Charter Communications Inc (CHTR) 2020 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Charter's Third Quarter 2020 Investors Call. (Operator Instructions)

女士們、先生們，感謝各位的耐心等待，歡迎參加Charter 2020年第三季投資人電話會議。（操作說明）

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Stefan Anninger. Please go ahead, sir.

現在我謹將會議交給今天的演講嘉賓斯特凡·安寧格。請繼續，先生。

Good morning, and welcome to Charter's Third Quarter 2020 Investor Call. The presentation that accompanies this call can be found on our website, ir.charter.com, under the Financial information section.

早安，歡迎參加Charter公司2020年第三季投資人電話會議。本次電話會議的簡報可在我們的網站 ir.charter.com 的「財務資訊」部分找到。

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

在繼續之前，我想提醒各位，我們在提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中包含許多風險因素和其他警示性聲明，包括我們最新的 10-K 表格和今天早上提交的 10-Q 表格。本次電話會議我們將不討論這些風險因素和其他警示性聲明。不過，我們建議您仔細閱讀。我們在本次電話會議中就預期、預測、計畫和前景所作的各種評論構成前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述存在風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與歷史結果或預期結果有所不同。任何前瞻性陳述僅反映管理階層目前的觀點，Charter 不承擔任何義務修改或更新此類陳述，也不承擔未來作出其他前瞻性陳述的義務。

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

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

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

在今天的電話會議上，我們有董事長兼執行長湯姆·拉特利奇，以及財務長克里斯·溫弗瑞。那麼，我們把電話交給湯姆吧。

Thank you, Stefan. Despite the significant challenges that COVID-19 has posed, we've been able to operate our business throughout the pandemic. Early in the pandemic, we offered our customers a set of programs, including our Remote Education Offer and Keep America Connected pledge that supported customers' needs, resulting in a significantly higher number of customers enjoying our services. In addition, we opened our WiFi hotspots across our footprint for public use, opened up our Spectrum News websites to ensure people have access to high-quality local news and information, 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 subscribers.

謝謝你，斯特凡。儘管新冠肺炎疫情帶來了巨大的挑戰，但我們仍能在整個疫情期間維持業務運作。在疫情初期，我們向客戶提供了一系列計劃，包括遠距教育計劃和「保持美國互聯互通」承諾，以滿足客戶的需求，從而使享受我們服務的客戶數量顯著增加。此外，我們在覆蓋範圍內開放了 WiFi 熱點供公眾使用，開放了 Spectrum News 網站，以確保人們能夠獲取高質量的本地新聞和信息，快速連接併升級了醫療保健提供商的光纖服務，並捐贈了大量廣播時間，向我們覆蓋範圍內的 1600 萬視頻用戶播放公益廣告。

Our employees were given 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 service call center employees by $1.50 an hour, and we remain on path to a $20 minimum wage by 2022.

我們為員工提供了額外的帶薪病假，以應對與新冠肺炎相關的疾病，並實施了彈性工作制，以解決其他新冠肺炎相關問題。我們還將所有現場營運和客戶服務呼叫中心員工的工資提高了每小時 1.50 美元，並且我們仍然朝著 2022 年實現最低工資 20 美元的目標邁進。

Our ability to operate for our customers and communities despite the challenging environment is a testament to the quality of our in-sourced and onshore workforce, our safety precautions, and in many cases, our ability to operate remotely. Our sales and care agents have continued to sell our products and to provide outstanding service to our customers. Most of our stores have been able to remain open throughout the pandemic, serving customers in need. Our field operations personnel, that handle professional installations and repairs, have continued their work in the field, servicing customers in their homes and maintaining the quality of our physical plant.

儘管面臨嚴峻的環境，我們依然能夠為客戶和社區提供服務，這證明了我們內部和在岸員工的素質、我們的安全預防措施，以及在許多情況下，我們遠端運作的能力。我們的銷售和售後服務人員一直致力於銷售我們的產品，並為我們的客戶提供卓越的服務。疫情期間，我們大部分的門市都得以繼續營業，為有需要的顧客提供服務。我們的現場操作人員負責專業的安裝和維修工作，他們一直在現場為客戶提供服務，並維護我們設施的品質。

Our plant construction has continued, and we've actually seen plant miles and passings increase more this year than last. And our product development team has continued to develop and roll out various product improvements, including updates and enhancements to our video, Internet and mobile products.

我們的工廠建設一直在繼續，今年的工廠里程和通行量實際上比去年增加了更多。我們的產品開發團隊不斷開發和推出各種產品改進方案，包括對我們的影片、網路和行動產品進行更新和增強。

Our ability to continue to operate well under the circumstances is also the result of investments we've made in various parts of our business over the last several years, including our investments in systems integrations and automation; our self-installation program, which ran at over 80% of installations during the quarter; our online and digital sales and self-service platforms; and our network, including DOCSIS 3.1, which provided ample bandwidth to withstand surging use with residential data usage for Internet-only customers remaining at an elevated 600 gigabytes per month during the third quarter.

在當前情況下，我們能夠繼續良好運營，也得益於過去幾年我們在業務各個方面進行的投資，包括對系統集成和自動化方面的投資；我們的自助安裝計劃，該計劃在本季度完成了超過 80% 的安裝；我們的在線和數字銷售及自助服務平台；以及我們的網絡，包括 DOCSIS 3.1，該網絡提供了互聯網的使用量600 GB 的高點。

Our operating and investment strategy has allowed us to sustain and accelerate our customer and financial growth. During the quarter, we added 537,000 residential and small business Internet customers versus 380,000 in the prior year quarter. And in the past 12 months, we've added 2.3 million Internet customers and 2 million overall customer relationships. We're growing well and gaining share against all our competitors in all of our markets regardless of competitive infrastructure. In the third quarter, we grew our mobile lines by 363,000; 87,000 more than in the third quarter of last year and continued acceleration from last quarter.

我們的營運和投資策略使我們能夠維持並加速客戶和財務成長。本季度，我們新增了 537,000 名住宅和小型企業網路用戶，而去年同期為 38 萬名。在過去的 12 個月裡，我們新增了 230 萬網路用戶和 200 萬個客戶關係。無論競爭對手的基礎設施如何，我們都發展良好，並在所有市場中不斷擴大市場份額。第三季度，我們的行動線路增加了 36.3 萬條，比去年第三季增加了 8.7 萬條，並且延續了上一季的成長動能。

We recently purchased 210 CBRS priority access licenses in 106 counties across all our key DMAs for just over $460 million. Over a multiyear period, we'll execute on our inside-out strategy with small cells attached to our existing network using unlicensed and now our licensed spectrum based on a disciplined return-on-investment approach, consistent with our goal of reducing mobile operating costs.

我們最近斥資超過 4.6 億美元，在我們所有主要 DMA 的 106 個縣購買了 210 個 CBRS 優先接入許可證。在多年時間內，我們將實施由內而外的策略，利用未授權頻譜和現在的授權頻譜，將小型基地台連接到我們現有的網路中，並採用嚴格的投資回報方法，以實現我們降低行動營運成本的目標。

Turning to the third quarter financials. We grew consolidated EBITDA by over 13%, and our third quarter free cash flow grew by nearly 40% year-over-year. Looking forward, and subject to what happens with the virus, unemployment and stimulus, we expect our broadband and mobile products to continue to drive demand, and churn and growth to return to pre-pandemic levels. SMB has actually performed better than we expected, and our ability to grow will also be partly tied to the economy. In enterprise, retail sales activity is picking back up despite limited on-site access, and those new sales get installed in the coming -- as those new sales get installed in the coming months, we expect enterprise revenue growth to pick back up.

接下來來看第三季財務數據。我們的合併 EBITDA 成長超過 13%，第三季自由現金流年增近 40%。展望未來，在疫情、失業和刺激措施等因素的影響下，我們預計我們的寬頻和行動產品將繼續推動需求，客戶流失率和成長將恢復到疫情前的水平。中小企業的實際表現優於我們的預期，而我們的成長能力也將在一定程度上與經濟狀況掛鉤。在企業領域，儘管現場訪問受到限制，零售銷售活動正在回升，而且這些新銷售將在未來幾個月內完成安裝——隨著這些新銷售在未來幾個月內完成安裝，我們預計企業收入成長將回升。

Our advertising business is improving, and our core ad business, excluding political, is about 90% back to normal, in part because of the amount of sporting events that are now airing. So core ad sales are improving, and we still expect political advertising to be meaningfully -- a meaningful contributor in the fourth quarter.

我們的廣告業務正在好轉，除政治廣告外，我們的核心廣告業務已恢復正常約 90%，部分原因是現在播出了大量的體育賽事。因此，核心廣告銷售額正在改善，我們仍然預期政治廣告將在第四季做出重要貢獻。

To maintain that growth, we'll continue to invest in our network so that we can continue to offer new and better products than our competitors. In the coming years, we expect data usage per customer to continue to grow, and we're prepared to deliver more throughput across our network.

為了保持這種成長勢頭，我們將繼續投資於我們的網絡，以便我們能夠繼續提供比競爭對手更新更好的產品。未來幾年，我們預計每位客戶的資料使用量將持續成長，我們已做好準備，在我們的網路上提供更高的吞吐量。

The growth in demand for data is and will be driven by a number of factors, including the growth of IP video services, including video conferencing and gaming. Also, the number of growing IP devices connected to our network, which is nearing 400 million devices, and new and emerging products and services are being developed as we speak, such as e-learning or telemedicine in 4K, virtual reality or holographic formats, for example.

數據需求的成長現在和將來都會受到多種因素的驅動，包括 IP 視訊服務（包括視訊會議和遊戲）的成長。此外，連接到我們網路的 IP 設備數量也在不斷增長，已接近 4 億台設備，正如我們所見，新的和新興的產品和服務也在不斷開發，例如 4K 電子學習或遠距醫療、虛擬實境或全像格式等。

We're continuously increasing the capacity in our core hubs and augmenting the network to improve speeds and performance. In the near term, however, we have a large opportunity to improve throughput and latency by continuing to use already deployed DOCSIS 3.1 technology, which still has a long runway. And additional bandwidth tools available to us today include the conversion of the distribution network to DOCSIS 3.1 delivery for all products, including video, broadband and telephony. By allocating more plant spectrum to DOCSIS 3.1 IP services, we have the ability to offer symmetrical gigabit-plus speeds.

我們正在不斷增加核心樞紐的容量，並擴充網路以提高速度和效能。不過，在短期內，我們有很大的機會透過繼續使用已經部署的 DOCSIS 3.1 技術來提高吞吐量和降低延遲，這項技術還有很長的發展空間。我們今天可用的其他頻寬工具包括將分發網路轉換為 DOCSIS 3.1 傳輸，用於所有產品，包括視訊、寬頻和電話。透過向 DOCSIS 3.1 IP 服務分配更多頻譜資源，我們能夠提供對稱的千兆以上速度。

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. The DOCSIS 4.0 specification allows for multiple paths to reach 10gig and higher speeds, including Full Duplex DOCSIS and Extended Spectrum DOCSIS. Both 3.1 and 4.0 DOCSIS can be deployed in an economically efficient way as the market dictates. Our network evolution strategy allows us to offer superior connectivity products to meet changing consumer demand and extend our growth strategy and drive free cash flow.

我們將繼續與主要供應商和業內其他企業共同投資 DOCSIS 4.0，以實現更大的容量和功能。DOCSIS 4.0 規範允許多種路徑達到 10G 及更高的速度，包括全雙工 DOCSIS 和擴展頻譜 DOCSIS。3.1 和 4.0 DOCSIS 都可以根據市場需要以經濟高效的方式進行部署。我們的網路演進策略使我們能夠提供卓越的連接產品，以滿足不斷變化的消費者需求，擴展我們的成長策略並推動自由現金流。

Before turning the call over to Chris, I'd once again like to thank Charter's employees for their hard work, dedication and diligence throughout the pandemic. They've been asked to go above and beyond their regular duties, and they have delivered.

在將電話交給克里斯之前，我想再次感謝Charter的員工們在整個疫情期間的辛勤工作、奉獻精神和勤勉態度。他們被要求承擔超出常規職責範圍的工作，而且他們也做到了。

Now I'll turn the call over to Chris.

現在我把電話交給克里斯。

Thanks, Tom. Turning to customer results on Slide 5 of our presentation. We grew total residential and SMB customer relationships by approximately 2 million over the last 12 months, or by 6.8% and by 457,000 in the third quarter. Including residential and SMB, we grew our Internet customers by 537,000 in the quarter and by 2.3 million or 8.8% over the last 12 months.

謝謝你，湯姆。接下來，我們將在簡報的第 5 頁展示客戶成果。在過去 12 個月中，我們的住宅和中小企業客戶總數增加了約 200 萬，增幅為 6.8%；第三季增加了 45.7 萬。包括住宅用戶和中小企業用戶在內，本季我們的網路用戶增加了 53.7 萬，過去 12 個月增加了 230 萬，增幅達 8.8%。

Video grew by 67,000 in the quarter, better than last year's third quarter decline of 75,000 video customers. The positive performance was driven by churn benefits, particularly when bundled with broadband. And similarly, wireline voice declined by only 25,000 compared to a loss of 190,000 in the prior year quarter. Mobile line net adds accelerated again to 363,000 in the quarter.

本季視訊用戶增加了 67,000 人，優於去年第三季視訊用戶減少 75,000 人的情況。正面的業績表現主要得益於客戶流失帶來的收益，尤其是在與寬頻捆綁銷售的情況下。同樣，與去年同期下降 19 萬次相比，固話語音通話量僅下降了 2.5 萬次。本季行動線路淨新增數量再次加速成長至 36.3 萬條。

To put what is already a strong third quarter subscriber result into perspective, remember that our Q2 results of 755,000 customer relationship net adds and 850,000 Internet net adds already included the benefit of our COVID programs. And our third quarter results reflect any churn out of those programs.

為了更清楚了解第三季強勁的用戶成長情況，請記住，我們第二季新增客戶關係用戶 75.5 萬，新增網路用戶 85 萬，其中已經包含了我們 COVID 計畫帶來的收益。我們的第三季業績反映了這些項目的任何流失。

Our year-to-date customer growth, shown on Slide 6, remains the right metric for industry comparability given different reporting. So in the third quarter, we saw excellent retention rates for our Remote Education Offer. Churn has been similar to regular new customer acquisition churn.

鑑於不同的報告方式，我們今年迄今的客戶成長（如投影片 6 所示）仍然是行業可比性的正確指標。因此，在第三季度，我們的遠距教育課程的留存率非常高。客戶流失率與常規新客戶獲取流失率類似。

We relaunched the program during late in September with de minimis impact on our third quarter Internet net adds. Going forward, we expect the acquisition volume of this offer to be significantly lower than the original program. And given the high retention rate of customers added during the first half of this year, we won't be breaking out this offer separately.

我們在 9 月下旬重新啟動了該計劃，對我們第三季度互聯網淨新增用戶的影響微乎其微。展望未來，我們預期此次收購規模將遠低於原計劃。鑑於今年上半年新增客戶的留存率很高，我們不會單獨推出此優惠。

Our Keep Americans Connected program completed in late June, and we saw good retention of those customers in the third quarter. In the second quarter, we put approximately 200,000 customers that were past normal disconnection back into current status through a write-off of their debt. And so far, the vast majority are paying with minimal difference to normal customers. So the retention has been much better than our expectations.

我們的「保持美國人互聯互通」計畫於 6 月下旬完成，我們在第三季看到了這些客戶的良好留存率。第二季度，我們透過註銷債務的方式，使約 20 萬名已超過正常斷電期限的客戶恢復了正常斷電狀態。到目前為止，絕大多數人支付的價格與一般顧客的價格幾乎沒有差異。因此，客戶留存率遠超乎我們的預期。

The development of customers' ability to pay generally, though, through employment or subsidies remains the key driver for our short-term residential outlook. As I mentioned last quarter, our customer growth performance should be measured by our full year performance rather than a particular quarter. As the third quarter progressed, we could already see the market returning to more normal churn activity and net add levels, and we expect that to be the case in Q4.

不過，透過就業或補貼提高客戶的支付能力，仍是我們短期住宅市場前景的關鍵驅動因素。正如我上個季度提到的，我們的客戶成長績效應該以全年業績來衡量，而不是以某個特定季度的業績來衡量。隨著第三季的推進，我們已經可以看到市場恢復到更正常的客戶流失率和淨新增客戶水平，我們預計第四季也會如此。

Turning to the financials on Slide 7. As we expected, there continue to be moving parts due to COVID. And I'll reference some of those items, which we've again laid out in Slide 9 of today's presentation, with full year summary on Slide 19.

接下來先來看看第 7 頁的財務數據。正如我們預期的那樣，由於新冠疫情的影響，各項因素仍在不斷變化。我將提及其中的一些項目，這些項目我們在今天簡報的第 9 張投影片中再次列出，第 19 張投影片則提供了全年總結。

Residential revenue grew by 4% in the quarter, primarily driven by accelerating relationship growth and similar PSU, bundle and video mix trends we've seen over several quarters. The 6.9% customer relationship growth in residential was partially offset by a $218 million onetime adjustment for estimated sports network rebates that we intend to credit to video customers. Due to accounting treatment, which I'll cover in a moment, not all of that rebate estimate was offset in the current period expense.

本季住宅收入成長了 4%，主要得益於客戶關係的加速成長以及我們在過去幾季中看到的類似 PSU、捆綁銷售和視訊組合趨勢。住宅客戶關係成長 6.9%，但部分被 2.18 億美元的一次性體育網絡退款調整所抵消，我們打算將這筆款項返還給視訊客戶。由於會計處理的原因（我稍後會提到），並非所有的退款估算都在當期費用中被抵銷。

SMB revenue grew by 1.5%. And while revenue growth was slow this quarter due to the first half volume and SMB customers that remain on our seasonal plan, our customer growth has accelerated despite a still tough economic climate for small and medium business.

中小企業收入成長了1.5%。儘管由於上半年銷售和仍採用季節性計劃的中小企業客戶，本季營收成長緩慢，但儘管中小企業的經濟環境依然嚴峻，我們的客戶成長卻加速了。

Spectrum Enterprise revenue declined by 4.3% year-over-year, driven by the sale of NaviSite in the prior year period and the continued pressure from the wholesale side of the business. While the comparability issue for NaviSite goes away after Q3, wholesale, in particular cell tower backhaul, has been challenged and probably continues that way until late next year based on current activity.

受去年同期出售 NaviSite 以及批發業務持續承壓的影響，Spectrum Enterprise 的營收年減了 4.3%。雖然 NaviSite 的可比性問題在第三季後就會消失，但批發業務，特別是蜂窩塔回傳業務，一直面臨挑戰，而且根據目前的市場情況來看，這種情況可能會持續到明年年底。

Retail enterprise, which is the vast majority of our enterprise revenue, is growing around 6%, driven more by pre-COVID sales than the last 6 months' performance. As Tom mentioned, enterprise sales activity has now picked back up despite limited on-site access. As those new sales get installed in the subsequent months, we expect enterprise revenue growth can recover and begin to accelerate next year.

零售企業是我們企業收入的絕大部分，其成長率約為 6%，這主要得益於新冠疫情前的銷售額，而不是過去 6 個月的業績。正如湯姆所提到的那樣，儘管現場訪問受到限制，但企業銷售活動現在已經回暖。隨著這些新銷售在接下來的幾個月中逐步實現，我們預計企業收入成長將在明年恢復並開始加速。

Spectrum Reach third quarter advertising revenue increased by 17%, primarily driven by political. Excluding political, core ad revenue was down by about 10%, which is reflected on Slide 9's COVID impacts. So our core, very much tied to the economy, is coming back and was significantly better than the second quarter with or without the recent heavy sports load. Obviously, we expect the fourth quarter to benefit from political as well. Mobile revenue totaled $368 million, with $172 million of that being device revenue. In total, consolidated third quarter revenue was up 5.1% year-over-year.

Spectrum Reach 第三季廣告營收成長 17%，主要受政治廣告推動。在剔除政治廣告後，核心廣告收入下降了約 10%，這反映在第 9 張投影片的 COVID 影響部分。因此，我們的核心業務（與經濟密切相關）正在復甦，無論最近體育賽事是否密集，都比第二季的情況要好得多。顯然，我們預期第四季也將受益於政治因素。行動業務收入總計 3.68 億美元，其中設備收入為 1.72 億美元。第三季綜合營收年增 5.1%。

Moving to operating expenses on Slide 8. In the third quarter, total operating expense grew by $36 million or 0.5% year-over-year. Cable operating expenses, excluding mobile, declined by 1.2% year-over-year or 0.8%, excluding NaviSite, with a number of COVID-related items outlined on Slide 9.

接下來是第 8 張投影片中的營運費用。第三季度，營運費用總額年增 3,600 萬美元，增幅為 0.5%。有線電視營運支出（不包括行動業務）年減 1.2%，如果不包括 NaviSite，則下降 0.8%，其中許多與 COVID 相關的項目已在第 9 頁幻燈片中列出。

Programming decreased 2.3% year-over-year, reflecting the same rate, volume and mix considerations that we've seen in prior quarters. And this quarter includes a $163 million benefit related to sports networks rebates. The difference between the $218 million estimated credit to video customers, which lowered revenue, and the $163 million programming benefit relates to an expected reduction in sports rights content cost, which is recognized in the produced content line over the remaining life of the contract, similar to the delayed expense recognition in Q2 when games were canceled. From a cash perspective, however, we will provide our customers a bill credit for the rebates received from the sports programming networks when those details are finalized.

節目製作量年減 2.3%，反映了與前幾季相同的費率、數量和組合方面的考慮因素。本季還包括與體育網絡退款相關的 1.63 億美元收益。預計向視訊客戶提供的 2.18 億美元信用額度（導致收入下降）與 1.63 億美元的節目收益之間的差異，與預期體育版權內容成本的降低有關，該成本將在合約剩餘期限內計入製作內容收入，類似於第二季度比賽取消時延遲確認的費用。但從現金角度來看，一旦體育節目網絡的退款細節最終確定，我們將向客戶提供帳單抵扣，以補償我們收到的退款。

Regulatory, connectivity and produced content expenses were essentially flat year-over-year and were comprised of lower regulatory and franchise fees, offset by higher video CPE sold to customers and higher sports rights costs. Cost to service customers increased by 0.4% year-over-year with meaningful productivity improvement, lower bad debt and higher wages and benefits as drivers.

監管、連接和內容製作費用與上年基本持平，其中包括監管費和特許經營費的降低，但被賣給客戶的視頻 CPE 增加和體育版權成本增加所抵消。客戶服務成本年增 0.4%，但生產力顯著提高，壞帳減少，司機薪資和福利提高。

Bad debt expense was down year-over-year, given surprisingly probably our best-ever payment and collection trends. Excluding bad debt from both years, cost to service customers was up 7.5% year-over-year in the third quarter, primarily driven by 6.8% customer relationship growth, the hourly wage increase we instituted earlier in the year, COVID flex time and the timing of medical benefits cost.

壞帳支出較去年同期下降，這令人驚訝地反映了我們有史以來最好的付款和收款趨勢。在剔除這兩年的壞帳後，第三季客戶服務成本年增 7.5%，主要原因是客戶關係成長 6.8%、年初實施的每小時薪資成長、新冠疫情彈性工作時間以及醫療福利成本的時間安排。

On Slide 9 of today's presentation, we've isolated the temporary bad debt benefit as customers pay better than usual and the labor cost increase from an acceleration in frontline wage increases and benefits timing. I expect continued nonrecurring puts and takes on this line item for a few more quarters. Over time, cost to service customers should again grow at a slower rate than customer relationship growth due to lower transaction volume and higher self-service trends despite the step-up in minimum wages.

在今天簡報的第 9 張投影片中，我們單獨分析了由於客戶付款比平時更積極而導致的暫時性壞帳收益，以及由於第一線員工薪資增長加速和福利發放時間提前而導致的勞動力成本增加。我預計未來幾個季度內，該項目仍將持續出現非經常性買賣交易。儘管最低工資有所提高，但由於交易量下降和自助服務趨勢上升，隨著時間的推移，服務客戶的成本成長速度應該會再次低於客戶關係成長速度。

Cable marketing and sales expenses declined by 0.7% year-over-year as our unit growth did benefit significantly from lower churn. Other expense declined by 2.5% year-over-year, primarily due to NaviSite cost in the prior year period. And mobile expenses totaled $456 million, and they were comprised of mobile device cost tied to device revenue, customer acquisition and MVNO usage cost and operating expense. Mobile EBITDA is still negative because of customer growth cost, but by much less despite the higher growth. Another way of describing that trend is that we have now crossed 2 million lines and our mobile service revenue now exceeds all regular operating costs, excluding acquisition and growth-related mobile costs.

由於客戶流失率降低，我們的單位成長得到了顯著促進，有線電視行銷和銷售費用比去年同期下降了 0.7%。其他支出較去年同期下降 2.5%，主要是由於去年同期 NaviSite 的成本。行動支出總計 4.56 億美元，其中包括與設備收入相關的行動裝置成本、客戶獲取成本、MVNO 使用成本和營運費用。儘管成長速度更快，但由於客戶成長成本，行動業務的 EBITDA 仍然為負，但負值幅度要小得多。另一種描述這一趨勢的方式是，我們現在已經突破了 200 萬條線路，我們的行動服務收入現在已經超過了所有常規營運成本，不包括收購和成長相關的行動成本。

In total, we grew adjusted EBITDA by 13.6% in the quarter when including our mobile EBITDA loss of $88 million. Cable adjusted EBITDA grew by 11.7%. We generated $814 million in net income attributable to Charter shareholders in the third quarter, and capital expenditures totaled $2 billion in the third quarter. Our third quarter capital expenditure shows we've continued to invest to support current and future growth. We invested significantly in continued capacity upgrades at the national and local levels to stay ahead of higher data usage. We have not slowed down on new build, including construction in rural areas.

本季度，包括行動業務 EBITDA 虧損 8,800 萬美元在內，我們調整後的 EBITDA 總計成長了 13.6%。有線電視業務調整後 EBITDA 成長了 11.7%。第三季度，歸屬於Charter股東的淨利為8.14億美元，第三季資本支出總額為20億美元。第三季資本支出表明，我們持續投資以支持當前和未來的成長。為了因應不斷增長的數據使用量，我們對國家和地方層級的持續容量升級進行了大量投資。我們沒有放慢新建工程的步伐，包括農村地區的建設。

We continue to purchase significant DOCSIS 3.1 modems for new connects and swaps as well as a high attach rate for our advanced in-home WiFi service. We also continued to invest in facility improvements, back-office systems and mobile store build-outs. For the full year 2020, we still expect cable capital expenditures as a percentage of revenue to decline year-over-year, but maybe only slightly due to the significant customer growth and related CPE and capacity investments.

我們持續採購大量 DOCSIS 3.1 數據機，用於新的連接和更換，以及我們先進的家庭 WiFi 服務的高附加率。我們也持續投資於設施改善、後台系統和行動商店建設。2020 年全年，我們仍然預計有線電視資本支出佔收入的比例將同比下降，但由於客戶數量的顯著增長以及相關的 CPE 和容量投資，下降幅度可能不大。

We generated $1.8 billion of consolidated free cash flow in the third quarter. And excluding our investment in mobile, we generated $2 billion of cable free cash flow, up about $500 million versus last year's third quarter. Currently, we don't expect to be a meaningful federal taxpayer until 2022. We finished the quarter with $1.3 billion of cash and $4.7 billion of availability under our revolver. As of the end of the third quarter, our net debt to last 12-month adjusted EBITDA was 4.3x or 4.2x if you look at cable only.

第三季度，我們產生了18億美元的合併自由現金流。除去我們在行動領域的投資，我們產生了 20 億美元的無有線電視現金流，比去年第三季增加了約 5 億美元。目前，我們預計到 2022 年才會成為重要的聯邦納稅人。本季末，我們擁有13億美元的現金，循環信貸額度下可用資金為47億美元。截至第三季末，我們的淨債務與過去 12 個月調整後的 EBITDA 比率為 4.3 倍，如果只看有線電視業務，則為 4.2 倍。

Earlier this month, we issued $1.5 billion of 12-year high-yield notes at a yield of roughly 4%. Pro forma for our recent financing activities, our current run rate annualized cash interest is $3.8 billion, and we remain comfortable in the middle to high end of our target leverage range of 4x to 4.5x.

本月初，我們發行了 15 億美元的 12 年期高收益債券，殖利率約 4%。根據我們最近的融資活動，我們目前的年化現金利息支出為 38 億美元，我們仍然處於 4 倍至 4.5 倍目標槓桿率範圍的中高端水準。

During the quarter, we repurchased 6.1 million Charter shares and Charter Holdings common units, totaling about $3.6 billion at an average price of $592 per share. We will always evaluate the best use of our capital to generate long-term returns for shareholders, be it organic investments, such as our launch of mobile or network edge outs, accretive M&A or purchasing of our own shares and probably in that order.

本季度，我們回購了 610 萬股 Charter 股票和 Charter Holdings 普通股，總計約 36 億美元，平均每股價格為 592 美元。我們將始終評估如何最好地利用我們的資本為股東創造長期回報，無論是有機投資（例如我們推出行動或網路邊緣擴展）、增值併購或回購我們自己的股票，而且很可能會按此順序進行。

The prioritization of organic investments is because there is high demand for our products across every part of our footprint, which is why we continue to aggressively build out more broadband passings and ensure that our network is well invested, ready and working for future opportunities. As the environment continues to evolve, our goal is to stay focused on what we do well and to execute a proven operating strategy that works for customers and employees to create shareholder value.

優先進行有機投資是因為我們的產品在業務覆蓋的各個區域都有很高的需求，因此我們將繼續積極建立更多的寬頻通道，並確保我們的網路得到充分投資，為未來的機會做好準備。隨著環境不斷變化，我們的目標是繼續專注於我們擅長的領域，並執行行之有效的營運策略，為客戶和員工創造股東價值。

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 John Hodulik from UBS.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自瑞銀集團的約翰‧霍杜利克。

Okay. A couple of questions about broadband. I can't help but notice that you guys talked about the fact that you're competing well, really regardless of the infrastructure that you're going against. Obviously, strong numbers across the board for the industry in terms of broadband net adds. Can you talk about how you're competing against fiber competitors and sort of market flow share? If you could cite some numbers there?

好的。關於寬頻，我有幾個問題。我注意到你們談到，無論面對怎樣的基礎設施，你們的競爭都非常激烈。顯然，就寬頻淨新增用戶而言，整個產業的各項數據都表現強勁。您能談談您是如何與光纖領域的競爭對手競爭，以及市場佔有率的競爭情況嗎？能提供一些具體數據嗎？

And then the other number that stuck out to me was the 600 gigabytes of usage and the continued growth there. It looks like maybe we're a couple of years away from a terabyte on average for broadband-only customers. Tom, how does that affect competition as you look out over the next few years, or specifically against fixed wireless access? Does it make it more difficult for fixed wireless to be a true competitor to sort of wire and cable service?

另一個讓我印象深刻的數字是 600 GB 的使用量以及持續成長的趨勢。看來，對於僅使用寬頻的用戶來說，平均每人每天使用 1TB 的流量可能還需要幾年時間。湯姆，展望未來幾年，這會對競爭產生怎樣的影響？特別是對固定無線存取而言？這是否使固定無線網路更難真正與有線和有線電視服務競爭？

Well, John, how do we compete with -- we have -- it's not just the products, but the products do matter, and it's obviously, what you're selling as a product. How much capacity, how much speed, how much throughput, what the reliability is. But also how well you service it and how efficient you are at delivering the product.

約翰，我們該如何與──我們有──競爭呢？這不僅僅是產品的問題，但產品確實很重要，顯然，關鍵在於你銷售的產品是什麼。容量多大、速度多快、吞吐量多、可靠性如何？但也要看看你們的售後服務如何，以及產品交付效率如何。

And so we're competitive with the infrastructure that we have against all of the various competitive infrastructures we go against: fiber; fixed wireless; satellite and copper-based, high-capacity networks. And so our network is highly capable. It's easy to augment from a capital investment point of view. It's very efficient to augment And we keep our product sets and our service sets better than our competitors, and we prevail in most -- almost everywhere we operate.

因此，憑藉我們現有的基礎設施，我們能夠與我們面對的各種競爭基礎設施相抗衡：光纖；固定無線；衛星和銅纜高容量網路。因此，我們的網路效能非常強大。從資本投資的角度來看，擴建很容易。增強自身實力非常有效。我們的產品和服務組合比競爭對手更勝一籌，我們在大多數——幾乎在我們運營的所有地方——都取得了成功。

How do I think about that going forward with fixed wireless? I think that all of the various opportunities for competition require significant capital investment by our competitors. And I think our network sets up better from a capital investment perspective going forward, so that we can provide more capacity and more capability at lower costs than our competitors.

我該如何看待未來固定無線網路的發展？我認為，所有這些競爭機會都需要我們的競爭對手投入大量資金。而且我認為，從資本投資的角度來看，我們的網路架構更有利於未來的發展，因此我們可以以比競爭對手更低的成本提供更大的容量和更強的能力。

So it's a very competitive environment. There's a lot of different ways of making the competition work. But I think our network has superior capabilities if properly managed.

所以這是一個競爭非常激烈的環境。舉辦比賽有很多不同的方法。但我認為，如果管理得當，我們的網路擁有更優越的效能。

John, I would just add. I kind of went out of my way in my prepared remarks to say if you want to compare against some of that competition, you really need to take a look -- because of the moving parts throughout the different quarters, you need to look at the year-to-date results and compare that in terms of what Charter's doing in front of competition. As Tom mentioned, we have competition essentially everywhere we operate. We've had that. It's not new. But we're performing very well. And if you take a look at our Q3 year-to-date results, I think that's probably the most indicative way to really look at it and think about the performance.

我還要補充一點，約翰。我在事先準備好的發言稿中特意強調，如果要與一些競爭對手進行比較，就必須仔細查看——因為不同季度的情況各不相同，所以需要查看年初至今的業績，並將其與Charter在競爭對手面前的表現進行比較。正如湯姆所說，我們幾乎在所有營運地點都面臨競爭。我們經歷過這種情況。這並非新鮮事。但我們的表現非常出色。如果你看一下我們第三季的年初至今業績，我認為這可能是真正看待和思考業績的最有代表性的方式。

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

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的本·斯溫伯恩。

Picking up a little bit on the same themes that John asked about. I wanted to ask Tom about the network evolution you discussed going to IP video. Just so I understand, are you taking down MPEG across the system? And is that something that requires a swapping out of boxes? Just what are the -- what are the capital business implications of moving video over to IP on 3.1? I kind of see -- that seems like a big transition from the historical approach.

稍微探討一下約翰提出的問題。我想問 Tom 關於你之前討論過的向 IP 視訊過渡的網路演進問題。我理解沒錯的話，你們是要全面禁用 MPEG 格式嗎？那是不是需要更換箱子？將視訊遷移到 IP 3.1 會對資本業務產生哪些影響？我有點明白了——這似乎是對歷史方法的重大轉變。

And then, again, just going back to the broadband results this year across the industry, it seems like we've pulled forward penetration in broadband in the United States. If we just look at the year-to-date growth, it's an unbelievably strong year across the industry. So I'm just wondering -- I don't know, Chris, if you want to take this one. But just thinking about lapping this year, next year and thinking about the quality of the customers you brought on, I know you've seen good churn stats so far. But should we be thinking about this pull forward having maybe -- lapping this next year and next year is going to be a below-average year? I don't know if you have any thoughts on sort of where we go from here as we come out of COVID, which is obviously just pulled all this growth into 2020.

然後，再回顧今年整個產業的寬頻數據，似乎我們已經提高了美國寬頻的普及率。如果只看今年迄今的成長情況，整個產業今年的表現都非常強勁。所以我就在想──克里斯，你願不願意接受這個任務。但是，考慮到今年和明年的賽道圈速，以及你所吸引的客戶質量，我知道到目前為止你的客戶流失率統計數據已經很不錯了。但我們是否應該考慮一下，這種提前推進的做法可能會讓我們在明年超越今年，而明年又會是低於平均水準的一年呢？我不知道您對我們走出新冠疫情後的發展方向有什麼想法，疫情顯然把所有的增長都推遲到了 2020 年。

Well, okay, Ben. So how does the network work? Right now, we actually run 3 -- actually more than 3, but 3 major networks inside of 1 physical infrastructure. So we have DOCSIS 3.1, which is a -- which we use capacity to deliver IP-based services to specific modems, households and customers. We also have a DOCSIS 3.0 infrastructure inside of our network, and we have a QAM-based video infrastructure.

好吧，本。那麼，這個網路是如何運作的呢？目前，我們實際上運行著 3 個——實際上不止 3 個——在 1 個實體基礎設施內運行 3 個主要網路。因此，我們有了 DOCSIS 3.1，我們利用其容量向特定數據機、家庭和客戶提供基於 IP 的服務。我們的網路內部還擁有 DOCSIS 3.0 基礎設施，並且我們擁有基於 QAM 的視訊基礎設施。

Most of the network is still dedicated by QAM-based video, the traditional cable TV service, and delivered to consumers that way. So you can actually -- and today, we have multiple ways of delivering video to our customers and other services. And we have 10 million app-based streaming products -- devices connected to our network where the customer has downloaded an app, and we're feeding that app, our app, with a full bundle of video packages, and the consumer brings their own device. We also have a significant distribution of QAM-based traditional cable TV services. And we are planning on mixing the 2 together in the same device.

該網路的大部分仍然專用於基於 QAM 的視訊（即傳統的有線電視服務），並以這種方式提供給消費者。所以實際上，您可以——而且如今，我們有多種方式向我們的客戶和其他服務提供影片。我們有 1000 萬個基於應用程式的串流媒體產品——這些設備連接到我們的網絡，客戶下載了應用程序，我們為該應用程式（我們的應用程式）提供完整的視訊套餐，消費者使用自己的設備觀看。我們也擁有大量基於 QAM 的傳統有線電視服務。我們計劃將這兩種物質混合在同一台裝置中。

And we do, for instance, we have Netflix on our set-top boxes in a device we provide, but it's actually being delivered through a different path to the box. So the box will look at video from the traditional cable TV path and will also look at the new IP paths and combine them together in a seamless experience for the customer. So we have the ability to manage CPE and customers through time and manage the way we use our network in an efficient way to provide a full range of services.

例如，我們提供的裝置機上盒上確實有 Netflix，但實際上 Netflix 是透過不同的路徑傳輸到機上盒的。因此，該機上盒將接收來自傳統有線電視路徑的視頻，同時也接收來自新的 IP 路徑的視頻，並將它們結合起來，為用戶提供無縫體驗。因此，我們有能力隨著時間的推移管理 CPE 和客戶，並以高效的方式管理我們使用網路的方式，從而提供全方位的服務。

And with regard to MPEG, even if we deliver IP video, we'll -- as we do, we still use MPEG to do it. That's the digital format the video is in. And there is an opportunity through compression going from MPEG-2, which is still widely distributed by us, to MPEG-4.

至於 MPEG，即使我們提供 IP 視頻，我們仍然會像往常一樣使用 MPEG 來實現。這是影片的數位格式。透過壓縮，我們可以從目前仍廣泛分發的 MPEG-2 格式升級到 MPEG-4 格式。

And there's opportunity through the addition of products to what we call switched video, which can be either IP or MPEG, traditional QAM-based MPEG. And we can manage how much is switched, how much is in MPEG-2, how much is in QAM, how much is in DOCSIS 3.0 and how much is in DOCSIS 3.1 and actually run all of that at the same time. So we have a lot of room. And I think the key takeaway is that traditional video is still the largest single -- it's more than half the capacity of the infrastructure.

透過在所謂的交換視訊中添加產品，存在著機會，交換視訊可以是 IP 或 MPEG，傳統的基於 QAM 的 MPEG。我們可以管理切換的流量、MPEG-2 的流量、QAM 的流量、DOCSIS 3.0 的流量和 DOCSIS 3.1 的流量，並且實際上可以同時運行所有這些流量。所以我們有很多空間。我認為最關鍵的一點是，傳統影片仍然是最大的單一來源——它佔基礎設施容量的一半以上。

Yes. But you don't need to replace boxes in order to move that -- to complete that network?

是的。但是，要遷移這些設備——完成該網路——並不需要更換機箱嗎？

No. No.

不。不。

Okay. That was the key point. Yes. Got it.

好的。那才是關鍵所在。是的。知道了。

And on your broadband question, I'll take a crack at it, and Tom may want to add more to it. The industry has grown at a faster pace. And we've taken in a higher amount of share across all areas of our footprint and infrastructures, as Tom mentioned. Where you're seeing that come from is broadband nevers and also the acceleration of mobile-only in addition to the significant share shift that we're seeing as cable, generally.

關於你的寬頻問題，我先試著回答一下，湯姆可能還會補充一些內容。該行業發展速度更快。正如湯姆所提到的那樣，我們在所有業務領域和基礎設施方面都獲得了更高的市場份額。造成這種情況的原因包括寬頻普及率的下降、行動網路普及率的上升，以及我們看到的有線電視市場份額的顯著變化。

I don't think -- whether that was a pull forward or not, I don't know, but It doesn't go backwards. I think the demonstration -- the need for the product is there. I don't think it goes away. I think it's a permanent either shift or trend of reducing the mobile-only and requiring more broadband in the household.

我不認為——這算不算一種前進的動力，我不知道，但肯定不會後退。我認為演示表明了對該產品的需求。我覺得它不會消失。我認為減少僅使用行動裝置的使用，增加家庭寬頻需求，是一種永久性的轉變或趨勢。

What I think we are seeing already, and I mentioned in the prepared remarks, is late in Q3, you could already start to see the market move to more normal transaction activity. And that includes both churn and sales. We think that's indicative where Q4 is probably heading. And I think probably for next year as well, you'll have higher levels of mover churn and market churn. And as a result, you have higher sales as that moves through. And I think next year right now, probably looks more like a normal year as opposed to 2020.

我認為我們已經看到的，也是我在準備好的演講稿中提到的，在第三季末，你可能已經開始看到市場交易活動恢復正常。這包括客戶流失和銷售額。我們認為這預示著第四季的發展方向。而且我認為明年可能也會出現更高的搬家人​​員流動率和市場流動率。因此，隨著產品的流通，銷售量也會隨之提高。我覺得明年看起來會更像一個正常的年份，而不是像 2020 年。

The other thing I would add just in terms of longer-run trends, yes, COVID had some impact on broadband adoption, but so does the change in the video business that's going on rapidly. And as more and more people are using IP-connected devices to bring video services that traditionally would have been delivered either over the air or by cable, that increases overall demand for broadband in the home. And I think that also is simultaneously going on. So you have a sort of overall demand change as a result of what's really going on in video.

就長期趨勢而言，我還想補充一點，是的，新冠疫情對寬頻普及率產生了一定影響，但影片產業正在快速變化，也產生了影響。隨著越來越多的人使用 IP 連接設備來獲取傳統上透過無線或有線方式提供的視訊服務，這增加了家庭寬頻的整體需求。我認為這種情況也在同時發生。因此，由於視訊領域正在發生的事情，整體需求發生了某種變化。

And so I don't know that it changes adoption rates so much going forward, as it just shifted the entire amount of people that would be interested in having in-home broadband service.

因此，我不認為這會對未來的普及率產生太大影響，因為它只是改變了對家庭寬頻服務感興趣的人數。

Which kind of ties into John's question about the suitability of wireless access over time when you have that kind of throughput going through. I agree.

這與約翰提出的問題有點關係，即當有如此大的吞吐量時，無線存取是否適合長期使用。我同意。

Our next question comes from the line of Jessica Reif Ehrlich from Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的傑西卡·雷夫·埃利希。

So even with the increase in broadband demand, which is quite evident, you posted video net adds for the second quarter in a row significantly bucking industry trends. So first, have trends in fourth quarter indicated that you can continue those trends? Or was it COVID-related, the pull through that you were talking about? And second, what specifically about your offering do you believe consumers are responding to?

因此，即使寬頻需求明顯增加，你們的視訊淨增流量也連續第二季大幅逆產業趨勢成長。首先，第四季的趨勢是否顯示這些趨勢可以延續？或者，你之前提到的「康復期」是指與新冠疫情相關的疾病嗎？其次，您認為消費者對您的產品或服務具體有哪些方面的反應？

And then just as a second topic. Tom, just to follow up on your advertising comments. You said that the core underlying advertising is 90% back to normal. What do you think the drivers there? Because it still seems that local businesses are struggling. So what are you doing differently? Or what metrics do you do? What data are you using that's different?

其次，再談一個話題。湯姆，我只是想就你之前對廣告的評論做個後續說明。你說過，核心底層廣告業務已經恢復正常90%。你覺得那裡的司機怎麼樣？因為當地企業似乎仍舉步維艱。那麼，你們的做法有哪些不同之處呢？或是你們採用哪些指標？你使用了哪些不同的數據？

All right. Well, If you look at our overall connectivity growth as Charter versus the industry, we have higher and faster connectivity growth generally speaking, to the industry. And as a result of that, we're pulling through video with that growth. If you just think about overall video penetration as a percentage of households, and you think about changing households over to your network, you're going to pull through a certain percentage of video. And if you grow fast enough, you'll grow video as a result of that. And we said that in the last call in terms of why we think our video growth is positive.

好的。如果將Charter的整體連結成長與產業平均值進行比較，整體而言，我們的連線成長速度和幅度都高於產業平均。因此，我們透過視訊實現了成長。如果你只考慮視訊普及率佔家庭總數的百分比，然後考慮如何將家庭用戶轉移到你的網絡，你就能獲得一定比例的視訊用戶。如果你發展速度夠快，視訊業務也會隨之發展壯大。我們在上一次通話中也談到了我們認為視訊成長呈現正面趨勢的原因。

We don't think that the overall video marketplace has changed, meaning we still think fat bundles of very expensive video are under pressure and will continue to be. And so you're going to have continued erosion of that bundle, we think, through time. But we're just growing faster than that erosion.

我們認為整個視訊市場並沒有發生變化，也就是說，我們仍然認為價格昂貴的視訊大禮包面臨壓力，而且這種壓力還會持續下去。因此，我們認為，隨著時間的推移，這筆資金將會不斷減少。但我們的成長速度比侵蝕速度更快。

With regard to ad sales, I'll let Chris answer that. But I want to say one thing about local businesses. They are under duress, but our SMB growth rate is higher this year than it was last year in the third quarter. And so we're actually seeing a lot of -- yes, there's a lot of damage out there, but there's also a lot of reinvention and a lot of new business formation at the very small business level, and we're taking advantage of that.

至於廣告銷售方面，我讓克里斯來回答。但我想就本地企業說一件事。他們面臨壓力，但今年第三季我們中小企業的成長率高於去年同期。因此，我們實際上看到了很多——是的，外面有很多損失，但也有很多重塑和許多小型企業的新企業成立，我們正在利用這一點。

Jessica, the Spectrum Reach, which is our advertising group, as you mentioned, is back to 90% of prior year on the nonpolitical, so the local advertising. From what I've seen so far, most of our peers are reporting kind of a similar range of their core advertising being back. And so I don't think we're that unique.

傑西卡，正如你所提到的，我們的廣告集團 Spectrum Reach 的非政治性本地廣告收入已經恢復到去年同期的 90%。就我目前所見，我們的大多數同行都表示，他們的核心廣告業務已經恢復到類似的水平。所以我覺得我們沒有那麼獨特。

I think for the industry, some of that benefit was the lack of advertising in Q2, and people wanted to get back into the market. Some of that was tied to -- well, a lot of that was tied to what Tom said is -- the SMB space is behaving well for us on the business side.

我認為對整個產業來說，部分原因是第二季廣告投放量減少，人們想要重返市場。其中一些原因與——或者說，許多原因與湯姆所說的——中小企業市場在業務方面表現良好有關。

But also the sports timing in the third quarter, you had a doubling or in some cases, tripling of sports activity inside of the third quarter related to a lot of the delayed seasons for the different sports. And that was encapsulated inside of Q3, so that admittedly helped.

但第三季的體育賽事安排也出現了變化，由於許多運動項目的賽季延期，第三季的體育賽事數量翻了一番，甚至在某些情況下翻了兩番。而這些內容都包含在第三季中，所以這確實有所幫助。

From a Charter-specific perspective, we have New York City and L.A., and they've been more locked down than other markets. So from an economic perspective, we have a slight drag or delay in that returning relative to others.

從包機服務的角度來看，紐約市和洛杉磯的管制力道比其他市場更大。因此，從經濟角度來看，與其他產業相比，我們的復甦進程會略有拖延或延遲。

But if you really step back, the -- despite the overall market having negative video trends and everything that's said about the traditional advertising space, we have a good runway for growth in front of us because of our ability to monetize the long tail of the inventory by tools that we've developed to really drive impression-based viewing measurement and to be able to sell our product, our advertising product on that basis. So traditional channels that weren't able to be monetized are now able to be monetized and packaged in a really different way and sold at a different price, together with addressability and a lot of the additional interactive advertising features that you're well aware of, that we've been adding to the portfolio.

但如果你真的退後一步來看——儘管整個市場視頻趨勢不佳，傳統廣​​告領域也飽受詬病，但由於我們能夠利用我們開發的工具將長尾庫存貨幣化，從而真正推動基於展示次數的觀看衡量，並能夠在此基礎上銷售我們的產品，即我們的廣告產品，因此我們面前還有良好的增長前景。因此，以前無法變現的傳統管道現在可以變現，並以完全不同的方式打包，以不同的價格出售，同時還增加了可尋址性以及您非常了解的許多其他互動廣告功能，我們一直在將這些功能添加到產品組合中。

So even in an environment where video is slightly declining, I think absent a pandemic, we have the ability to grow our core advertising in political and nonpolitical years alike. And so that business is, outside of the pandemic, that business is actually in very good shape.

因此，即使在影片略有下滑的環境下，我認為，如果沒有疫情，無論政治年份還是非政治年份，我們都有能力發展我們的核心廣告業務。因此，在疫情之外，這家企業實際上經營狀況非常好。

Our next question comes from the line of Jonathan Chaplin with New Street.

我們的下一個問題來自喬納森·卓別林與新街的連結。

Two quick ones. So Chris, you mentioned that next year would be a more normal broadband year. But we -- you've been accelerating broadband subs ever since the Time Warner Cable acquisition. What do you think counts as a normal broadband subscriber growth year? Is that sort of 6% year-over-year growth? And then on...

兩個簡短的問題。克里斯，你之前提到明年寬頻發展將會更加正常。但是，自從時代華納有線電視公司被收購以來，你們一直在加速發展寬頻用戶。您認為什麼樣的年份才算正常的寬頻用戶成長？這是6%左右的年成長率嗎？然後…

We love you, Jonathan. Sorry, your next question?

我們愛你，喬納森。抱歉，請問您下一個問題是什麼？

I still expect an answer to the question, though, Chris. And then on EBITDA growth, the contribution from wireless this quarter was awesome. And I assume that just continues -- the losses continue to recede and that will be a propellant for EBITDA next year as well. Do you have a sense of what that could contribute to year-over-year growth for EBITDA next year?

不過，克里斯，我仍然希望你能回答這個問題。至於 EBITDA 成長，本季無線業務的貢獻非常出色。我預計這種情況還會繼續下去——虧損將繼續減少，這也將成為明年 EBITDA 成長的動力。您認為這會對明年 EBITDA 的年成長做出多大貢獻？

So on both of those kind of bit of guidance questions, which isn't what we do. The honest answer to your first question is we don't know. And we see trends reverting back to normal, which would mean more normalized growth. Does that mean more like 2019? Does that mean continued acceleration somewhere? Yes, I guess, is the answer to both of those questions. I don't know. But I think it's going to be good either way. And so we're really positive on the outlook for broadband.

所以，對於這兩個指導性問題，我們並沒有提供這方面的建議。對於你的第一個問題，老實說，我們不知道。我們看到各種趨勢正在恢復正常，這意味著成長將更加正常化。那是不是意味著更像 2019 年？那是否意味著某些地方會持續加速？是的，我想，這兩個問題的答案都是肯定的。我不知道。但我認為無論如何都會是好事。因此，我們對寬頻的前景非常樂觀。

Obviously, as we look further out to the extent that we're doing rural build and expanding our footprint, to the extent that mobile really has a significant impact both at acquisition as well as churn, to the extent that there's additional mobile substitution that declines for all the reasons that we talked about before. All of those things would be positive relative to our normal growth rate. And so we need to see how all that develops.

顯然，當我們放眼更遠的地方，當我們進行農村建設並擴大我們的業務範圍時，移動端在用戶獲取和流失方面都產生了重大影響，移動端替代率的上升是由於我們之前討論過的所有原因造成的。相對於我們正常的成長率而言，所有這些因素都將是正面的。所以我們需要看看這一切將如何發展。

The wireless side, to your point, you can look at it a few different ways. You can take a look at our losses per mobile line, which is doing very well. You can think about it in terms of what I said before is that once we got to 2 million lines, which we crossed over inside this quarter, that it's now an incrementally positive business but for the subscriber acquisition cost. So it's already EBITDA positive if we decided to stop growing, which, of course, we won't do.

關於無線方面，正如你所說，你可以從幾個不同的角度來看待它。您可以查看我們每條移動線路的虧損情況，這方面表現非常出色。你可以按照我之前說的來理解，一旦我們達到 200 萬用戶（我們在本季度就突破了這個數字），除了用戶獲取成本之外，這已經是一個逐步盈利的業務了。所以，即使我們決定停止成長，EBITDA 也已經為正，當然，我們不會這樣做。

So the answer to your question is, yes, it's going to continue to get better, but the amount that it continues to get better in terms of its contribution to our EBITDA performance really depends on the growth rate of wireless and that subscriber acquisition cost. The faster you grow, the more you're going to spend, and we're going to try to grow as fast as we can. So it depends on growth.

所以，對於你的問題，答案是肯定的，情況會繼續好轉，但它對我們 EBITDA 業績的貢獻程度會繼續好轉多少，實際上取決於無線業務的成長率和用戶獲取成本。發展越快，支出就越多，我們會盡力實現最快的發展速度。所以這取決於成長情況。

The other quick way to think about mobile is, yes, it's EBITDA positive going forward and it's -- as it's currently priced. But if you grow mobile rapidly, as we are, you'll grow your broadband rapidly, too.

另一種快速理解行動業務的方式是，是的，它未來的 EBITDA 為正，而且——就其目前的定價而言。但是，如果像我們一樣快速發展行動業務，寬頻業務也會快速發展。

Correct.

正確的。

Our next question comes from the line of Kannan Venkateshwar from Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Kannan Venkateshwar。

Chris, I guess, a couple for you. The first is on the gross addition front, I mean, obviously, the gross adds have been really strong this year, and many of them have come in at a lower price. And in general, gross additions come in at a lower price. So when you look at ARPU next year, it should be stronger than normal because of the cohort shift this year and the bigger volume of growth additions. So I just wanted to understand if that's the right way to think about it or if there are other things that offset that benefit?

克里斯，我想，為你準備了兩份。首先是新增商品數量方面，我的意思是，很明顯，今年的新增商品數量非常強勁，而且其中許多商品的價格都比較低。而且一般來說，毛坯增值部分的價格較低。因此，明年的 ARPU 應該會比往年更高，因為今年的用戶群體發生了變化，而且新增用戶數量也更多。所以我想了解這種思考方式是否正確，或者有其他因素會抵消這種好處？

And then secondly, in terms of home passing, you guys have been, I think, growing at more than 2% this year, which is higher than household formation and higher than most others in the industry. If you could give us some sense of the attach rates for these newer homes passed versus your existing base to give us a sense of what the mix of these newer homes looks like, that would be useful.

其次，就房屋通過率而言，我認為你們今年的成長率超過了 2%，高於家庭組成率，也高於業內大多數其他公司。如果您能提供一些關於這些新房的附加率（相對於您現有的房屋基數）的信息，以便我們了解這些新房的構成情況，那就很有幫助了。

So I think the answer to your first question on gross additions is it's going to be a little bit of a mixed bag. Q2 of this year definitely had higher gross additions for all the reasons that we talked about inside of Q2. Q3 did not. As I mentioned, the activity levels dropped significantly, both on -- particularly related to churn, which also has the impact of reducing sales across the entire market because you have less flow.

所以，我認為對於你提出的第一個關於總額增加的問題，答案會比較複雜。由於我們在第二季報告中討論的所有原因，今年第二季的總新增收入肯定更高。Q3 沒有。正如我之前提到的，活動水準大幅下降，尤其是在客戶流失方面，這也會對整個市場的銷售產生影響，因為客戶流量減少了。

And so inside the third quarter, one of the reasons our marketing and sales cost was so low despite the significant growth that we had was tied to that very fact. And so I think you're going to see a mixed bag inside of next year as it relates to ARPU impacts from promotional pricing roll off.

因此，第三季我們的行銷和銷售成本雖然大幅成長，但成本卻很低，其中一個原因就與此有關。因此，我認為明年促銷價格到期對 ARPU 的影響將會喜憂參半。

On top of that, I would argue that the biggest driver of our ARPU development really is less about the individual PSU pricing at roll-off, and it ties much more to the amount of single-play sell-in. And so that's the biggest driver that's going on, together with the video tier mix. So when you think about our success in selling Spectrum Stream and Choice and Essentials products has a bigger impact than the mix that you were referring to.

此外，我認為我們 ARPU 發展的最大驅動力實際上與產品線結束時的單一 PSU 定價關係不大，而與單次銷售量的關係更大。所以，這就是目前最大的驅動因素，再加上影片層級的組合。所以，當你考慮到我們在銷售 Spectrum Stream、Choice 和 Essentials 產品方面的成功時，你會發現它比你提到的產品組合的影響更大。

On the homes passed, when we do new construction, depends. Is it what we call brownfield or greenfield? But we have pretty steady penetration curves over each vintage, if you want to call it that, of what we're building. And that's what gives us a lot of confidence to go do more of it because we can see a high level of consistency in terms of our ability to get to very high terminal penetrations when we build into markets. And so that's what gives us confidence in our ability to go extend that investment concept. I don't know if that's helpful in answering the question, but we like the penetration, the speed and the curve of the penetration that we're getting in these new passings.

新建房屋時，要看已通過審核的房屋情況。這是我們所說的棕地還是綠地？但是，如果我們要稱之為「年份」的話，我們每個年份的滲透曲線都相當穩定。正是這一點讓我們更有信心繼續這樣做，因為我們可以看到，當我們進入市場時，我們在實現非常高的終端滲透率方面具有高度的穩定性。因此，這讓我們有信心進一步推廣這項投資理念。我不知道這是否有助於回答這個問題，但我們喜歡這些新傳球方式所展現的穿透力、速度和穿透曲線。

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, if I can just stay with the -- what you were just talking about with the adoption curves in new markets. Can you share with us how much of this quarter's growth came from newly passed homes or is it homes passed within the last 24 months or so? Just to get a sense of where we're seeing penetration of newly opened markets versus where we're seeing increases in penetration of mature markets.

如果可以的話，我想問兩個問題。首先，如果我能繼續討論你剛才提到的關於新市場採用曲線的問題的話。您能否告知我們本季成長中有多少來自新成交的房屋，又有多少來自過去 24 個月左右成交的房屋？只是想了解新開拓市場的滲透率情況，以及成熟市場滲透率成長的情況。

And then separately, just given how promotional the wireless market has become in the last few months -- or the last month or so in the wake of the iPhone launch, how does that affect your thinking about your own promotional stance in customer acquisition for wireless? And how should we think about what cost that might fare for the fourth quarter?

另外，考慮到近幾個月來無線市場促銷活動如此頻繁——或者說，自從 iPhone 發布以來，近一個月左右的時間裡促銷活動如此頻繁——這會如何影響您對自身在無線客戶獲取方面的促銷策略的思考？那麼我們該如何看待這可能會為第四季帶來哪些成本呢？

So Craig, why don't I take the first one and Tom could grab the second. I don't have the number in front of me, but it's not the material driver for our net additions, the new passings construction. It's been relatively small when you consider that compared to our 52 million passings overall. It's helpful, but it's not the material driver of our growth.

克雷格，不如我拿第一個，湯姆拿第二個吧。我手頭上沒有具體數字，但這並不是我們淨成長的主要驅動因素，而是新建通道的建造。考慮到我們總共有 5,200 萬的死亡人數，這個數字相對較小。它很有幫助，但它並不是我們成長的實質驅動力。

A simple way to think about it is if you think about greenfield new construction anywhere historically, the past couple of years has been 500,000 to 600,000 homes. And so that gives you what you would need to go model and say, apply an adoption curve to that number of passings and you can get to a number. And what you'd see is it's meaningful, but it's not material to our overall Internet net additions growth rate.

一個簡單的思考方式是，如果你回顧一下歷史上任何地方的綠地新建項目，過去幾年大約有 50 萬到 60 萬套住房。這樣，你就有了建模所需的條件，例如，將採用曲線應用於該數量的通過情況，你就可以得到一個數字。你會發現，這雖然有意義，但對我們整體網路淨新增用戶成長率而言並不重要。

Yes. I'd say it's meaningful, but not material. Yes. I agree with that. Promotional, our basic proposition when you think about wireless is that we can save consumers a lot of money. And if you look at the average wireless bill most households are paying, they can connect to us and buy the right package from us and save a significant amount of household spend, telecom spend, and reallocate that to us. That's our primary objective.

是的。我覺得它很有意義，但不具有物質價值。是的。我同意。從促銷角度來說，我們無線產品的基本概念是可以幫助消費者省下很多錢。如果你看一下大多數家庭支付的平均無線帳單，他們就可以聯絡我們，從我們這裡購買合適的套餐，從而節省大量的家庭支出和電信支出，並將這些錢重新分配給我們。這是我們的首要目標。

And we don't -- we have the ability to switch customers over who already have a wireless account to our product. And we're not driven by new hardware for the consumer to drive our business. The consumer can bring their hardware with them and connect to us and save money.

而且我們不會——我們有能力將已經擁有無線帳戶的客戶轉移到我們的產品上。我們並非以面向消費者的新硬體來推動業務發展。消費者可以自備硬體並連接到我們，從而節省費用。

And so yes, we're oriented toward making our price successful in the marketplace, and we'll have to compete with that price. But we already have a significant price discount to what most people are paying for their wireless service. And as a result of that, we've had accelerating growth in wireless connections. And so we're offering real value to consumers and real overall savings by having them connect to us, both for their broadband and their wireless products.

所以，是的，我們的目標是讓我們的價格在市場上取得成功，我們也必須在這個價格上競爭。但我們已經為大多數人支付的無線服務費用提供了相當大的價格折扣。因此，無線連接的數量出現了加速成長。因此，透過讓消費者連接到我們的寬頻和無線產品，我們為他們提供了真正的價值和真正的整體節省。

And Tom, I just want to say I was delighted to see the extension of your contract this morning. So are we to understand that as you are now under contract until the end of 2024?

湯姆，我只想說，今天早上看到你的合約續約，我非常高興。所以我們可以理解為，您目前的合約有效期至2024年底？

Yes. More time in the salt mine.

是的。在鹽礦裡多待一段時間。

Then I think I can speak for a lot of Charter shareholders in saying that I think there are going to be a lot of people that are delighted to have you staying.

那我想我可以代表Charter的許多股東說，我認為很多人都會很高興你留下來。

Well, thank you very much. It's very kind of you to say.

非常感謝。您真是太客氣了。

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。

Two, if I can. First, a follow-up on Jessica's question. What is the video attach rate to broadband sales these days? And how has that changed in the last few years?

如果可以的話，我會選兩個。首先，我想對傑西卡的問題做一個後續回答。如今視訊流量與寬頻銷售的結合率是多少？那麼，近幾年情況發生了哪些變化呢？

And second, a little more on wireless. You talked about a network build over time with the inside-out strategy. How does that take advantage of spectrum? And does cellular get integrated into your home routers over time? Do you build that in dense outdoor markets like Comcast talked about yesterday? What's the sort of the plan over time?

其次，再簡單介紹一下無線技術。你談到了透過由內而外的策略，隨著時間的推移來建立網路。它如何利用頻譜？隨著時間的推移，蜂窩網路功能會整合到你的家用路由器中嗎？你會在像康卡斯特昨天提到的那種人口密集的戶外市場裡建造這種設施嗎？從長遠來看，計劃大致是什麼樣的？

Yes. So I mean, the attach rate of video to broadband is -- has been declining steadily. And that's because the overall penetration of video, traditional video, is declining steadily. And so the reason we are growing video isn't because that ratio has changed. It's because we're growing broadband faster and, therefore, pulling some video through with it.

是的。我的意思是，視訊接取寬頻的比例一直在穩定下降。這是因為傳統視訊的整體滲透率正在穩定下降。因此，我們視訊業務成長的原因並不是因為這個比例改變了。這是因為寬頻發展速度加快，因此也帶動了一些視訊傳輸。

An interesting stat attached to that is related is we really don't sell video. We sell a package of connectivity service. If you asked how many video single play do you sell, it's about 5% of our video sales are coming through in single play. So we really don't sell video. We sell that as an application or a service attached to the connectivity service.

與此相關的一個有趣的統計數據是，我們實際上並不銷售影片。我們提供一套網路連線服務套餐。如果你問我們單次播放的影片銷量是多少，大約 5% 的影片銷量是透過單次播放實現的。所以我們其實不銷售影片。我們將其作為應用程式或附加到連接服務的服務進行銷售。

Yes. And with regard to your second question...

是的。至於你的第二個問題…

Maybe I wasn't clear. What...

或許我沒說清楚。什麼...

Go ahead.

前進。

I was just going to say what -- so what is -- if 95% of your sales are attached to broadband and not -- yes. And so what is video as a percent of this?

我正要說——所以——如果你的銷售額中有 95% 與寬頻相關而不是——是的。那麼視訊佔比是多少呢？

Yes, we're not providing that, I think, for competitive purposes, but we're saying it's been declining, and that hasn't changed. We've just sold more broadband, which is why we have more video.

是的，我認為，我們不提供這些資訊並非出於競爭目的，而是因為我們一直在說它一直在下降，而且這種情況並沒有改變。我們剛剛增加了寬頻銷量，所以我們的影片數量也增加了。

Okay. And so this inside-out strategy and how to use spectrum? And can you put it in the house? We interestingly, our WiFi capabilities and available spectrum for WiFi has continued to improve. The FCC has just granted significant amounts of WiFi spectrum to the public for use, and we plan to use that spectrum inside dwellings.

好的。那麼，這種由內而外的策略以及如何利用頻譜呢？你可以把它放在家裡嗎？有趣的是，我們的 WiFi 功能和可用的 WiFi 頻譜一直在不斷改進。美國聯邦通訊委員會剛剛向公眾授予了大量的WiFi頻譜供其使用，我們計劃在住宅內使用這些頻譜。

And so when I -- when we think about spectrum and the spectrum we recently got with CBRS, it's -- can you augment your WiFi spectrum with the CBRS spectrum to move traffic onto your own network that you might be paying someone else to carry. And the answer is yes. And you can do that in an efficient way, depending on the location and where you put the radio in such a way that you can actually reduce your overall cost. And as a result of that cost reduction, you get a return on investment on the capital you spend on both the spectrum and the radios that you've deployed.

所以，當我們思考頻譜以及我們最近透過 CBRS 獲得的頻譜時，我們就會想——能否利用 CBRS 頻譜來增強 WiFi 頻譜，從而將原本需要付費給其他人來承載的流量轉移到自己的網路上。答案是肯定的。而且，根據收音機的放置位置和方式，你可以有效地降低整體成本。由於成本降低，您在頻譜和已部署的無線電設備上投入的資金將獲得投資回報。

There are applications where CBRS spectrum or WiFi spectrum used differently than it has in the past can be used in enterprise connectivity using a 5G factory kind of notions where you would control the inside of a building using spectrum. So there are individual products where you would want to have multiple radios, potentially, in the same environment. Whether you need to do that in a household in the short run or not is not that clear because there's so much WiFi spectrum available. But there are applications that I can think of, like farms and other places like that, where CBRS could cover the whole property, 100 acres or 500 acres of property or even more for connectivity services.

在某些應用中，CBRS 頻譜或 WiFi 頻譜的使用方式與過去不同，可以採用類似 5G 工廠的概念，用於企業連接，利用頻譜來控制建築物內部。因此，在某些產品中，您可能需要在同一環境中配備多個無線電模組。由於可用的 WiFi 頻譜非常多，短期內是否需要在家庭中這樣做還不明確。但我可以想到一些應用場景，例如農場和其他類似的地方，CBRS 可以覆蓋整個場地，100 英畝或 500 英畝甚至更大的場地，提供連接服務。

So it's a tool. We look at spectrum as a tool to extend the connectivity, and we plan to use it in ways where it takes our cost structure down.

所以它是一種工具。我們將頻譜視為擴展連接性的工具，並計劃以降低成本結構的方式來使用它。

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

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的布萊恩‧克拉夫特。

I wanted to follow up, I guess, on a couple of topics. So one for Tom and then one for Chris. Tom, I wanted to follow up on your earlier comments on the HFC network. I think there's been more talk recently in the industry about operators over building the fiber-to-the-home. The advantage is obviously being upstream and latency. How are you thinking about the trade-offs now between deploying more fiber-to-the-home versus continuing with HFC, particularly given some of the changes in upstream traffic patterns during COVID? And can you just help us to understand how that upstream bandwidth and latency improve as the DOCSIS infrastructure evolves?

我想就幾個話題做進一步的探討。所以，先給湯姆一個，再給克里斯一個。湯姆，我想就你之前關於 HFC 網路的評論做個後續討論。我認為最近業內更多地討論了運營商在建設光纖到戶方面的問題。優勢顯而易見，在於上游位置和低延遲。現在您如何看待部署更多光纖到戶與繼續使用HFC之間的權衡，尤其是在新冠疫情期間上行流量模式發生一些變化的情況下？您能否協助我們了解隨著 DOCSIS 基礎架構的發展，上行頻寬和延遲是如何改善的？

And then, Chris, I wanted to follow up on the build-out or the inside-out strategy that Tom mentioned in his prepared remarks. Can you give us any color on the magnitude or the significance of the capital investment that we could expect there? And maybe just some timing comments broadly speaking. And is that a long time to reach positive ROI? Or is it a fairly short duration?

然後，克里斯，我想就湯姆在準備好的演講稿中提到的建設或由內而外的策略進行一些補充說明。您能否透露一下我們預計在那裡的資本投資規模或重要性？或許還可以就時間安排方面提一些意見。達到正投資報酬率需要這麼長時間嗎？或持續時間相當短？

So Bryan, on the HFC plant, we think that there's a lot of capacity in the HFC plant, both downstream and upstream. And we think that given the current marketplace and utilization behaviors of consumers that we have plenty of upstream capacity. And we have a pathway using DOCSIS 3.1 technology and later, 4.1 technology to continue to increase that.

所以布萊恩，關於HFC工廠，我們認為HFC工廠的產能很大，無論是下游還是上游。我們認為，鑑於當前的市場狀況和消費者的使用行為，我們擁有充足的上游產能。我們有一條途徑，利用 DOCSIS 3.1 技術，以後再利用 4.1 技術來繼續提高這一水準。

And we have a vision that in the event that there is a transformative product set that needs upstream that would create value for consumers and then for us, that we could fairly rapidly upgrade our plant to get to a massive change in upstream capability. So we build with fiber on the increment because it's cheaper. But we think that the HFC plant can be equal to fiber from a capability, latency, capacity perspective for years to come. And we think that with relatively small capital investments compared to replacement cost new, which is what fiber is, that we can upgrade the network and be competitive for a very long period of time.

我們設想，如果出現一種變革性的產品組合需要上游投入，這將為消費者和我們自己創造價值，那麼我們可以相當迅速地升級我們的工廠，從而實現上游能力的巨大變革。所以我們採用光纖進行增量式建設，因為它更便宜。但我們認為，在未來幾年內，從效能、延遲、容量的角度來看，HFC 網路可以與光纖相提並論。我們認為，與更換新設備（光纖）的成本相比，只需相對較小的資本投入，我們就可以升級網絡，並在很長一段時間內保持競爭力。

And as it relates to the CBRS build-out, it's really a function of a few variables. One is the number of subscribers that you have. The more you have, the more economical the build would be. The usage of those subscribers, the amount of WiFi offload that you can get already, what is your rate on MVNO and what's your density in the build cost. And as Tom mentioned, we wouldn't be building just to build a network. We'd be building tied to a guaranteed effectively cost reduction. And so the ROI is not only relatively quick, but it's very clear, and there's very low risk.

至於 CBRS 的建設，這實際上取決於幾個變數。一是您擁有的訂閱用戶數。擁有的越多，建造費用就越低。這些用戶的使用情況、您目前可以獲得的 WiFi 卸載量、您的 MVNO 費率以及您的建造成本密度。正如湯姆所提到的那樣，我們不會僅僅為了建立網路而建立網路。我們將致力於實現有效的成本降低。因此，投資回報不僅相對迅速，而且非常明確，風險也很低。

And so we're not building any inside-out strategy just to have a network or for other network-type build reasons other than cost reduction. I don't think that it's going to be material in the short term. I think it will occur over a many multiyear period.

因此，我們建構網路並非出於降低成本以外的其他網路建置原因，而是為了建立網路或其他類型的網路。我認為短期內不會產生實質影響。我認為這將是一個持續多年的過程。

And you could argue that as the mobile retail store build-out declines for mobile, that could be substituted over time with some additional build-out, which has a direct correlation to cost reduction. And as we start to do that, we're not doing that yet, we'll probably provide a little more color on what we think the effective payback of that is. But I think the thing you should take comfort is that we're not building just to build, and it's going to be tied to a clear cost reduction and ROI.

你也可以認為，隨著行動零售店建設的減少，隨著時間的推移，可以用一些額外的建設來替代，這與成本降低直接相關。當我們開始這樣做的時候（我們目前還沒有這樣做），我們可能會更詳細地說明我們認為這樣做能帶來的實際回報是多少。但我認為，你們應該感到欣慰的是，我們建造不是為了建造而建造，它將與明確的成本降低和投資回報率掛鉤。

Yes. The thing I would add to it is, yes, we have the $460 million of cost for CBRS spectrum. But the incremental capital is very specific to the location and the amount of traffic that we would save on essentially radio-by-radio kind of investment. It doesn't require building out a complete footprint. It's actually opportunistic by location.

是的。我還要補充一點，是的，CBRS 光譜的成本是 4.6 億美元。但新增資本與地點和流量密切相關，基本上可以透過逐一廣播電台的投資來節省流量。它不需要建造完整的廠房。實際上，它的地理位置是具有機會主義的。

Agree.

同意。

And our final question comes from the line of Michael Rollins with Citi.

最後一個問題來自花旗銀行的麥可‧羅林斯。

So over time, you've given us a lot of insight into broadband consumption trends. And was curious if you can give us an update of how your video customers are now engaging with your platform, especially as you grow in subs year-to-date, with respect to maybe what percent of your customers engage with your VOD platform or the digital applications that you offer or the cable networks offer and need to be authenticated through Charter. And then if you take all of that in aggregate, how much time they're spending with you guys? And then as you roll that up then, how does that instruct your video strategy going forward in terms of the way you want to aggregate and distribute content?

所以隨著時間的推移，你們為我們提供了許多關於寬頻消費趨勢的見解。我很好奇您能否向我們介紹一下您的視訊客戶目前是如何與您的平台互動的，尤其是在您今年的訂閱用戶數量不斷增長的情況下，例如，有多少百分比的客戶會使用您的視訊點播平台、您提供的數位應用程式或有線電視網絡，並且需要透過 Charter 進行身份驗證。那麼，如果把所有這些加起來，他們總共花了多少時間和你們在一起呢？那麼，當你把這些因素綜合起來考慮時，這會如何指導你未來的影片策略，包括你想如何聚合和分發內容？

I don't know that I can answer that directly, except to say this. We track what our customers do with their video products. And we also track how they rate our applications and what their customer experience is and what our availability of content is to sell to the consumer, and we try to mix and match that in a way that we create an overall value in the relationship we have with the customer, but also create a product that makes money. And we've had some success in managing new ways of delivering video.

我不知道我能否直接回答這個問題，只能說這些。我們會追蹤客戶如何使用他們的視訊產品。我們也會追蹤用戶對我們應用程式的評價、他們的客戶體驗以及我們向消費者銷售的內容的可用性，並嘗試將這些因素結合起來，以期在與客戶的關係中創造整體價值，同時創造能夠賺錢的產品。我們在管理新的視訊傳輸方式方面取得了一些成功。

As I said, we have over 10 million users who are getting their service through applications as opposed through traditional hardware. And so we look at the business as evolving. We think that people will continue to buy rich packages for years to come, but we also think there are other opportunities to sell a variety of video services to consumers in different formats and that we can improve the customer experience by being a good place for consumers to interact with us to get those video services. And so we're working toward that, and we're making some success. And we're actually optimistic in the very long term about our video business.

正如我所說，我們有超過 1000 萬用戶透過應用程式而不是傳統硬體來獲取服務。因此，我們將業務視為不斷發展的。我們認為，在未來幾年裡，人們仍會繼續購買豐富的套餐，但我們也認為，還有其他機會以不同的格式向消費者銷售各種視訊服務，而且我們可以透過成為消費者與我們互動以獲取這些視訊服務的良好場所來改善客戶體驗。所以我們正在朝著這個方向努力，並且取得了一些成功。從長遠來看，我們對視訊業務的前景非常樂觀。

That concludes our call.

通話到此結束。

Thank you, everyone.

謝謝大家。

Thank you, all.

謝謝大家。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's Charter's Third Quarter 2020 Investor Call. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，Charter 2020 年第三季投資人電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線了。