and we see that.

就成本而言，也許只需從不同層面來看待——傑西卡是對的，在低成長環境中，我們在供應商節省、管理費用和組織效率方面做了很多工作。這些都是事實，但我只是想確保每個人都明白，在真正永久、持久和加速降低成本方面，我們的重點是成為更好的服務業者。因此，我們將繼續對前線進行投資，擁有更好的工具、流程和系統來進行我們 10 年來所做的投資，我們看到了這一點。

So we are having results from some of the onetime and permanent cost reductions, but we're also probably having bigger success on reducing the amount of service calls, reducing our truck rolls, increasing the quality of the service that we provide. That's where the money's at.

因此，我們從一些一次性和永久性的成本削減中獲得了成果，但我們在減少服務電話數量、減少上門服務、提高我們所提供服務的品質方面也可能取得更大的成功。錢就在那裡。

And then when you think about operating leverage, which is a term that you've used before, the best way to have a better operating leverage is to have more customers and to have more products per household and have higher revenue. And that we can together being a better service operator and having higher penetration of your products, you actually lower your cost-to-serve per customer, you lower your cost of capital per customer as well and you become a better cash flow operator.

然後，當您考慮營業槓桿（這是您以前使用過的術語）時，獲得更好營業槓桿的最佳方法是擁有更多客戶、每個家庭擁有更多產品並獲得更高的收入。我們可以共同成為更好的服務營運商，提高您產品的滲透率，這樣您實際上就可以降低每個客戶的服務成本，也可以降低每個客戶的資本成本，從而成為更好的現金流運營商。

So all of those things still hold true. And that's why when we talk about expense management that we talk about really not doing anything that would impact sales or service because that's the true efficiency opportunity and that's the opportunity to deliver long-term free cash flow. And our views on that and our front line hasn't changed at all.

因此所有這些事情仍然正確。這就是為什麼當我們談論費用管理時，我們談論的實際上是不做任何會影響銷售或服務的事情，因為這是真正的效率機會，也是實現長期自由現金流的機會。我們對此以及我們的前線的看法根本沒有改變。

Thanks, very helpful.

謝謝，非常有幫助。

Thanks, Ben. Operator, we'll take our next question, please.

謝謝，本。接線員，請我們回答下一個問題。

Jessica Reif Ehrlich, Bank of America Securities.

美國銀行證券公司的傑西卡·賴夫·埃利希 (Jessica Reif Ehrlich)。

Question on video, I guess. Can you talk about the take-up of direct-to-consumer in these hybrid linear offers? And you've mentioned a couple that are coming, Paramount Plus and Hulu. Is there anything else on the horizon?

我想，這是影片中的問題。您能談談這些混合線性產品中直接面向消費者的接受度嗎？您還提到了即將推出的幾個服務，Paramount Plus 和 Hulu。還有其他事情發生嗎？

And then secondly, you mentioned political advertising should pick up in the second half. Given the current political environment, can you give us some color on expectations and if that's increasing?

其次，您提到政治廣告應該會在下半年回升。考慮到當前的政治環境，您能否告訴我們一些預期情況，以及預期是否會增加？

Sure. On the first one, Jessica, the DTC take-up is going very well. The first one I know a lot of people think about the Disney deal was in September, but we launched I think, late in January on Disney Plus basic and it's growing well and it's growing every month. We're adding some additional features into it, which will be helpful to even further accelerate the monthly growth that we see. That includes, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, the addition of the Disney Plus premium as an incremental add-on. That will be coming soon as well as the Disney Duo Basic Bundle of plus $2 for Hulu.

當然。第一個問題，傑西卡，DTC 的接受度非常順利。我知道很多人第一次想到迪士尼的交易是在 9 月份，但我認為我們在 1 月底就推出了 Disney Plus 基礎版，而且它發展良好，每個月都在增長。我們正在添加一些附加功能，這將有助於進一步加快我們所看到的每月成長。正如我在準備好的演講中提到的那樣，其中包括增加 Disney Plus premium 作為增量附加服務。這款產品和 Hulu 的 Disney Duo Basic Bundle 加 2 美元也將很快推出。

And so that allows you to have a comprehensive package the same way that exist inside of retail. And that's helpful. It was always the design. But there's complexity in terms of implementing all of this also because some of the authentication principles that vary between different operators in terms of credentials and TV Everywhere and whatnot, but it's going well and it's accelerating.

這樣您就可以獲得與零售店內相同的綜合套餐。這很有幫助。它始終是設計。但是在實施所有這些方面也存在複雜性，因為不同運營商在憑證、電視無處不在等方面的某些身份驗證原則有所不同，但進展順利，而且正在加速推進。

ESPN Plus, I didn't mention that on the call is also having very good take-up. It's high value into our RSN Packages. It's a small portion of the base, but the penetration is going well. Paramount Plus will launch soon. And ViX, we just launched and we've always had Max. And so that has existed already within the TV Everywhere authenticated universe.

ESPN Plus，我沒有提到電話會議中的接受度也很高。它對我們的 RSN 包來說具有很高的價值。這只佔基地的一小部分，但滲透進展順利。Paramount Plus 即將推出。我們剛剛推出了 ViX，而且我們一直都有 Max。所以這已經存在於 TV Everywhere 認證的世界中了。

Our expectation is over the next year or so that we'll have a fully baked set of product, which is really what we're working towards. And the more scale we get there, the more effective it's going to be. We're not sitting here saying that we're going to arrest completely the loss of video, but I think what we are saying is to the extent we're going to put the video on our broadband bill, it better have value. And if it doesn't have value to the customer that we'd rather they just go take that through the direct to consumer applications. And we need to be proud of putting on the bill.

我們的預期是在未來一年左右推出一套完整的產品，而這正是我們努力的目標。我們的規模越大，效果越好。我們並不是說我們要完全阻止影片遺失，但我認為我們要說的是，如果我們要把影片納入寬頻帳單，那麼它最好有價值。如果它對客戶沒有價值，我們寧願他們透過直接面向消費者的應用程式來獲取它。我們應該為這項法案的通過而感到自豪。

And that's not where the MVPD space has been in a long time, and we see a path to being able to be proud of what we're putting on the broadband bill as a video product. It may be expensive, but it has a significant amount of value and using that to drive the converge connectivity relationship. So while it may not be growing, it's still really important and I think can be very valuable to our converge connectivity relationships.

而這並不是 MVPD 領域長期以來所處的狀態，我們看到了一條能夠為將視訊產品納入寬頻帳單而感到自豪的道路。它可能很昂貴，但卻具有巨大的價值，並可以利用它來推動融合連接關係。因此，雖然它可能不會成長，但它仍然非常重要，而且我認為對於我們融合的連結關係非常有價值。

In terms of what's up next, we're not going to go give a programming renewal schedule, but we're optimistic that this has been adopted, both from an understanding that the DTCs really do need to be included as part of the full video package and that's actually better for programmers because of reduced churn and upsell opportunities into the ad-free versions of these products as well.

至於下一步，我們不會給出節目更新時間表，但我們樂觀地認為這已被採納，因為我們都認為 DTC 確實需要成為完整視頻的一部分包，這對程式設計師來說實際上更好，因為減少了客戶流失，這些產品的無廣告版本也增加了銷售機會。

And that -- look, at the end of the day, if a customer can go out and get the same product at a cheaper price in the marketplace, I think the should. I don't think we should ask them to pay more through us. And so those are some of the core principles that we've had. I'm not committing, but those are some of the bigger ones.

而且 — — 看，歸根結底，如果客戶可以在市場上以更便宜的價格購買相同的產品，我認為這就應該如此。我認為我們不應該要求他們透過我們支付更多費用。這些就是我們的一些核心原則。我沒有承諾，但這些都是較大的問題。

Political advertising, as you know, it's always a jump ball as to exactly where it's going to go. It's evaluated on a state-by-state basis. And so it's -- you can't really say that it's the same nationally everywhere. So it depends on some of the swing states. Admittedly, the events of the past week have jumbled, what you thought that might look like. And certainly when you take a look at fundraising and the volatility and what could be swing states. It looks like political advertising, nationally is going to be higher than what it probably would have been just 10 days ago.

如你所知，政治廣告對於其確切走向總是充滿不確定性。它是根據每個州的具體情況進行評估的。所以你不能說全國各地的情況都是一樣的。所以這取決於一些搖擺州。無可否認，過去一週發生的事件已經變得混亂，與你想像的可能不太一樣。當然，當你看看籌款和波動性以及可能的搖擺州時。看起來，全國範圍內的政治廣告數量將比 10 天前的水平更高。

But it doesn't mean it happens necessarily in the right states for us. And so we're keeping an eye on that. And it's nice when it happens, but it's onetime in nature. And so that's why we always tried to talk about our results with and without the impacts of political advertising because what is this year's windfall will be next year's headwind. And we want to make sure everybody is focused on the right thing, which is the underlying growth profile of the subscription business, which includes the core advertising, which continues to do well with or without political advertising.

但這並不意味著它一定會在對我們有利的狀態下發生。所以我們對此保持關注。當它發生時，感覺很好，但本質上它是一次性的。這就是為什麼我們總是試圖談論有或沒有政治廣告影響的業績，因為今年的意外之財將成為明年的逆風。我們希望確保每個人都專注於正確的事情，即訂閱業務的基本成長概況，其中包括核心廣告，無論有沒有政治廣告，其業務仍能繼續表現良好。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thanks, Jessica. Operator, we'll take our last question.

謝謝，傑西卡。接線員，我們將回答最後一個問題。

Peter Supino, Wolfe Research.

彼得‧蘇皮諾 (Peter Supino)，沃爾夫研究公司。

Thanks. And good morning. I've an ACP question that looks beyond the third quarter. Arguably, ACP has been history's greatest retention program for broadband operators, and you took advantage of it. Looking beyond the wave of involuntary disconnects in Q3 and out to say 2025, does that retention benefit go away? I mean, it certainly does. And then what needs to step up in its place or should we expect a slightly higher underlying churn rate attributable to those 4 million or 5 million former ACP subs, who go from having essentially no churn to maybe having a normal churn rate?

謝謝。早安.我有一個關於 ACP 的問題，涉及第三季之後的事情。可以說，ACP 是歷史上針對寬頻業者最偉大的保留計劃，而您充分利用了它。展望第三季的非自願斷網浪潮以及到 2025 年，這種留任福利是否會消失？我的意思是，它確實如此。那麼，需要採取什麼措施來取而代之，或者我們是否應該預期潛在的客戶流失率會略高一些，這要歸因於那400 萬或500 萬前ACP 用戶，他們的客戶流失率從基本上為零到可能為正常？

Sure. Well, look once upon a time, there wasn't an ACP, but it's been a long time. When you think about we had the -- during the pandemic, we had the -- we were a big participant in the remote education offer, the Keep Americans Connected, the EBB, which evolved and became Emergency Broadband Benefit, which evolved and became the ACP.

當然。嗯，想想從前，沒有 ACP，但已經過去很久了。想想看，在疫情期間，我們積極參與遠距教育項目、“保持美國人的聯繫”項目和 EBB 項目，EBB 項目後來演變為“緊急寬頻福利”，EBB 項目後來演變為非加太公司。

And we've been a significant participant in all of those as has the industry. I think we all have a lot to be proud of for stepping up and really driving those programs. But they didn't exist before. And broadband is a really important product. And from a Charter perspective, we have ways to continue to address that marketplace.

我們和整個產業一樣，都是這些活動的重要參與者。我認為，我們所有人都應該為自己能夠挺身而出並真正推動這些計劃而感到自豪。但它們之前並不存在。寬頻是非常重要的產品。從憲章的角度來看，我們有辦法繼續滿足該市場的需求。

Before I go there, you asked about the market level activity. I do think that in an environment where ACP or an equivalent doesn't exist that by definition, you have more customers coming in and out of broadband based on affordability. That rise up transaction volume, both from a nonpaid disconnect as well as from gross ad sales perspective. When you have better products and better price, that can work towards your advantage. So it's not all bad from our perspective. But we also have the ability to, at acquisition and for retention, offer unique products. Our Internet 100 is attractively priced. It's not for everybody, but it's affordable.

在我去那裡之前，您詢問了市場層面的活動。我確實認為，在不存在 ACP 或同等產品的環境中，根據定義，會有更多的客戶根據經濟承受能力加入或退出寬頻。無論從非付費斷線的角度或是從廣告總銷售額的角度來說，這都增加了交易量。當您擁有更好的產品和更優惠的價格時，這將對您有利。所以從我們的角度來看，這並不全然是壞事。但我們也有能力在客戶獲取和保留方面提供獨特的產品。我們的 Internet 100 價格極具吸引力。它並不適合所有人，但是價格實惠。

We also -- and you compare that together with Spectrum One, so the ability to have a free mobile line for the first year and then that line rose to $30 after a year. If you think about a typical one line environment or even in a typical two line environment, the average cost of a line is over $60. And so even at retail rate of $30, we've built into savings of $30 per month through taking mobile together with our attractively priced, high-powered broadband products.

我們還 — — 並將其與 Spectrum One 進行比較，第一年可以免費享受一條移動線路，一年後該線路價格上漲至 30 美元。如果您考慮典型的單線環境或甚至典型的雙線環境，一條線的平均成本超過 60 美元。因此，即使零售價為 30 美元，透過將行動電話與價格誘人的高性能寬頻產品結合使用，我們每月也可以節省 30 美元。

And that's as much if not more than ACP benefit, which means that if you take our products, we can effectively -- we have the built-in ACP savings available to you when you really take full advantage of our product set. And so that is a product and a combination that didn't fully exist prior to all of these programs. And I think we can having a wider availability for low income population of these broadband offers, which we have together with our Spectrum One offer combined, I think we can save customers as much, if not more than they were getting through ACP relative to the past.

這與 ACP 效益一樣多，甚至更多，這意味著，如果您使用我們的產品，我們可以有效地——當您真正充分利用我們的產品系列時，我們會為您提供內建的 ACP 節省。因此，這是在所有這些項目之前並不完全存在的產品和組合。我認為，我們可以為低收入者提供更廣泛的寬頻服務，這些寬頻服務與我們的 Spectrum One 服務相結合，我認為我們可以為客戶節省與透過 ACP 相比同樣多的開支，甚至更多。的。

So I think we're in good position to be able to address the base, but the market activity for sure is going to be higher than what has been the past couple of years.

因此，我認為我們有能力解決基礎問題，而且市場活動肯定會比過去幾年更活躍。

Thanks, Chris.

謝謝，克里斯。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝。

Thanks, Peter. And that concludes our call. We'll see you next quarter.

謝謝，彼得。我們的通話到此結束。我們將於下個季度見面。

Thanks, everyone.

謝謝大家。