Charter Communications Inc (CHTR) 2020 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Charter Communications Fourth Quarter 2020 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions)

女士們、先生們，感謝您的耐心等待，歡迎參加Charter Communications 2020年第四季財報電話會議。 （操作說明）

I'd now like to turn the call over to your speaker today, Stefan Anninger. Please go ahead.

現在我把電話交給今天的發言人斯特凡·安寧格。請開始吧。

Good morning, and welcome to Charter's Fourth Quarter 2020 investor call. The presentation that accompanies this call can be found on our website, ir.charter.com, under the Financial Information section. Before we proceed, I would like to remind you that there are a number of risk factors and other cautionary statements contained in our SEC filings, including our most recent 10-K filed this morning. We will not review those risk factors and other cautionary statements on this call, however, we encourage you to read them carefully. 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.

早安，歡迎參加Charter公司2020年第四季投資人電話會議。本次電話會議的簡報可在本公司網站ir.charter.com的「財務資訊」欄位下找到。在會議開始之前，我想提醒各位，我們向美國證券交易委員會（SEC）提交的文件中包含一些風險因素和其他警示性聲明，包括我們今天早上提交的最新10-K表格。本次電話會議我們不會對此類風險因素和其他警示性聲明進行詳細討論，但我們建議您仔細閱讀這些文件。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表述均構成前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述受風險和不確定性因素的影響，可能導致實際結果與歷史結果或預期結果有差異。任何前瞻性陳述僅反映管理階層目前的觀點，Charter公司不承擔任何義務在未來修訂或更新此類陳述或作出其他前瞻性陳述。

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

在今天的電話會議中，我們將提及盈利文件中定義和調整的非GAAP財務指標。這些非GAAP財務指標由Charter公司定義，可能與其他公司使用的類似指標不具可比性。另請注意，除非另有說明，本次電話會議和簡報中提及的所有成長率均按同比計算。

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.

今天參加電話會議的有董事長兼執行長湯姆·拉特利奇，以及財務長克里斯·溫弗瑞。接下來，讓我們把電話交給湯姆。

Thank you, Stefan. 2020 was an unusual year, but it demonstrated and enhanced the strength of our business, and we performed better than expected in a number of areas. The past year has also highlighted the importance of the services we provide, and our robust network handled an immediate conversion to a remote-based economy, enabling work from home, remote education and telehealth services.

謝謝你，斯特凡。 2020年是不同尋常的一年，但它展現並增強了我們業務的實力，我們在許多領域的表現都超出了預期。過去一年也凸顯了我們所提供服務的重要性，我們強大的網路迅速適應了向遠距經濟的轉型，從而支持了居家辦公、遠距教育和遠距醫療服務。

Over the last 10 months, our broadband infrastructure was tested and performed very well. That's because at Charter, we've spent over $35 billion on our network and infrastructure since the close of our transactions in 2016, and it showed up in our 2020 performance.

過去10個月，我們的寬頻基礎設施經歷了測試，表現非常出色。這是因為自2016年交易完成以來，Charter已在網路和基礎設施方面投入超過350億美元，而這些投入在2020年的業績中得到了體現。

For the full year 2020, we added 1.9 million new customer relationships for growth of 6.5%. And we added 2.2 million new Internet customers for growth of 8.3%. We also performed well financially. We grew our adjusted EBITDA by 10% and our free cash flow by 53%.

2020年全年，我們新增了190萬個客戶關係，年增6.5%。此外，我們新增了220萬個網路客戶，較去年同期成長8.3%。財務方面，我們也取得了良好的業績。調整後EBITDA成長了10%，自由現金流成長了53%。

Our residential business performed particularly well, with strength in Internet, and we -- where we added 800,000 more customers than we did the prior year. We remain very optimistic about our opportunity to grow our Internet business, given the quality and value of our product.

我們的住宅業務表現特別出色，網路業務更強勁成長－我們新增用戶比前一年增加了80萬。鑑於我們產品的品質和價值，我們對網路業務的成長前景依然充滿信心。

Despite the outsized growth and some pull forward of demand into 2020, which will drive continued benefits to our revenue and EBITDA going forward, our expectation and plan for 2021 is to revert to the trend we were on pre-COVID and meet or exceed the customer relationship and Internet adds that we achieved in 2019. And we believe our long-term broadband penetration and market position has actually been enhanced.

儘管2020年需求成長迅猛，且部分需求提前至2020年，這將持續推動我們的營收和EBITDA成長，但我們對2021年的預期和計畫是恢復到新冠疫情前的發展趨勢，並達到或超過2019年的客戶關係和網路新增用戶數量。我們相信，我們的長期寬頻普及率和市場地位實際上已經得到提升。

COVID-19 hurt our small business and enterprise businesses, but trends in those parts of our businesses are improving, and we're on our way back to our previous growth rates or better. Our core ad business also suffered, but it's now bouncing back, and core advertising is 95% of what we would have expected from a revenue perspective. We anticipate our advertising business will make a full recovery, with the timing of that recovery dependent on the full recovery of the economy.

新冠疫情對我們的小型企業和大型企業造成了衝擊，但這些業務板塊的發展趨勢正在好轉，我們正逐步恢復到疫情前的增長水平，甚至有望超越疫情前的增長水平。我們的核心廣告業務也曾遭受重創，但目前已開始復甦，收入已達到預期水準的95%。我們預期廣告業務將全面恢復，具體恢復時間取決於整體經濟的全面復甦。

2020 also resulted in the acceleration of efficiency in our core operations. Our self-installation program expanded dramatically from about 50% of sales before the pandemic to a new steady state of over 80% of sales during the fourth quarter of 2020, driving cost savings and improving customer satisfaction. We saw a significant increase in the use of our online and digital sales and self-service platforms, which drives cost savings and higher customer satisfaction.

2020年也加速了我們核心營運效率的提升。我們的自助安裝專案銷售額佔比從疫情前的約50%大幅成長至2020年第四季的80%以上，實現了成本節約並提升了客戶滿意度。此外，我們的線上和數位化銷售及自助服務平台的使用率也顯著提高，這同樣有助於降低成本並提升客戶滿意度。

As we reflect on our 2020 operating performance, we also demonstrated our commitment to our customers, the communities we serve and our employees. We launched a number of community programs, including a remote education offer and the Keep America Connected pledge. In addition, we significantly expanded our Spectrum News coverage areas and opened up our Spectrum News websites to ensure people have access to high-quality local news and information. We rapidly connected and upgraded fiber services to health care providers and donated significant airtime to run public service announcements to our full footprint of 16 million video customers.

回顧2020年的營運業績，我們也展現了對客戶、服務社區和員工的承諾。我們推出了一系列社區項目，包括遠距教育計畫和「保持美國互聯互通」承諾。此外，我們大幅擴展了Spectrum News的覆蓋範圍，並開放了Spectrum News網站，以確保用戶能夠獲得高品質的當地新聞和資訊。我們迅速為醫療機構連接並升級了光纖服務，並捐贈了大量廣播時段，向我們覆蓋的1600萬視訊用戶播放公益廣告。

For our employees, we offered additional paid sick time for COVID-related illnesses and a flex time program to address other COVID issues. We also increased our wage for all hourly field operations and customer call center employees. Our efforts have been recognized by our employees, the local communities and customers we serve and related stakeholders, which brings long-term benefits.

我們為員工提供額外的帶薪病假，以應對與新冠相關的疾病，並推行彈性工作制以解決其他新冠相關問題。此外，我們也提高了所有現場作業和客戶服務中心時薪員工的薪資。我們的努力得到了員工、當地社區、客戶以及相關利益方的認可，這將帶來長遠的益處。

Looking forward, we remain committed to offering a $20 minimum wage and our strategy of employing an in-sourced U.S.-based workforce that offers a long-term career path for our employees. And our call centers and all of our employees are now 100% U.S.-based. Our plans to expand our footprint in rural areas will increase broadband access and help connect well over 1 million homes, which have gone unserved until now. And that doesn't even include our regular build-out to lower density areas, which accelerated in 2020.

展望未來，我們將繼續致力於提供20美元的最低時薪，並堅持僱用美國本土員工的策略，為員工提供長期的職業發展道路。目前，我們的呼叫中心和所有員工都已100%位於美國。我們計劃擴大在農村地區的業務覆蓋範圍，這將提高寬頻接取率，並協助超過100萬戶先前無法連接寬頻的家庭連線網路。這還不包括我們在低密度地區的常規網路建設，而這項進程在2020年顯著加快。

We continue to offer our Spectrum Internet Assist program to millions of lower-income households at affordable prices. And as we look forward to the rest of 2021, we remain focused on driving customer growth by offering high-quality services and products under an operating strategy, which works well in various market conditions. Over the coming months, we plan to add multiple streaming video applications to our deployed WorldBoxes, and all incremental video connections, making it easier for our video customers to access today's most popular streaming content through one device.

我們將繼續以實惠的價格為數百萬低收入家庭提供Spectrum Internet Assist計劃。展望2021年剩餘時間，我們將繼續專注於透過提供高品質的服務和產品來推動客戶成長，並採用一套在各種市場環境下都行之有效的營運策略。未來幾個月，我們計劃在已部署的WorldBox設備和所有新增視訊連接中添加多種串流視訊應用，使我們的視訊用戶能夠更輕鬆地透過一台裝置存取當今最熱門的串流內容。

Our Internet product also continues to improve. During the fourth quarter, we expanded the delivery of our minimum speed offerings of 200 megabits from about 60% of our footprint to close to 75% of our footprint. In the near term, we have a large opportunity to improve data throughput and latency on our network by using our DOCSIS 3.1 technology, which still offers us a long runway to improve our product set. We'll also continue to invest in DOCSIS 4.0 with key vendors and the rest of the industry for even greater capacity and functionality down the road. We're also improving the quality of our WiFi routers and WiFi reception in the home. We recently launched our new WiFi 6 router in our first market, and we will have WiFi 6 router available in nearly all markets by mid-2021. And we now offer companion WiFi pods to improve WiFi reception in the home.

我們的網路產品也持續改進。第四季度，我們將最低速度為 200 兆位元/秒的寬頻服務覆蓋範圍從約 60% 擴大到接近 75%。短期內，我們有機會透過運用 DOCSIS 3.1 技術來大幅提升網路資料吞吐量和降低延遲，這項技術仍為我們進一步完善產品組合提供了充足的空間。我們也將繼續與主要供應商和業內其他企業合作，投資 DOCSIS 4.0 技術，以期在未來實現更大的容量和更強大的功能。此外，我們也不斷提升 WiFi 路由器的品質和家庭 WiFi 訊號接收能力。我們最近在首個市場推出了新款 WiFi 6 路由器，預計到 2021 年年中，我們將在幾乎所有市場推出 WiFi 6 路由器。同時，我們也提供配套的 WiFi 擴展器，以增強家庭 WiFi 訊號接收能力。

Our advanced in-home WiFi service, which is a managed WiFi service that provides customers the ability to optimize their networks while providing greater control of their connected devices, has now been launched across more than 65% of our footprint for new connects. And we will continue to expand that footprint this year.

我們先進的家庭Wi-Fi服務（一種託管式Wi-Fi服務，使客戶能夠優化網路並更好地控制其連接的設備）現已覆蓋超過65%的新用戶。今年我們將繼續擴大覆蓋範圍。

And our mobile service now offers free access to nationwide 5G service. We recently spent $465 million to purchase 210 CBRS Priority Access Licenses. We intend to use those licenses, along with significant unlicensed CBRS spectrum on a targeted 5G small cell site strategy, with our HFC network providing power and backhaul. Those small cells, combined with improving WiFi capabilities, enable better throughput while driving significantly better economics for Charter.

我們的行動服務現已提供免費的全國性 5G 網路存取。我們近期斥資 4.65 億美元購買了 210 張 CBRS 優先存取授權。我們計劃將這些許可證與大量免許可 CBRS 頻譜結合使用，部署有針對性的 5G 小型基地台，並由我們的 HFC 網路提供電力和回程鏈路。這些小型基地台與不斷提升的 Wi-Fi 功能相結合，不僅能夠提高網路吞吐量，還能顯著改善 Charter 的經濟效益。

This year, we'll focus on scaling our systems to actively manage traffic on handsets using our MVNO, WiFi, CBRS spectrum. We will also build some targeted 5G small cell sites, which will help us learn how to pace our purely return-on-investment-based CBRS deployment.

今年，我們將專注於擴展系統，利用我們的MVNO、WiFi和CBRS頻譜主動管理手機流量。我們還將建造一些有針對性的5G小型基地台，這將有助於我們了解如何以投資回報率為導向，合理安排CBRS部署的進度。

In closing, as we look back on 2020, we're very pleased with our performance as it demonstrates that our operating strategy works well for Charter communities, employees and shareholders even in challenging economic and operating environments. And despite the onetime impacts to our P&L, which Chris will cover, we ended the year well ahead of where we expected from a customer growth perspective, providing a higher level of subscription-based revenue and underlying EBITDA than what we would have expected.

最後，回顧2020年，我們對業績非常滿意，這表明即使在充滿挑戰的經濟和營運環境下，我們的營運策略也能為Charter社區、員工和股東帶來良好的效益。儘管損益表受到一些一次性因素的影響（Chris將對此進行詳細介紹），但從客戶成長的角度來看，我們最終的業績遠超預期，訂閱收入和基礎EBITDA均高於預期。

Now I'll turn the call over to Chris.

現在我把電話交給克里斯。

Thanks, Tom. Due to the significant timing impacts of COVID and the different quarterly reporting methodologies for COVID programs across the industry, our customer and financial results on a full year basis is the better overview. So I'll give a brief readout of the fourth quarter, and then I'll discuss our very good 2020 results, set up 2021 and where that leaves us in 2022.

謝謝，湯姆。由於新冠疫情對時間安排造成了重大影響，而且各行業針對新冠疫情項目的季度報告方法各不相同，因此，以全年為基礎的客戶和財務業績更能全面反映我們的情況。我會先簡單介紹一下第四季的情況，然後再討論我們2020年非常出色的業績，展望2021年以及2022年的發展方向。

Looking at Slide 6, including residential and SMB, we grew our Internet customers by 246,000 in the fourth quarter. Internet net adds were down 93,000 versus last year's fourth quarter, because our first 3 quarters of this year were above last year's first 3 quarters by 900,000 net adds. For the full year, we grew our Internet customers by 2.2 million or by 8.3%, our highest ever on an absolute basis.

從投影片6可以看出，包括住宅用戶和中小企業用戶在內，我們第四季的網路用戶增加了24.6萬人。與去年同期相比，第四季網路用戶淨增加9.3萬，這是因為今年前三個季度的淨增用戶比去年同期增加了90萬。全年來看，我們的網路用戶增加了220萬，增幅達8.3%，創歷史新高。

The significant creation of new broadband customers and shifts from competitors to Charter earlier in the year, plus lower market churn, resulting in fewer selling opportunities, drove lower net adds in the fourth quarter when compared to last year. Trends have been improving more recently, and subject to COVID and economic developments, we currently expect full year 2021 customer relationship and Internet net adds to meet or exceed 2019.

今年早些時候，新增寬頻用戶數量顯著增加，且部分用戶從競爭對手轉向Charter，加上市場流失率降低，導致銷售機會減少，這些因素共同推動了第四季度淨新增用戶數低於去年同期水平。近期趨勢有所改善，在受到新冠疫情和經濟發展的影響下，我們目前預計2021年全年客戶關係和互聯網淨新增用戶數將達到或超過2019年水準。

Residential and SMB video customers declined by 35,000 in the fourth quarter, but grew by 56,000 or 0.3% for the full year. Voice customers declined by 103,000 in the quarter and by 148,000 for the full year. Mobile line net adds grew by 315,000 during the quarter, more than last year's fourth quarter. Our yield on mobile sales opportunities continues to improve across our channels, and the lower sequential net additions reflects the lower fourth quarter cable sales I just mentioned. So we're growing mobile nicely, and we're not giving away free handsets to do it. For the full year, we added 1.3 million mobile lines, and we believe we were the fastest-growing mobile operator in our footprint during the fourth quarter and for the full year.

第四季住宅和中小企業視訊用戶減少了3.5萬，但全年增長了5.6萬，增幅為0.3%。語音用戶第四季減少了10.3萬，全年減少了14.8萬。行動線路淨增用戶本季增加了31.5萬，高於去年同期水準。我們各通路的行動銷售機會殖利率持續提升，季比淨增用戶數的下降反映了我剛才提到的第四季有線電視銷售額的下滑。因此，我們的行動業務成長良好，而且我們並沒有透過贈送免費手機來實現這一目標。全年，我們新增了130萬條行動線路，我們相信，在第四季和全年，我們都是覆蓋區域內成長最快的行動營運商。

Turning to Slide 7. Fourth quarter revenue increased by 7.3% year-over-year or 5.6%, excluding political advertising. Full year revenue grew by 5.1% or 4.3%, excluding political. Fourth quarter EBITDA, as shown on Slide 8, increased by 10.2% year-over-year and 9.9% for the full year. You'll notice in today's materials that we're no longer isolating cable-specific revenue, EBITDA and free cash flow metrics, but we will continue to isolate mobile revenue, expenses, working capital and CapEx for investors through 2021.

請看幻燈片7。第四季營收年增7.3%，若不計政治廣告，則較去年同期成長5.6%。全年營收年增5.1%，若不計政治廣告，則較去年同期成長4.3%。如投影片8所示，第四季EBITDA年增10.2%，全年年增9.9%。您會注意到，在今天的資料中，我們不再單獨列出有線電視業務的營收、EBITDA和自由現金流指標，但我們將繼續為投資者單獨列出行動業務的營收、支出、營運資本和資本支出，直至2021年。

A few comments on the most notable fourth quarter expense items, including certain COVID-related expense impacts during the fourth quarter and for the full year 2020 on Slide 9. Regulatory connectivity and produced content expenses declined by 10.7%, primarily driven by NBA games pushed into 2021. Cost to service customers increased by 4.4% year-over-year, driven by 6.5% customer relationship growth, the hourly wage increase we instituted earlier in the year and COVID flex time benefits to employees. That was partly offset by lower bad debt, which is due to better payment trends during COVID.

關於第四季最值得關注的支出項目，以及第四季和2020年全年受新冠疫情影響的某些支出項目（詳見投影片9），以下是一些說明。監管連結和內容製作支出下降了10.7%，主要原因是NBA比賽延後到2021年舉行。客戶服務成本年增4.4%，主要原因是客戶關係成長6.5%，年初實施的時薪上漲以及為員工提供的疫情彈性工作時間福利。壞帳減少部分抵消了上述成長，這得益於疫情期間更好的付款趨勢。

For the full year, we generated $3.2 billion in net income attributable to Charter shareholders. And as shown on Slide 11, our 2020 capital expenditures totaled $7.4 billion, including just over $500 million in mobile as we continue to invest to support current and future growth. We invested significantly in capacity upgrades at the national and local levels to stay ahead of higher data usage, and we haven't slowed down on new build, including construction in rural areas.

全年歸屬於Charter股東的淨利為32億美元。如第11頁投影片所示，我們2020年的資本支出總額為74億美元，其中包括略高於5億美元的行動業務投資，我們將繼續投資以支持當前和未來的成長。我們大力投資於國家和地方層面的網路容量升級，以滿足日益增長的數據使用需求，並且我們並未放緩新建項目（包括農村地區的建設）的步伐。

We continued to purchase significant DOCSIS 3.1 modems for new connects and equipment upgrades and saw a high attach rate for our advanced in-home WiFi service. For the full year 2021, we expect cable capital expenditures as a percentage of cable revenue to be similar or lower than in 2020. We're still in the RDOF quiet period, and we'll isolate those effects for investors in the future.

我們持續採購大量 DOCSIS 3.1 數據機，用於新增連線和裝置升級，且我們先進的家庭 Wi-Fi 服務的用戶增購率很高。我們預計 2021 年全年有線電視資本支出佔有有線電視收入的比例將與 2020 年持平或更低。目前我們仍處於 RDOF 的靜默期，未來我們將單獨向投資人說明這些影響。

We expect our 2021 mobile capital expenditures to be similar to 2020 levels as we build out more mobile stores than we originally anticipated. And we will spend some dollars to scale our CBRS efforts in mobile back-office systems. Leaving aside the pace of ROI-based deployment of small cells, we would expect mobile CapEx for stores and systems to be materially lower in '22 and beyond.

我們預計2021年的行動資本支出將與2020年持平，因為我們將建造比原計劃更多的行動門市。此外，我們也將投入資金擴大CBRS在行動後台系統的應用規模。暫且不考慮基於投資報酬率的小型基地台部署速度，我們預計2022年及以後，門市和系統的行動資本支出將大幅下降。

We generated $7.1 billion of consolidated free cash flow in 2020, up 53% from 2019. Currently, we don't expect to be a meaningful federal taxpayer until 2022.

2020年，我們實現了71億美元的合併自由現金流，比2019年成長了53%。目前，我們預計到2022年才會成為重要的聯邦納稅人。

For the full year 2020, we repurchased 21 million Charter shares and Charter Holdings common units, approximately 7% of our shares and units for $12.1 billion. Since September of 2016, we've repurchased nearly $40 billion of stock or approximately 32% of our shares and units at an average price of $394 per share.

2020年全年，我們回購了2,100萬股Charter股票和Charter Holdings普通股，約占我們股份和單位總數的7%，總金額達121億美元。自2016年9月以來，我們已回購了近400億美元的股票，約占我們股份和單位總數的32%，平均回購價格為每股394美元。

Let me now focus on how 2020 sets up 2021 and where that leaves us in 2022. Last year's customer growth was extraordinary, and we saw a significant demand for our products early on. Across the existing base and those newly acquired customers, we had record low churn of all types through the remainder of the year, which also reduced sales opportunities in the market in the second half. As Tom mentioned, we added nearly 2 million customer relationships compared to 1.1 million in 2019, and we added 2.2 million broadband customers compared to 1.4 million in 2019. And yet, total transaction activity in 2020, which is the sum of gross connects and churn, was actually lower than in 2019, driven by very low churn during the pandemic.

現在，我想重點談談2020年如何影響2021年，以及這將如何影響2022年的發展。去年的客戶成長非常顯著，我們很早就看到了市場對我們產品的巨大需求。無論是現有客戶或新客戶，我們在2020年剩餘的時間裡都維持了各類客戶流失率的歷史新低，這也導致下半年市場銷售機會減少。正如湯姆所提到的，我們新增了近200萬客戶關係，而2019年為110萬；寬頻用戶也新增了220萬，而2019年為140萬。然而，由於疫情期間客戶流失率極低，2020年的總交易量（即總連線數與流失數之和）實際上低於2019年。

Last year's financial activity was also unique. From a revenue perspective, 2020 was pressured by the sale of NaviSite in 2019 and COVID-related reductions for the Keep Americans Connected program and sports programming credits earlier in the year.

去年的財務狀況也頗為特殊。從收入角度來看，2020 年受到 2019 年 NaviSite 出售以及年初因新冠疫情導致的「保持美國人互聯互通」項目和體育節目經費削減等因素的影響。

From a cost perspective, we saw savings in a number of areas. In programming, the interruption and cancellation of sporting events drove $163 million of sports cost savings. Similarly, the cancellation and shift of games also drove cost reductions and timing benefits of over $200 million in our regulatory, connectivity and produced content line related to our Lakers and Dodgers RSNs.

從成本角度來看，我們在多個領域都實現了節約。在節目製作方面，體育賽事的中斷和取消為我們節省了1.63億美元的體育賽事相關成本。同樣，比賽的取消和改期也為我們與湖人隊和道奇隊區域體育網絡相關的監管、網絡連接和內容製作方面節省了超過2億美元的成本和時間成本。

Cost to service customers benefited from lower customer transactions and historically low bad debt, but that was more than offset by wage increases and COVID flex time we provided to our employees. In total, 2020 adjusted EBITDA grew by 9.9%.

客戶服務成本受益於客戶交易量下降和歷史低點的壞賬，但工資增長和我們為員工提供的疫情彈性工作時間完全抵消了這些影響。 2020 年調整後 EBITDA 整體成長 9.9%。

For 2021, our baseline assumption is that the COVID-19 vaccine will be widely dispensed and that the economy will return to normal activity by the middle of this year. But the reality is that we don't know. But that assumption suggests that the full year 2021 customer net adds should look more like full year 2019 net adds with a return to more normal churn levels, driving higher transaction activity, including higher connect activity than in 2020 despite lower net adds.

對於2021年，我們的基本假設是新冠疫苗將廣泛分發，經濟將在今年年中恢復正常。但現實情況是，我們無法確定。不過，這個假設表明，2021年全年新增客戶數量應該更接近2019年全年的水平，客戶流失率也將恢復正常，從而推動交易活動增加，包括連接活動量高於2020年，儘管新增客戶數量有所下降。

Not only will quarterly net add growth comparisons to 2020 be somewhat irrelevant but the current environment will drive abnormal variances when comparing individual quarters to 2019. And our underlying 2021 financial performance will be difficult to discern without the use of our 2020 COVID schedules shown on Slide 9 and on a quarterly basis, again on Slide 19.

不僅將季度淨新增成長率與 2020 年進行比較意義不大，而且當前的環境還會導致與 2019 年各季度進行比較時出現異常差異。此外，如果不使用投影片 9 所示的 2020 年新冠疫情相關時間表，以及投影片 19 所示的季度時間表，我們將難以辨別 2021 年的潛在財務表現。

From a financial perspective, we expect 2021 revenue growth to benefit from the significant customer growth we had in 2020, the lack of COVID-related credits in '21 and an improving SMB, core advertising and enterprise outlook, partly offset by the absence of political advertising revenue in 2021, all of which means we'll see significant year-over-year growth rate swings between quarters. From a cost perspective, we expect 2021 programming to grow at a higher rate than last year, in part because we don't expect last year's sports programming credits to recur.

從財務角度來看，我們預計2021年的收入成長將受益於2020年顯著的客戶成長、2021年沒有與新冠疫情相關的抵扣以及中小企業、核心廣告和企業市場前景的改善，但部分會被2021年政治廣告收入的缺失所抵消。所有這些因素都意味著各季度之間的年增速將出現顯著波動。從成本角度來看，我們預計2021年的節目製作成本成長將高於去年，部分原因是去年的體育節目扣款預計不會再次出現。

Regulatory connectivity and produced content will also face a onetime step-up due to a full return of sports rights cost in 2021 and the delayed start to the current NBA season, pushing Lakers games from 2020 into 2021. Cost to service customers will also increase as transaction activity rises despite less net adds, as I mentioned. We're also providing an additional outsized raise to our hourly employees as we nearly closed the gap to a $20 minimum hourly wage. And as nonpay churn returns to normal levels, we'll also see a onetime step-up in bad debt expense also returning to normal levels.

由於2021年體育賽事版權費用全面恢復，以及本賽季NBA開賽時間延後（湖人隊比賽從2020年延後到2021年），監理連結和內容製作成本將出現一次性成長。正如我之前提到的，儘管淨新增客戶數量減少，但隨著交易活動的增加，客戶服務成本也將上升。此外，由於我們已基本達到每小時20美元的最低工資標準，我們將為小時工提供額外大幅加薪。隨著非工資流失率恢復正常水平，壞帳支出也將出現一次性增長，並恢復到正常水平。

With all that in mind, we expect 2021 adjusted EBITDA growth to be good, but lower than in 2020, primarily driven by the net effects of COVID, including related wage increases, higher programming and RSN costs, normalized bad debt, and the lack of political advertising in 2021.

考慮到所有這些因素，我們預計 2021 年調整後的 EBITDA 增長將表現良好，但低於 2020 年，主要原因是 COVID 的淨影響，包括相關的工資增長、更高的節目製作和 RSN 成本、正常化的壞賬以及 2021 年政治廣告的缺乏。

So while we still expect 2021 to be a good year, 2022 should be even stronger. Assuming our 2021 Internet net adds are similar to 2019, and the economy returns to normal, our momentum in 2022 will be very strong. SMB and enterprise revenue growth rates should be back to our expectations. Core advertising should return to full growth, and 2022 should be a strong non-presidential political advertising year. We won't face the same onetime step-up and return to normal programming and sports rights cost. We'll be past the large onetime step-up in our hourly wages that will occur in 2021. And we also won't have the same onetime step-up in customer transactions and bad debt expense also in the cost to service customers line. So while it's very early to get excited about 2022, given the ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, 2022 could be the year of the financial and operating performance that we originally expected for 2020.

因此，儘管我們仍然預期2021年將是業績良好的一年，但2022年應該會更加強勁。假設我們2021年的網路淨新增用戶數與2019年持平，且經濟恢復正常，那麼我們在2022年的發展動能將非常強勁。中小企業和大型企業的收入成長率應該會恢復到我們的預期水準。核心廣告業務應該會恢復全面成長，2022年非總統選舉政治廣告市場應該會表現強勁。我們不會面臨同樣的一次性成本上漲以及節目和體育賽事版權成本恢復正常的情況。我們將度過2021年一次性大幅上漲的時薪階段。此外，我們也不會面臨客戶服務成本中客戶交易和壞帳支出方面的一次性上漲。因此，儘管考慮到當前宏觀經濟的不確定性，現在就對2022年抱持樂觀態度還為時過早，但2022年有可能實現我們最初預期在2020年取得的財務和營運業績。

So when we look back at 2020, we are pleased with 2.2 million Internet net additions, 10% EBITDA growth and our performance generally in what was a unique year. We're well positioned for 2021. And as a result of the consistency and customer-friendly nature of our operating model, we remain very optimistic about the medium and long-term growth prospects for Charter.

回顧2020年，我們對新增220萬網路用戶、10%的EBITDA成長以及在這一特殊年份的整體業績感到滿意。我們已為2021年做好充分準備。憑藉我們營運模式的穩定性和以客戶為中心的特性，我們對Charter的中長期成長前景依然非常​​樂觀。

Operator, we're now ready for questions.

接線員，我們現在可以開始接受提問了。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from the line of Jonathan Chaplin with New Street.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自喬納森·卓別林與新街的連結。

Two quick questions, if I may, Chris. First, you finished off by saying that 2022 could be the year you deliver the performance you expected in 2020. Can you remind us what you're anticipating in 2020 in terms of financial performance?

克里斯，請容許我問兩個問題。首先，您最後提到，2022年可能是您實現2020年預期業績的一年。能否再回顧一下您對2020年財務表現的預期？

And then with the CBRS deployments kicking in, it sounds like from the pacing of CapEx that a lot of the deployment will happen perhaps towards the end of 2020. How do you expect that to impact wireless margins -- sorry, the deployment will happen towards the end of 2021. How do you expect that to impact wireless margins in 2022? What could the wireless margin for -- the margin for the wireless business look like once the CBRS is fully deployed?

隨著CBRS部署的推進，從資本支出進度來看，大部分部署工作可能在2020年底完成。您預計這將如何影響無線業務的利潤率？ ——抱歉，部署工作將在2021年底完成。您預計這將如何影響2022年的無線業務利潤率？ CBRS全面部署後，無線業務的利潤率會是什麼樣子？

So the first question was what we were expecting in 2020. Well, the trends were -- that we were expecting in 2020 were an acceleration of customer and Internet net additions relative to 2019, a political advertising year, which indeed we had. The continued benefits of our service model driving lower transactions increasing the underlying profitability of the services by providing great customer service, all of which actually happened, some to different degrees. But we had a tremendous amount of other unrelated noise that was in the system for 2020, some of which was difficult, put pressure on the financials, some of which was artificially good.

所以第一個問題是，我們對2020年的期待是什麼？我們預期2020年的客戶和網路淨增長量會比2019年（政治廣告年）加速成長，而事實也的確如此。我們的服務模式持續帶來優勢，透過提供優質的客戶服務，降低了交易量，從而提高了服務的潛在盈利能力，這些都發生了，只是程度有所不同。但2020年也存在大量其他無關的干擾因素，其中一些帶來了困難，給財務狀況造成了壓力，而另一些則人為地利好了一些。

And in 2021, what we will have is the reversal of many of those trends, good and bad. And so it's just going to create a whole bunch of noise inside of 2021, including the pressure around political advertising. And I think if you use the schedule that we've provided on 2019 and the previous disclosure we've had around political advertising, there's a lot of detail there, and it will require some work. But I think it puts everybody in a position to really understand how 2021 will develop.

2021年，許多趨勢，無論好壞，都將逆轉。這將在2021年引發許多紛擾，包括政治廣告的壓力。我認為，如果我們參考2019年的時間表以及之前披露的政治廣告相關信息，會發現其中包含大量細節，需要一些研究。但我認為這能讓大家更了解2021年的發展趨勢。

And then when you get into 2022, you really won't have -- you shouldn't have, depending how this year goes, as I mentioned, you shouldn't have any of that noise, should continue to have really good momentum in the marketplace. All of the underlying trends around cost of service remain, in fact, have maybe been accelerated through COVID. We'll have another political advertising year in 2022.

到了2022年，你真的不會——或者說，正如我之前提到的，根據今年的情況，你不應該受到任何干擾，市場應該繼續保持良好的發展勢頭。所有與服務成本相關的潛在趨勢仍然存在，事實上，新冠疫情可能加速了這些趨勢的發展。 2022年將又是政治廣告投放旺季。

And so I don't want to get over our skis about looking that far out, given what uncertainties still in front of us. And -- but I think 2021 will still be a good year, and I think 2022 will be an even cleaner year, really demonstrate everything that's really happening behind the curtains at Charter and its multiyear operating model deployment.

所以，鑑於我們面前仍然存在許多不確定因素，我不想過早展望未來。但我認為2021年仍然會是好年頭，2022年將會更加穩健，真正展現Charter及其多年營運模式部署背後所發生的一切。

The CBRS deployment in 2021, it's captured in what I talked about, the mobile CapEx for this year. I think it's going to be pretty small, in line with what Tom mentioned in terms of what we're looking to achieve this year.

2021 年的 CBRS 部署，正如我之前提到的，已經包含在今年的行動資本支出計畫中。我認為規模會很小，這與 Tom 提到的今年我們想要達成的目標一致。

As it relates to 2022, as we scale the ROI-based deployment of the radio access networks, it will really just be based on the achievement of lower operating cost. And we expect the paybacks on that to be relatively quick. But it will still be fairly de minimis in terms of its overall impact, both on CapEx in the grand scheme of things as well as the wireless margins. And the pace of that rollout will really be dictated based on how quickly we can go and how quickly we can realize those type of returns. So it's a little early to outline that fully. I don't think it's going to have a material impact either way inside of 2021.

就2022年而言，隨著我們基於投資報酬率（ROI）擴大無線接取網部署規模，其關鍵在於降低營運成本。我們預期這方面的投資報酬率將相對迅速。但就整體影響而言，無論是對資本支出或無線利潤，其影響都微乎其微。部署速度將取決於我們推進的速度以及實現預期回報的速度。因此，現在全面闡述還為時過早。我認為在2021年內，這不會產生實質影響。

Yes. I would just add to that, that the returns on CBRS deployment after 2021, really, mostly, will be specific to the demand utilization in the location where the radios are placed. And so to some -- in a complete sense, it's an opportunistic strategy. Wherever our cost would be lower by investing in more CBRS radio deployment, our costs will go down in such a way that we'll get a return on investment.

是的。我還要補充一點，2021 年後 CBRS 部署的回報，其實主要取決於無線電部署地點的實際需求利用率。因此，從某種意義上說，這是一種機會主義策略。只要透過增加 CBRS 無線電部署能夠降低成本，我們的成本就會下降到足以獲得投資回報的程度。

And I guess just to sort of fill out Chris' response on trends. If you think about the long-run trend that we've been on of an accelerating growth rate in terms of broadband growth, that trend is still in place, and it exists for '19, '20, '21, and we think as well into 2022. And what's really happened is you've got a lot of noise in the '20 and '21 P&Ls. But the net of it, all of it is, if you spread it out over a multiyear period is that the trend continues, but we have 800,000 more Internet customers than we would have otherwise.

我想補充一下克里斯關於趨勢的回答。如果我們回顧寬頻成長的長期趨勢，就會發現這種成長速度一直在加快，而且這種趨勢在2019年、2020年、2021年依然存在，我們認為這種趨勢還會延續到2022年。實際上，2020年和2021年的損益表數據中存在著許多波動。但總的來說，如果把這些數據放大到多年來看，就會發現這種趨勢仍在繼續，而且我們的網路用戶數量比預期增加了80萬。

Our next question comes from the line of Vijay Jayant with Evercore.

我們的下一個問題來自 Vijay Jayant 與 Evercore 的對話。

So Chris, I just wanted to come back to broadband numbers. Obviously, your wireless attachment to broadband historically has been, I think, 70% to 90%. This quarter, it's like 145. And I think you mentioned that churn sort of was low. Did 4Q sort of see, sort of elevated churn and broadband tied to Keep America Connected? And how much of that sort of 600,000, I think, cohort is still sort of in the system and needs to be sort of cleansed out. Any thoughts on that?

克里斯，我想再跟你聊聊寬頻數據。顯然，以往無線網路用戶接入寬頻的比例大概在70%到90%之間。而這個季度，這個比例高達145%。我記得你之前提到過用戶流失率比較低。那麼第四季度用戶流失率是否有所上升，以及寬頻用戶是否與「保持美國互聯」（Keep America Connected）計劃有關？這60萬用戶中，有多少人仍在使用寬頻，需要進行清理？你對此有什麼看法？

And then obviously, your video subs in 2020 were pretty good. And I think you sort of used some of your flex on your carriage minimums on your low-tier offers. Can you just talk about -- is that a trend we should continue to see in '21? Or are we sort of saturated that opportunity given how much you've done on those lower-tier video?

顯然，你們2020年的影片訂閱量相當不錯。而且我覺得你們在低階套餐的最低訂閱量方面也做了一些調整。請問－這種趨勢在2021年會持續嗎？還是說，考慮到你們在低階視訊套餐上的投入，我們已經有點飽和了？

So Vijay, let me answer the trend question and the Keep America Connected and the REO effect and whether that's in or out of the system. I think that's the thrust of your question. I think the REO pulled demand forward from an acquisition point of view. And the Keep America Connected pulled reduced churn forward and, therefore, pushed net gain up forward.

維傑，讓我來回答你關於趨勢、保持美國互聯計劃以及REO（已收回房產）的影響，以及這些因素是否影響到現有體系的問題。我認為這才是你問題的關鍵。我認為從收購的角度來看，REO提前拉動了需求。而維持美國互聯計畫則提前降低了客戶流失率，因此也提前提高了淨收益。

And if you think about the way churn works, if you have more disconnects, you have more connects to keep the same growth, just keep the same net adds. And so there is less net adds in the fourth quarter because those net adds were pulled forward by the Keep America Connected program. And therefore, there was less activity in the fourth quarter as a result of the normal way that churn interacts with sales.

如果你仔細想想客戶流失的運作方式，你會發現，如果流失的客戶更多，那麼為了維持同樣的成長，也就是保持淨新增客戶數量不變，就需要更多的新客戶來維持連結。因此，第四季的淨新增客戶數量較少，是因為這些新增客戶被「保持美國互聯」計畫提前了。所以，由於客戶流失對銷售的正常影響，第四季的交易活動減少。

But as we look at '21 and look at how our sales have returned and we look at the behavior of our customers, we think that the effects of all of that are pretty much out of our numbers already. And we expect to return to a more normal kind of connect and disconnect rate and a more normal net adds rate that's consistent with the kinds of growth rates that we had in 2019. And we see that already in our performance so far through -- through the date of today in 2021.

但展望2021年，觀察我們的銷售復甦情況以及客戶行為，我們認為所有這些因素的影響基本上已經從我們的數據中消失。我們預計連線和斷開連線率以及淨新增用戶率將恢復到更正常的水平，與2019年的成長率保持一致。截至2021年今日，我們已經從目前的業績中看到了這一點。

And then on video trends.

然後是視訊趨勢。

Oh, video, yes, I'm sorry. We had good results in video for 2 reasons: One, we had outsized growth in connectivity. And as a result of that, by having market share shift to us from other video providers as they bought our broadband, we grew our video against a macro trend of declining multichannel video growth. And that macro trend hasn't gone away. And I expect, in general, video growth for the industry will continue to decline maybe at a moderate pace. And I don't think we'll have quite the Internet growth that we had in 2020 and 2021. So I think that just that fact alone is going to put more pressure on our video growth going forward.

哦，視頻，是的，很抱歉。我們在影片方面取得了不錯的成績，原因有二：第一，我們的連結性實現了超乎尋常的成長。正因如此，隨著其他視訊供應商購買了我們的寬頻服務，市場份額轉移到了我們這裡，我們才能在多頻道視訊成長普遍下滑的大趨勢下逆勢成長。而且，這種大趨勢至今仍未消失。我預計，整體而言，整個產業的影片成長將繼續放緩，或許速度會比較溫和。而且，我認為我們無法再像2020年和2021年那樣實現網路的高速成長。因此，我認為僅此一點就會給我們未來的視訊成長帶來更大的壓力。

But on the other hand, we've been able to grow with OTT products and smaller packages. And we still have opportunities there, and we're forecasting our internal growth in those areas to continue to accelerate. And so the net of those 2 things is difficult to say, but I think we'll do better than the industry, in general, if you just look at multichannel video growth. Whether that will be positive or negative, I'm not sure.

但另一方面，我們憑藉OTT產品和小型套餐實現了成長。我們在這方面仍然擁有發展機遇，我們預測這些領域的內部成長將繼續加速。因此，這兩方面綜合起來的影響很難說，但我認為，如果只看多頻道影片的成長，我們整體上會優於產業平均。至於這種成長是好是壞，我還不確定。

Vijay, maybe you'll go back and take a look at what both Tom and I said, not just now in the Q&A, but also in the prepared remarks. But to just list them out, the Q4 impacts for broadband and relationships: one, there's some pull forward of sales that we've talked about earlier in the year; two, there was less market churn that drives lower sales funnel, particularly for a share taker like us, that has an impact; and three, the nuance that Tom was going through is that the Keep Americans Connected customers meant we kept those subs already in Q2 and Q3, which was helpful to our net adds.

Vijay，或許你可以回去看看我和Tom剛才說的話，不僅是現在的問答環節，還有我們事先準備好的發言稿。簡單來說，第四季度寬頻和客戶關係方面的影響有三點：第一，正如我們年初提到的，銷售提前了；第二，市場流失率降低，這有利於銷售漏斗底部的銷售，尤其對我們這種市場份額爭奪者來說，影響顯著；第三，Tom提到的一個細微差別是，“保持美國人的互聯互通”計劃的客戶意味著我們留住了第二季度和第三季度

But subs that might have turned around and reconnected in Q4 as a sale opportunity, we'd already retained them, so they've stuck. And so they didn't turn into a quarter growth sales or net add opportunity inside the fourth quarter. The last one is true but nuanced, and those 3 reasons are the big drivers and what gives us confidence around us returning back to more like to 2019.

但那些原本可能在第四季度重新聯繫並成為潛在銷售機會的訂閱用戶，我們已經留住了他們，所以他們沒有繼續使用我們的服務。因此，他們並沒有在第四季度轉化為季度成長或新增銷售機會。最後一點雖然正確，但比較複雜。以上三點是主要驅動因素，也是我們有信心恢復到2019年水準的原因。

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

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的布雷特·費爾德曼。

Yes. Just some points of clarification around just the answer you just gave before. It sounds like all of the churn that you might have experienced from Keeping America Connected and other payment plans was sort of addressed prior to the fourth quarter. So the first question is, was there any residual churn from that customer base in the fourth quarter? Or do you feel like you have just gotten to a normalized churn rate?

是的。我只是想就您之前的回答做一些澄清。聽起來您在第四季之前已經基本解決了「保持美國互聯」和其他付費方案帶來的客戶流失問題。所以第一季度是，第四季這部分客戶群還有流失嗎？還是您覺得客戶流失率已經恢復正常了？

And then you talked about lower overall churn in the market. I was hoping to get your thoughts on that. Do you think this has to do with lockdowns or anything that was COVID-related? And are you seeing so far this year, admittedly, early in this year, evidence that market behavior is returning to normal?

然後您提到市場整體換手率下降。我想聽聽您對此的看法。您認為這與封鎖或其他與新冠疫情相關的因素有關嗎？而且，就今年而言，您是否看到市場行為正在恢復正常的跡象？當然，今年才剛開始。

So let me talk about the Keep Americans Connected churn and the remote education offer, tackle both of those at the same time. The remote education offer, the retention of those customers very much look like normal acquisitions. So that had been the case earlier in the year. That continued to be the case through Q4. And for all the obvious reasons, we've been tracking that very diligently.

那麼，讓我來談談「保持美國人互聯」計畫的流失情況以及遠距教育服務，我們一起來探討一下這兩個問題。遠距教育服務的客戶留存情況與正常的獲客情況非常相似。今年早些時候情況如此，第四季也一直如此。出於顯而易見的原因，我們一直在密切關注這種情況。

The Keep Americans Connected customers who -- where we wrote off significant portions of their balance, put them back into a current state, they've been paying and they've been retained as customers, and they've been paying much better than we expected. They have a slightly higher nonpay rate than your average customer base. You would expect that because of where they came from. But it's actually really good, and it's only a few percentage points difference of overall retention.

我們為「保持美國互聯」專案的客戶免除了大部分欠款，使他們的帳戶恢復正常狀態。這些客戶一直在按時還款，我們成功留住了他們，而且他們的還款情況遠超預期。他們的欠款率略高於一般客戶，這也在意料之中，畢竟他們來自不同的背景。但實際上，他們的留存率非常高，與其他客戶相比，整體留存率僅相差幾個百分點。

So that was not a driver inside of Q4. And because we've been watching those payment trends really since July or August when we started that program to reset the receivables, we don't see that raising its head now or in the future. So those are good customers. They always were, and I think we did the right thing to put them back into current receivable state.

所以這並非第四季業績成長的主要驅動因素。而且，自從七、八月啟動應收帳款重置計畫以來，我們一直在密切關注這些付款趨勢，因此我們認為現在或將來都不會出現問題。這些都是優質客戶，他們一直都是，我認為我們讓他們恢復到目前應收帳款狀態的做法是正確的。

The lower overall market churn, really the 2 big driver -- 3 drivers there. One is that because stimulus has been on and off, but overall, people's account balances are high, they don't have places to spend money, and because of the importance of the services that we provide, we've been paid. Our payment profile for customers is good. It's better than it's ever been, and that applies to probably anybody inside the broadband and probably video space right now.

整體市場流失率降低，其實是兩大主要驅動因素──或者說是三個主要驅動因素。首先，由於刺激政策時斷時續，但總體而言，人們的帳戶餘額很高，他們沒有其他地方可以花錢；其次，由於我們提供的服務非常重要，我們收到了款項。我們的客戶付款情況良好，比以往任何時候都好，這幾乎適用於目前寬頻和視訊領域的任何公司。

So nonpay disconnect for the marketplace is at record lows. Mover churn is down significantly. So there's not a lot of movers in the market now. And people aren't itching to have people in their homes switching out their services. So general voluntary churn tends to be down and across the market, we believe, as well. So that lower overall market churn drives less selling opportunities for a share taker like us, which has an impact on your ability to sell and to bring on new customers.

因此，市場上的未付款客戶流失率已降至歷史新低。搬家公司的流失率也顯著下降。所以目前市場上的搬家公司並不多。人們也不急於更換搬家服務。因此，我們認為，整個市場的自願流失率普遍下降。較低的市場整體流失率意味著像我們這樣的市佔率收購者的銷售機會減少，這會影響您的銷售能力和獲得新客戶的能力。

We have started to see transaction activity start to return to normal. It is not by any means normal. And which is why I said our outlook for 2021 on net adds and for Internet and customer relationships really is a full year outlook. And I would not get too tied up at all as it relates to quarter-by-quarter comparisons. That's not what we're talking about. And the beginning of '21 will look more like 2020 in terms of customer activity. And I think normalization takes place progressively over the course of the year.

我們已經開始看到交易活動逐漸恢復正常。但這遠未達到正常水平。也因為如此，我才說我們對2021年新增用戶、網路業務和客戶關係的展望其實是一整年的展望。我完全不建議過度糾結於季度比較。這不是我們討論的重點。就客戶活動而言，2021年初的情況會更接近2020年。我認為正常化是一個循序漸進的過程，會持續一年之久。

Our next question comes from the line of Craig Moffett with MoffettNathanson.

我們的下一個問題來自 Craig Moffett 和 MoffettNathanson 的連線。

Two questions, if I could. First, I just want to step back from the broadband conversation for a moment. You've historically said that your preference is to keep prices low and to try to grow quickly, particularly when the opportunity for this kind of breakneck growth of 2020 was available. Is there any consideration now that growth is returning to a more normal pace that it might be time to perhaps be a little more reliant on price as most of the peers are in the industry in optimizing total revenue growth?

如果可以的話，我想問兩個問題。首先，我想暫時先不談寬頻的話題。您過去曾表示，您傾向於保持低價並力求快速成長，尤其是在2020年那樣出現高速成長的機會時。現在成長速度逐漸恢復正常，您是否考慮過像業內大多數同行一樣，在優化總收入成長方面更加依賴價格策略？

And then second was if I could return to the conversation on CBRS small cells, maybe we can just think about it in terms of an objective for how much traffic do you think you might be able to offload from the variabilized MVNO traffic to what you could eventually put over, just the CBRS portion, not so much WiFi, but just the CBRS portion out-of-home?

其次，如果我能回到關於 CBRS 小型基地台的討論，也許我們可以從目標的角度來考慮，你認為你能將多少流量從可變 MVNO 流量卸載到你最終可以傳輸的流量上，僅僅是 CBRS 部分，而不是 WiFi，僅僅是家庭以外的 CBRS 部分？

All right. Well, Craig, Tom here. We have had outsized growth. And I don't think any broadband provider in America connected -- had more net gain than Charter. So I think our strategy in terms of pricing and packaging has worked in terms of growth.

好的。我是湯姆，克雷格。我們的成長非常迅猛。我認為在美國，沒有任何一家寬頻供應商的淨成長能超過Charter。所以我認為，我們在定價和套餐方面的策略在成長方面是成功的。

And we deferred a rate that we had planned in 2021, actually, because of the opportunity, and because of the social circumstance and our obligation during that social circumstance. So we did do a data-only rate increase in the fourth quarter of 2020. And our relative prices compared to our competitors and compared to our peers is still situationally gives us an opportunity to continue to grow rapidly. So we'll evaluate that through time, but we like the model we have, and we think there's a lot of growth in front of us.

實際上，由於機會、社會環境以及我們在這種社會環境下應盡的義務，我們推遲了原定於2021年實施的費率調整。因此，我們在2020年第四季僅上調了數據流量費用。與競爭對手和同行相比，我們的相對價格仍然為我們提供了繼續快速成長的機會。我們會隨著時間的推移對此進行評估，但我們對目前的模式感到滿意，並認為未來還有很大的成長空間。

With regard to CBRS and how much traffic we can unload, I think that's a through-time kind of question. I think over the long haul, meaning 4, 5 years, it could be up to 1/3 of our traffic. That's current -- that would currently be on an MVNO kind of basis. But again, that's not -- that's opportunistic. It depends on the traffic flows. It depends on the quantity of flows and where they are and whether it pays for us to put out the capital to reduce those costs. But it isn't necessary.

關於CBRS以及我們可以分流多少流量，我認為這需要時間推移才能確定。從長遠來看，例如4到5年，CBRS可以分流我們高達三分之一的流量。這是目前的情況－目前這指的是基於虛擬業者（MVNO）模式的流量。但再次強調，這並非一時興起，而是取決於流量狀況。流量的大小和分佈情況，以及投入資金降低成本是否划算。但目前來看，這並非必要。

And if you think through our WiFi deployment as well, there's a mixture between WiFi and CBRS in terms of offload and how that works, that's not that easy to forecast. But 80% of all mobile traffic today is on WiFi -- of mobile traffic -- mobile device traffic is on WiFi. And as a result of that, we are the wireless connectivity company, if you really think about it. We have 400 million wireless devices connected to our network. And CBRS is just a tool, along with WiFi, for us to improve that connectivity experience. And it's not -- as that happens, we've looked at CBRS strictly as a incremental opportunity from a return-on-investment point of view to move traffic onto our network. But it also does have the potential of increasing the consumers' experience in terms of their satisfaction because of the quality of that connection. And so that's sort of an unstated opportunity going forward, hard to quantify, but part of our strategy.

如果你仔細考慮我們的WiFi部署，你會發現WiFi和CBRS在流量分流及其運作方式上是混合使用的，這很難預測。但如今，80%的行動流量——行動裝置流量——都透過WiFi傳輸。因此，仔細想想，我們其實是一家無線連接公司。我們的網路連接了4億台無線設備。 CBRS只是我們提升連線體驗的工具之一，與WiFi並駕齊驅。我們一直以來都將CBRS視為一種從投資報酬率角度出發的增量機會，旨在將流量轉移到我們的網路上。但它也確實有潛力提升消費者的滿意度，因為連結品質更高。因此，這可以說是未來一個難以量化的潛在機遇，也是我們策略的一部分。

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

我們的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的道格·米切爾森。

A couple of questions. I just wanted to follow the wireless thread here a little bit. Pretty interesting comments there, Tom. And Chris said earlier, you're not giving away free phones to get the wireless net adds. Is there a business model where at some point you -- it makes sense to do so? I would think from an MVNO standpoint, just selling in discounted service into new broadband subs runs out of gas at some penetration level. It might last quite a while, and it might be a profitable business for you. But is -- I don't know if the updated MVNO with Verizon puts you in a position with different economics, if offloading through your wireless traffic puts you in different economics. Is there a point where you can get more aggressive going after customers relative to what the big 3 are doing.

我有幾個問題。我只是想稍微關註一下無線網路相關的話題。湯姆，你的評論很有意思。克里斯之前也說過，你們不會透過贈送免費手機來吸引無線網路用戶。是否存在某種商業模式，讓你們在某個階段──也就是某個時期──可以考慮這樣做？我認為，從虛擬業者（MVNO）的角度來看，僅僅向新寬頻用戶提供折扣服務，在達到一定滲透率後就會失去吸引力。這種模式或許能持續相當長一段時間，也可能對你們有利可圖。但是——我不知道與Verizon合作升級後的MVNO模式是否會改變你們的經濟狀況，或者透過無線流量分流是否會改變你們的經濟狀況。是否存在一個臨界點，讓你們可以比三大業者更積極地爭取客戶？

And then separately, I saw your marketing spend was up 1%, but the connects were down, and you indicated the 4Q environment was still pretty light. If you could just talk about your marketing strategy and how that might evolve in 2021, that would be helpful.

另外，我看到你們的行銷支出成長了1%，但轉換率卻下降了，而且你們也提到第四季市場環境依然比較疲軟。如果你們能談談你們的行銷策略以及2021年的發展方向，那就太好了。

Look, I'd start off with the wireless business model as a stand-alone business model, we've always said we don't think is very good. And that includes the subsidy of handsets and something that we're not huge fans of if we can avoid it. The real value to Charter is to increase the overall connectivity of the service we already provide. Today, the 80% of traffic, mobile traffic that's already carried over our network and to extend our reach with Internet and our connectivity and have the opportunity to provide customers a broadband and a wireless connection, a mobile connection at a cheaper price than they usually pay for in the household for just mobile alone. And that's a way for us to drive connectivity penetration.

首先，我想說的是，我們一直認為無線業務模式本身並不理想。這包括補貼手機，如果可以避免，我們並不熱衷於這種做法。對Charter來說，真正的價值在於提升我們現有服務的整體連結性。目前，80%的流量都是透過我們的網路傳輸的行動流量。我們希望透過網路和網路連線擴展覆蓋範圍，讓客戶有機會以比他們通常單獨支付的行動網路費用更低的價格，同時獲得寬頻和無線連線。這將有助於我們提高網路連線的普及率。

Today, our goal is not to use -- we think there's so much value in the mobile and broadband combined offer that we have, there's not a need to go subsidize the handset. The handsets are -- have a longer life now than they have in the past, so we'd like to avoid that for all the obvious reasons. Does that mean over time that could evolve? It could, given the value that we create through that customer relationship, but it's not a focus for us. And we don't think that in and of itself is a great business model.

如今，我們的目標是不使用補貼——我們認為我們現有的行動和寬頻組合服務價值巨大，無需再補貼手機。而且，現在的手機使用壽命比以往更長，所以出於顯而易見的原因，我們希望避免這種情況。這是否意味著隨著時間的推移，情況可能會有所改變？考慮到我們透過客戶關係創造的價值，這種情況可能會改變，但這並非我們關注的重點。而我們認為，補貼本身並非一個理想的商業模式。

The marketing and sales tied to the lower sales inside of the fourth quarter just because sales were lower doesn't mean that we weren't trying to acquire more. And so we were active in the marketplace. We didn't pull back. And so we continued to spend a pretty similar amount of marketing and sales dollars despite the fact that we had lower connects inside the quarter.

第四季銷售額下降並不代表我們沒有努力拓展市場。我們依然積極參與市場活動，沒有縮減投入。因此，儘管第四季度客戶轉換率有所下降，我們仍然保持了與上季相近的行銷和銷售預算。

You still have higher than quarter-over-quarter -- on fourth quarter over last year's fourth quarter.

第四季仍高於去年同期水準。

Yes.

是的。

And is there anything sort of new or different you would expect to do as the market normalizes in 2021 relative to your behavior in 2020? And are there different channels or different prices? Or the model is working and it's steady as she goes?

相對於2020年的行為，隨著市場在2021年逐漸恢復正常，您是否預期會採取一些新的或不同的做法？通路或價格是否會有所不同？還是說目前的模式運作良好，一切都將保持穩定？

It's working very nicely for us. Our sales yield, as we look at it, which is the amount of sales that we make per available transaction, continues to improve. And our whole opportunity structure around selling mobile connections continues to improve. We have -- even during the pandemic, we managed to build 180 new stores in 2020. And we expect to finish off our store construction in '21. So we'll have a fully deployed walk-in retail environment, which is not yet fully realized. So we would expect that would have an impact on our growth rate in 2021 in a positive way.

這對我們來說非常有利。從銷售收益率（即每筆可用交易的銷售額）來看，我們的業績持續提升。我們圍繞行動連接銷售的整體機會結構也在不斷優化。即使在疫情期間，我們仍然在2020年新建了180家門市。我們預計在2021年完成所有門市建設。屆時，我們將擁有一個全面部署的實體零售環境，而目前這一目標尚未完全實現。因此，我們預計這將對我們2021年的成長率產生正面影響。

Our yield, meaning the amount of mobile connections that we sell as a percentage of every person who enters one of our stores, continues to go up, and the same is true of every phone call we receive through our call centers. And as a result of that, we're pretty optimistic about our ability to continue to grow the business the way it's currently structured inside of our pricing and marketing machine.

我們的轉換率，也就是我們銷售的行動連線數量佔每位進店顧客的百分比，持續成長；我們呼叫中心接到的每一個電話也是如此。因此，我們對在現有定價和行銷體系下繼續保持業務成長的能力非常樂觀。

Last one, how many stores then in 2021 are left to build?

最後一個問題，到 2021 年還有多少家店需要興建？

I'm not sure. But I think we end up with 750.

我不太確定，但我認為最終結果應該是750。

I think it's a couple of hundred. 180, 200 is my recollection.

我想應該是幾百個吧。我記得是180、200個。

Our next question comes from the line of Phil Cusick with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的菲爾·庫西克。

I understand you're still restricted on RDOF. But you called out the extensions to rural markets in your penetration -- or in your presentation. Can you confirm that the steady CapEx intensity guide includes anything you might do in rural? And should we expect to see a step change in line extension CapEx as you push harder on those new home build-outs, both brownfield and greenfield? And then any change we should expect next year as rural maybe becomes more important.

我知道您在農村發展基金 (RDOF) 方面仍然受到限制。但您在市場滲透率報告或簡報中提到了拓展農村市場。您能否確認，穩定的資本支出強度指南是否涵蓋了您可能在農村地區開展的任何活動？隨著您加強推進新建住宅項目（包括棕地和綠地），我們是否應該預期看到生產線擴展資本支出顯著變化？此外，隨著農村市場的重要性日益凸顯，我們明年應該預期哪些方面會改變？

So Phil, the capital intensity outlook that I gave did not -- on one hand, did not include any incremental amount for RDOF. On the other hand, not sure given the amount of planning work and what we'll need to stand up this year. I don't know that it's going to be that material this year. Anyway, in any event, it would be at the back end of this year. As you look out and generally, our core cable capital intensity is continuing to decline. There's pushes between different years in 2020, and we delayed certain network projects to be able to accommodate the significant amount of scalable infrastructure spend to accommodate the significant traffic increase. And to some extent, in 2021, we're addressing those projects that were delayed out of 2020 and continuing because of the high-traffic demand to spend more an outsized amount on node splitting and different traffic capacity expenditure in '21 that we would normally expect.

所以菲爾，我之前給的資本密集度預測——一方面，沒有包含RDOF的任何增量。另一方面，考慮到今年大量的規劃工作以及我們需要建造的基礎設施，我不確定今年的RDOF是否會有太大的變化。無論如何，它應該會在今年年底出現。總的來說，我們的核心電纜資本密集度持續下降。 2020年各年份之間存在一些調整，我們推遲了一些網路項目，以便能夠容納大量可擴展的基礎設施支出，從而應對顯著的流量增長。在某種程度上，2021年我們將著手處理那些因高流量需求而推遲到2020年的項目，這些項目需要在節點拆分和不同的流量容量支出方面投入比往年更多的資金。

So there will be, over time, things like RDOF or CBRS deployment or different levels of DOCSIS 3.1 or DOCSIS 4.0 deployment that may knock us temporarily off our track. But the reality is core cable capital intensity as a percentage of revenue, the trend is on the decline, and nothing's really changed. And to the extent that we have RDOF spend or CBRS spend, we're going to isolate that for the market to be able to have clear visibility as to, not only what we're spending, but what we think we're getting out of those projects as well.

因此，隨著時間的推移，諸如RDOF或CBRS部署，或不同層級的DOCSIS 3.1或DOCSIS 4.0部署等項目可能會暫時打亂我們的計畫。但實際上，核心有線電視資本密集度佔收入的比例呈現下降趨勢，並沒有根本性的變化。對於RDOF或CBRS方面的支出，我們將單獨列出，以便市場能夠清楚了解我們的支出狀況以及我們認為這些項目能帶來的收益。

Our next question comes from the line of Ben Swinburne with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Ben Swinburne。

Tom, I wanted to come back to your comments on video in '21. And I guess, beyond, I think you talked about -- I think it was either you or Chris, talking about streaming apps on WorldBox and sort of accelerating those trends. What is -- how would you describe your video strategy sitting here today? Any sense of how big the WorldBox kind of installed base is? And is this a strategy that could be relevant for broadband-only customers over time?

湯姆，我想再談談你2021年關於影片的看法。我想，除此之外，你（或克里斯）也談到了WorldBox上的串流應用，以及這些應用程式如何加速了這個趨勢。那麼，你今天會如何描述你的影片策略？你覺得WorldBox的用戶基數有多大？隨著時間的推移，這種策略是否也適用於僅使用寬頻的使用者？

Yes. The answer is yes. It can be. So our video strategy is to continue, obviously, to sell the products that we've historically sold and to sell them with a reasonable margin attached to them and to make money with them.

是的，答案是肯定的，可以做到。所以我們的視訊策略顯然是繼續銷售我們過去一直銷售的產品，並以合理的利潤率出售，從而從中獲利。

But to also include them as part of our overall connectivity relationship with our customer base in a way that allows us to satisfy the needs of as many customers as possible as a result of our network. And that includes the addition of new video tiers or products that may be skinnier or differentiated or targeted in a way that they create customer satisfaction at reasonable prices. Because the long-run price trend of the core video product continues to be negative, meaning it -- programming costs continue to go up, and that's obviously creating a lot of the friction in the marketplace and the decline of that business.

但我們也希望將它們納入我們與客戶群的整體連結關係中，從而透過我們的人脈滿足盡可能多的客戶需求。這包括增加新的影片套餐或產品，這些套餐或產品可能更精簡、更具差異化或更有針對性，以合理的價格創造客戶滿意度。因為核心視訊產品的長期價格趨勢持續惡化，這意味著節目製作成本不斷上漲，這顯然造成了市場摩擦和業務下滑。

We also think that we want to have a transactional marketplace on a consumer-friendly interface so that a customer of ours have access to all the products they may want to buy that are direct to consumer. And there's an opportunity for us in that as well to be sellers of that and to operate a store, a consignment store and to create value for us and customers through that mechanism. WorldBox is deployed. I'm not sure what the full count is.

我們也希望建立一個用戶友好的交易平台，讓我們的客戶能夠直接購買他們想要的所有產品。同時，我們也有機會成為這些產品的賣家，經營一家寄售商店，並透過這種機制為我們自己和客戶創造價值。 WorldBox 已經部署完畢，但我還不確定具體數量。

Several million.

數百萬美元。

Yes. It's millions, multiple millions of households, and those WorldBoxes deployed and those on the increment have an app store in them now -- or an app section in them now, where we can place the products that people want to get on the same set-top box as our traditional cable TV services.

是的。數以百萬計的家庭，已經部署的 WorldBox 和正在升級的 WorldBox 現在都內建了應用程式商店——或者說內建了應用程式專區，我們可以將人們想要的產品放在同一個機上盒上，就像我們提供的傳統有線電視服務一樣。

And in addition to that, we have the opportunity to offer an app-based platform to our data-only customers. And we haven't offered that IP-only app product, although we've opened up some of our video products through apps to our Internet-only customer base like our news channels, for instance. So that opportunity is in front of us as well. And -- but ultimately, I expect that all of our customers will have opportunities to transact with us in a video marketplace.

除此之外，我們還有機會為僅使用數據流量的客戶提供基於應用程式的平台。雖然我們已經透過應用程式向僅使用網路的客戶群開放了一些視訊產品（例如我們的新聞頻道），但我們尚未提供僅限IP位址的應用程式產品。因此，我們也面臨這樣的機會。最終，我預計我們所有的客戶都將有機會在視訊交易平台上與我們進行交易。

Our last question comes from the line of Bryan Kraft with Deutsche Bank.

最後一個問題來自德意志銀行的布萊恩‧克拉夫特。

Chris, I wanted to ask you, how are you now thinking about where you want to be ideally within your target leverage range? And on a related topic, would you expect the pace of share repurchases to be similar, more or less in '21 versus '20? And then lastly, if the corporate tax rate does increase back to 28% for the 2022 tax year and beyond, would that change the way you think about the target leverage ratio?

克里斯，我想問你，你現在是如何考慮理想的槓桿率目標範圍的？另外，關於股票回購的速度，你認為2021年和2020年相比會大致相同嗎？最後，如果2022財年及以後的企業所得稅稅率回升至28%，這會改變你對目標槓桿率的看法嗎？

So Bryan, the target leverage range. We're comfortable in the 4 to 4.5x. We've been at the high end of that range on a consolidated basis and declining in that range on a cable-only basis. Depending on how you want to look at it, you can pick which one you think is more relevant. But we're comfortable inside the range. We don't have any plans to change that target leverage range.

所以布萊恩，關於目標槓桿率範圍，我們覺得4到4.5倍比較適合。從整體來看，我們的槓桿率一直處於這個範圍的高端；而從僅考慮有線電視業務的角度來看，槓桿率則在這個範圍內呈下降趨勢。你可以根據自己的理解選擇更相關的數據。但我們對目前的槓桿率範圍感到滿意，也沒有任何改變目標槓桿率範圍的計畫。

That would include if the tax rate next year were to go up. We've been in that tax rate before, admittedly, with NOLs, which will be expiring. But given the strength of the cash flow, subscriber growth and cash flow and the business performance and the sustainability of not only the operating model, but the balance sheet structure that we have, it's pretty unique. I don't see any reason at this stage as we sit here today, that we'd be changing our target leverage range.

這其中也包括明年稅率調漲的情況。誠然，我們之前也經歷過類似的稅率，當時涉及淨經營虧損（NOL），但這些虧損即將到期。然而，鑑於我們強勁的現金流、用戶成長、業務表現以及營運模式和資產負債表結構的可持續性，我們目前的情況相當獨特。就目前而言，我認為沒有任何理由改變我們的目標槓桿率範圍。

On buybacks, we never give guidance. And the reason for that is to make sure that management and the Board are not in a position where we feel like we're going to be handcuffed based on previous comments in terms of creating shareholder value. And so we want to retain flexibility as it relates to investing in high ROI projects inside the business, first port of call, doing attractive M&A, and to the extent that we don't have somebody else's stock to buy that's better than buying our own stock, we'll do buybacks, which is what we've been doing the past several years, in addition to launching some really high ROI projects and spending on those where they're available.

關於股票回購，我們從不給予指引。原因在於，我們要確保管理階層和董事會不會因為先前關於創造股東價值的言論而感到束手束腳。因此，我們希望在投資公司內部高投資回報率項目方面保持靈活性，這是我們的首要任務，也是我們進行有吸引力的併購的先決條件。如果找不到比回購自家股票更划算的收購標的，我們就會進行股票回購，這也是我們過去幾年一直在做的事情。此外，我們也會啟動一些真正高投資報酬率的項目，並在條件允許的情況下進行投資。

Right now, I don't see any massive change to what we're doing as it relates to our overall capital structure or buybacks. But I'm not going to sit here and give an outlook or a guidance as it relates to buybacks for the year for all those reasons.

目前，就我們的整體資本結構或股票回購而言，我認為不會有任何重大變化。但基於上述種種原因，我不會在此就今年的股票回購計畫給予展望或指引。

And thanks, everyone. That concludes our call.

謝謝大家。通話到此結束。

Thank you, everyone.

謝謝大家。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference call. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝各位的參與。現在可以掛斷電話了。