Charter Communications Inc (CHTR) 2020 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Charter's First Quarter 2020 Investor Call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

女士們、先生們，感謝各位的耐心等待，歡迎參加Charter 2020年第一季投資人電話會議。（操作人員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄音。（操作說明）

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

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。

Good morning, and welcome to Charter's First 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年第一季投資人電話會議。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 also our 10-Q filed this morning. We will not review those risk factors and other cautionary statements on this call. However, we encourage you to read them carefully.

在繼續之前，我想提醒各位，我們在提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中包含許多風險因素和其他警示性聲明，包括我們最新的 10-K 表格以及今天早上提交的 10-Q 表格。本次電話會議我們將不討論這些風險因素和其他警示性聲明。不過，我們建議您仔細閱讀。

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

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

During the course of today's call, we will be referring to non-GAAP measures as defined and reconciled in our earnings materials. These non-GAAP measures, as defined by Charter, may not be comparable to measures with similar titles used by other companies. 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.

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。

With that, let's turn the call over to Tom.

那麼，我們把電話交給湯姆吧。

Thanks, Stefan. First, on behalf of all of us at Charter, let me express our concerns for those who've been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis in the local communities we serve as we endure together an extremely serious health, social and economic crisis.

謝謝你，斯特凡。首先，我謹代表Charter全體員工，對我們所服務的當地社區中受COVID-19危機影響的人們表示關切，我們正共同經歷一場極其嚴重的健康、社會和經濟危機。

The hard work and dedication of Charter's 95,000 employees has been remarkable. We're all proud of how we are serving our customers at this time. Charter's employees are in trucks, in the field, call centers, dispatch network operation centers, their homes and retail stores, where we provide customer equipment and numerous support functions that enable our company to service our customers.

Charter公司95,000名員工的辛勤工作和奉獻精神令人矚目。我們都為目前為客戶提供的服務感到自豪。Charter 的員工遍佈各地，包括卡車、現場、呼叫中心、調度網路營運中心、家中和零售店，我們為客戶提供設備和眾多支援功能，使公司能夠為客戶提供服務。

We've remained focused on our customers and communities, and we've been able to deliver our connectivity services without interruption to our customers across the country. We know our role as a provider of communication services and the importance of keeping connectivity services fully functioning for both new and existing households and businesses, which enables social distancing, including remote working, distance learning, telehealth services and family communications.

我們始終專注於我們的客戶和社區，並已能夠不間斷地為全國各地的客戶提供網路連線服務。我們深知自身作為通訊服務提供者的角色，以及維持現有和新增家庭及企業網路連線服務正常運作的重要性，這有助於維持社交距離，包括遠距辦公、遠距學習、遠距醫療服務和家庭通訊。

In mid-March, as part of our effort to Keep America Connected during this crisis, we pledged to do a number of things. We committed to offer Spectrum Internet for free for 60 days to households with students or educators who do not already have a Spectrum Internet subscription. We recently announced that we were extending the availability of this offer through June 30. As of March 31, we added approximately 120,000 customers connected under this offer with many more installed in April. By the end of the school year, we expect that this offer will have helped approximately 400,000 students and teachers and their families continue schooling through remote learning.

3月中旬，為了在這場危機期間保持美國社會的聯繫，我們承諾要做很多事。我們承諾為沒有 Spectrum Internet 套餐的學生或教師家庭免費提供 60 天的 Spectrum Internet 服務。我們最近宣布，我們將把這項優惠的有效期延長至6月30日。截至 3 月 31 日，我們透過此優惠新增了約 12 萬名客戶，4 月又有更多客戶安裝完畢。預計到學年結束時，這項舉措將幫助大約 40 萬名學生、教師及其家庭透過遠距學習繼續學業。

For 60 days, we also committed to suspend collection activities, not terminate service for residential or small or medium business customers who are experiencing COVID-19-related economic challenges. We also extended the availability of this offer to June 30.

我們也承諾在 60 天內暫停催收活動，不會終止受 COVID-19 相關經濟挑戰影響的住宅用戶、中小企業用戶的服務。我們將此優惠的有效期限延長至6月30日。

Additionally, we've opened our WiFi hotspots across our footprint for public use. And we prioritized over 1,000 requests from government, health care and educational institutions for new fiber connections, bandwidth upgrades and new services. That includes major hospital groups and the 2 U.S. naval hospitals in New York and Los Angeles. And Spectrum News has opened its websites to ensure people have access to high-quality local news and information. We've also donated significant airtime to run public service announcements to our full footprint of 16 million video subscribers.

此外，我們已在我們業務覆蓋範圍內開放了所有 WiFi 熱點供公眾使用。我們優先處理了來自政府、醫療保健和教育機構的 1000 多項新建光纖連接、頻寬升級和新服務請求。其中包括大型醫院集團以及位於紐約和洛杉磯的兩家美國海軍醫院。Spectrum News 已開放其網站，以確保人們能夠獲得高品質的當地新聞和資訊。我們也投入了大量播出時間，向我們1600萬個影片訂閱用戶播放公益廣告。

Charter provides essential service, and we've been working to Keep America Connected, working and learning while at the same time protecting our employees. We've instituted guidelines in our call centers that enhance social distancing between employees, including enabling a significant percentage of those employees for remote work. We've also altered our field operations protocol by aggressively moving to customer self-installation. So while we continue to operate at nearly full capability, we're taking the necessary precautions to promote the safety of our employees.

Charter 提供必要的服務，我們一直致力於讓美國保持互聯互通，讓人們能夠工​​作和學習，同時保護我們的員工。我們在呼叫中心製定了相關準則，以加強員工之間的社交距離，包括允許相當一部分員工遠距辦公。我們也改變了現場作業規程，積極推行客戶自助安裝。因此，儘管我們繼續以接近滿負荷的產能運營，但我們正在採取必要的預防措施來確保員工的安全。

We're also providing our employees with outstanding benefits. We've implemented an additional 2 weeks of paid sick time for COVID-related illnesses or when we ask an employee to self-quarantine. We've given every employee an additional 15 days of COVID-19-related flex time to address other COVID-related issues, including caring for children and dependents.

我們也為員工提供優良的福利待遇。我們為因新冠肺炎相關疾病或因我們要求員工自我隔離的情況，額外增加了 2 週帶薪病假。我們為每位員工額外提供了 15 天與 COVID-19 相關的彈性工作時間，以處理其他與 COVID 相關的問題，包括照顧子女和受扶養人。

In early April, we increased our wage for all hourly field operations and customer service call center employees by $1.50 per hour back to February. We also committed to raising our minimum wage for hourly workers to at least $20 an hour over the next 2 years. We're paying employees in parts of our business like residential and SMBs direct sales, whose work has been put on hold. And to reinforce our commitment to employees, we announced that for 60 days, no employee will be laid off or furloughed. We have a great business with employees committed to our mission, and that will ensure that we're able to excel through the eventual economic recovery.

4月初，我們將所有現場營運和客戶服務呼叫中心小時工的薪資提高了每小時1.50美元，與2月份的薪資持平。我們還承諾在未來兩年內將小時工的最低工資提高到至少每小時 20 美元。我們正在向公司部分業務部門（例如住宅和中小企業直銷部門）的員工支付工資，這些員工的工作已被暫停。為了重申我們對員工的承諾，我們宣佈在接下來的 60 天內，不會裁員或讓任何員工休假。我們擁有優秀的員工，他們都致力於實現我們的使命，這將確保我們能夠在最終的經濟復甦中脫穎而出。

We continue to perform well operationally, both through the end of the Q1 and now. In first quarter, we added 580,000 residential and SMB Internet customers. We had a good quarter driven by demand for our higher-quality products. We also saw an increase in the number of residential and business customers upgrading their speeds. Our ability to provision the outsized demand we saw in the quarter has been a result of the investments that we have made over the last several years in our insourced and onshore high-quality workforce, significant systems integration and automation, our online and digital sales and self-service platforms and our self-installation program. In fact, we accelerated the expansion of our customer self-installation from 55% of sales at the beginning of the quarter to nearly 70% at the end of the quarter to over 90% today.

從第一季末到現在，我們的營運表現一直都很出色。第一季度，我們新增了 58 萬戶家庭和中小企業網路用戶。由於市場對我們更高品質產品的需求，我們本季業績良好。我們也發現，升級網路速度的住宅和商業用戶數量增加。我們能夠滿足本季出現的巨大需求，得益於過去幾年我們在內部和本土高品質員工隊伍、重要的系統整合和自動化、線上和數位銷售及自助服務平台以及自助安裝計劃方面的投資。事實上，我們加快了客戶自助安裝的推廣速度，從本季初佔銷售額的 55% 成長到本季末的近 70%，如今已超過 90%。

Data usage and traffic on our network also grew significantly during the quarter. In March, residential data usage for Internet-only customers was over 600 gigabytes per month, up over 20% since the fourth quarter. Our customers are benefiting from a continually decreasing price per gigabit. Peak traffic levels remain well below maximum capability.

本季度，我們網路的數據使用量和流量也顯著成長。3 月份，僅使用網路的住宅用戶每月數據使用量超過 600 GB，比第四季成長超過 20%。我們的客戶正受益於每千兆位元價格的持續下降。尖峰時段的交通流量仍遠低於最大承載量。

Our network as well as those of other cable operators in the U.S. have performed better than networks in other countries because of the significant investments we've made and continue to make in our plant, like the recent rollout of 1 Gig Everywhere. The pro-investment regulatory climate has made this possible. Over the coming years, we'll invest in our network as we build to lower density in rural communities and pursue our 10G plan, which provides a cost-efficient pathway for us to offer multi-gigabit speeds, lower latency, high-compute services to consumers and businesses customers.

由於我們對網路設施進行了大量投資，並且還在繼續進行投資，例如最近推出的「1 Gig Everywhere」服務，因此我們的網路以及美國其他有線電視營運商的網路效能優於其他國家的網路。有利於投資的監管環境使這一切成為可能。未來幾年，我們將投資建立我們的網絡，以降低農村社區的網路密度，並推進我們的 10G 計劃，該計劃為我們提供了一條經濟高效的途徑，為消費者和企業客戶提供多千兆速度、更低延遲、高運算能力的服務。

With our inside-out strategy, we will continue to use and develop small wireless cells powered by our network together with our MVNO to connect customers in and beyond the home, delivering our throughput and economics for customers in fixed, nomadic and mobile environments. Our strategy will be enhanced by the FCC, recently freeing up 1,200 megahertz of 6-gigahertz spectrum for WiFi. The FCC's action is a transformational step toward broadband in America. It was a bold move, and we look forward to making significant use of the spectrum.

透過我們的由內而外策略，我們將繼續利用和開發由我們的網路和 MVNO 提供支援的小型無線基地台，將客戶連接到家庭內外，為固定、遊牧和行動環境中的客戶提供我們的吞吐量和經濟效益。我們的策略將得到美國聯邦通信委員會 (FCC) 的支持，他們最近釋放了 6 吉赫茲頻譜中的 1200 兆赫茲用於 WiFi。美國聯邦通訊委員會的這項舉措是美國寬頻發展過程中的變革性一步。這是一個大膽的舉措，我們期待充分利用該頻譜資源。

Moving back to Q1 results. We also performed well from a financial perspective during the quarter. We grew adjusted EBITDA by 8.4%. And combined with our lower cable capital expenditures, our first quarter free cash flow grew by over 100% year-over-year.

回到第一季業績。本季我們在財務方面也表現良好。調整後 EBITDA 成長了 8.4%。再加上我們較低的有線電視資本支出，我們第一季的自由現金流年增超過 100%。

As we look forward, we would expect that demand for our residential broadband product will remain strong as people work and learn from home and need to stay connected. Broadly speaking, the health of our residential business will be impacted by what happens to unemployment and income and how long and the impact that such factors will have on customers' ability to pay for service in the coming months, including government support to consumers. Slowing household formation may also play a role in our ability to drive new customer growth by slowing activity for both new sales and also churn. We also recognize that the recent strength in video and wireline voice trends may be temporary due to lockdowns and reverse in an economic downturn.

展望未來，隨著人們在家工作和學習，需要保持網路連接，我們預計對我們住宅寬頻產品的需求將保持強勁。總的來說，我們住宅業務的健康狀況將受到失業率和收入狀況的影響，以及這些因素將持續多久，以及這些因素將對客戶在未來幾個月支付服務費用的能力產生何種影響，包括政府對消費者的支持。家庭組成速度放緩也可能透過減緩新銷售活動和客戶流失率，影響我們推動新客戶成長的能力。我們也意識到，由於疫情封鎖，近期視訊和有線語音業務的強勁成長可能是暫時的，經濟衰退可能會導致這種趨勢逆轉。

So our SMB business is more difficult. We serve approximately 2 million SMB customers, and many of those customers are currently closed, at least temporarily. As a result, SMB customer growth and revenue growth will be lower than our previous expectations. It will likely take time for this part of our business to recover, but it will, and maybe with a faster growth rate than before the crisis.

所以我們的中小企業業務面臨更大的挑戰。我們為約 200 萬中小企業客戶提供服務，其中許多客戶目前處於關閉狀態，至少是暫時的。因此，中小企業客戶成長和收入成長將低於我們先前的預期。我們業務的這一部分可能需要一段時間才能恢復，但它一定會恢復，而且成長速度可能會比危機前更快。

I expect our enterprise business to remain more stable than SMB. Enterprise customers are larger, and most, but not all, will be able to withstand the recession more than smaller businesses that have less liquidity. But our expectations for enterprise customers and revenue growth have also been tempered as enterprise customers with complex products are less likely to switch and grant installation access in this environment.

我預期我們的企業業務會比中小企業業務更穩定。企業客戶規模較大，大多數（但並非全部）企業客戶比流動性較差的小型企業更能抵禦經濟衰退的影響。但由於擁有複雜產品的企業客戶不太可能在這種環境下轉換平台並授予安裝權限，因此我們對企業客戶和收入成長的預期也相應降低。

Our advertising business is inherently local and primarily supported by small and medium businesses, which have been hurt in the crisis. But we still expect political advertising to be meaningful, which will help us, particularly in the back half of the year.

我們的廣告業務本質上是本地化的，主要由中小企業支撐，而這些企業在危機中受到了衝擊。但我們仍然期待政治廣告能夠發揮作用，這將對我們有所幫助，尤其是在下半年。

So clearly, our revenue growth rate will be less than what we anticipated. But as service transactions and sales slow for the market as a whole and customer adoption of self-service accelerates, there are a number of operating cost improvements and capital expenditure delays that will help cash flow growth now and in the future. We also believe that on a relative basis, we're in a far better position than most companies as the value and demand for our service is significant, and we're operating efficiently and serving our communities well, as we always have, in a crisis.

顯然，我們的營收成長率將低於預期。但隨著整個市場的服務交易和銷售放緩，以及客戶對自助服務的接受度加快，一些營運成本的改善和資本支出的延遲將有助於現在和未來的現金流成長。我們也相信，相對而言，我們比大多數公司處境要好得多，因為我們服務的價值和需求都很大，而且我們像以往一樣，在危機中高效運作並很好地服務於我們的社區。

Chris will cover the potential impacts to our 2020 financials and reporting in more detail, but I want to be clear that while we don't know the depth and duration of the economic impacts of social distancing, we've pressure-tested our business model, our liquidity and balance sheet through various scenarios. Our analysis confirms what we have always believed, that we remain well positioned. Overall, we fully expect to be in good shape over the long term, and we believe our business will continue to do very well, given the assets and products we have and the continued investment in those assets, our customers and our employees.

Chris 將更詳細地介紹這對我們 2020 年財務和報告的潛在影響，但我想明確指出，雖然我們不知道社交隔離對經濟的影響程度和持續時間，但我們已經通過各種情景對我們的商業模式、流動性和資產負債表進行了壓力測試。我們的分析證實了我們一直以來的看法，即我們仍然處於有利地位。總體而言，我們完全有信心長期保持良好發展狀態，並且鑑於我們擁有的資產和產品，以及對這些資產、客戶和員工的持續投資，我們相信我們的業務將繼續發展良好。

Before turning the call over to Chris, I'd like to thank Charter's employees for their hard work and dedication and diligence through this crisis. They've been asked to go well above and beyond their regular duties, and they've delivered, easing the strain for millions of families. The positive feedback we've received from our customers is very gratifying, and we continue to treat our customers with respect, compassion and support and continue to deliver great products and services.

在將電話交給克里斯之前，我想感謝Charter公司的員工在這場危機中付出的辛勤努力、奉獻精神和勤勉態度。他們被要求承擔遠超日常職責的工作，而且他們也做到了，減輕了數百萬家庭的壓力。我們收到的客戶正面回饋令我們非常欣慰，我們將繼續以尊重、同情和支持的態度對待客戶，並繼續提供優質的產品和服務。

We'll come out stronger on the other side of this crisis. We still have a lot of work in front of us, but I'm heartened by how we've risen to the challenge, and know that we'll continue to deliver for our customers and for America, regardless of what comes our way.

我們會從這場危機中變得更強大。我們面前還有很多工作要做，但我對我們迎接挑戰的方式感到鼓舞，我知道，無論遇到什麼困難，我們都將繼續為我們的客戶和美國提供服務。

But I'd also like to send my regards and best wishes to all of those listening to this call. May you and your families remain safe and healthy.

但我還要向所有收聽這通通話的人致以問候和最美好的祝愿。願您和您的家人平安健康。

Now I'll return the -- I'll turn the call over to Chris.

現在我把電話轉給克里斯。

Thanks, Tom. Our first quarter results were strong and reflect where we were heading as a company before the COVID-19 crisis started here in the U.S. Our residential customer relationship net additions increased versus the prior year and each month of the first quarter. And we were driving increasingly efficient operations given our customer-friendly operating strategy and growing our free cash flow quickly.

謝謝你，湯姆。我們第一季的業績表現強勁，反映了在新冠疫情在美國爆發之前，我們公司的發展方向。與上年同期以及第一季的每個月相比，我們的住宅客戶關係淨增長量均有所增加。憑藉以客戶為中心的營運策略，我們的營運效率不斷提高，自由現金流也迅速成長。

Residential revenue grew by 4.2% in the quarter, primarily driven by accelerating relationship growth and similar PSU, bundle and video mix trends we've been seeing over several quarters. SMB revenue grew by 5.4%. Enterprise revenue declined by 3.2% year-over-year, driven by the sale of NaviSite and by continued pressure from the wholesale side of the business. Excluding both cell tower backhaul and NaviSite, enterprise grew by 6.9%. First quarter advertising revenue grew by 5.7%, driven by political. In the month of March, nonpolitical advertising revenue declined by 18.7% year-over-year primarily due to COVID-19-related softness, including the abrupt postponement of sporting events. Mobile revenue totaled $258 million, with $131 million of that being device revenue. In total, consolidated first quarter revenue was up 4.8% year-over-year.

本季住宅收入成長了 4.2%，主要得益於客戶關係成長加速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。中小企業收入成長了5.4%。受 NaviSite 出售以及批發業務持續承壓的影響，企業營收年減 3.2%。除去蜂巢塔回傳和 NaviSite，企業業務成長了 6.9%。第一季廣告營收成長5.7%，主要受政治廣告推動。3月份，非政治廣告收入較去年同期下降18.7%，主因是受新冠疫情影響，包括體育賽事突然延長等經濟疲軟。行動業務收入總計 2.58 億美元，其中設備收入為 1.31 億美元。第一季綜合營收年增 4.8%。

Moving to operating expenses. In the first quarter, total operating expenses grew by $191 million or 2.7% year-over-year. Cable operating expenses, excluding mobile, grew by 1.1% year-over-year or 1.7% excluding NaviSite. That's despite faster relationship and revenue growth. Programming increased 0.9% year-over-year, reflecting the same rate, volume and mix considerations that we've seen and talked about in prior quarters. And we also had over $20 million in nonrecurring programming benefits this quarter. Regulatory, connectivity and produced content expenses decreased by 1.7% year-over-year, driven by lower regulatory fees and a $20 million benefit from the timing of sports rights payments.

接下來是營運費用。第一季度，總營運支出較去年同期成長 1.91 億美元，增幅為 2.7%。有線電視營運支出（不包括行動業務）年增 1.1%，如果不包括 NaviSite，則年增 1.7%。儘管客戶關係和收入成長速度更快，但情況依然如此。節目製作量年增 0.9%，反映了我們在前幾個季度中看到和討論過的相同速率、數量和組合方面的考慮因素。此外，我們本季還獲得了超過 2000 萬美元的非經常性節目收益。監管、連結和製作內容支出較去年同期下降 1.7%，主要原因是監管費用降低以及體育版權付款時間表帶來的 2000 萬美元收益。

Cost to service customers increased by 1.4% year-over-year compared to 4.5% customer relationship growth. That expense includes roughly $30 million for recently accelerated hourly wage increases and COVID-19 benefits as well as $25 million of incremental estimated bad debt for COVID impacts as of March 31. Excluding bad debt expense in both years, Q1 cost to service customers declined by 0.7%.

客戶服務成本年增 1.4%，而客戶關係成長率為 4.5%。該支出包括約 3000 萬美元用於近期加速提高小時工資和 COVID-19 福利，以及截至 3 月 31 日因 COVID 影響而預計增加的 2500 萬美元壞帳。如果排除這兩年的壞帳支出，第一季客戶服務成本下降了0.7%。

We continue to meaningfully lower our per-relationship service cost. Cable marketing expenses increased by 4.2% year-over-year, driven by higher labor costs and commissions. And mobile expenses totaled $374 million, and they were comprised of mobile device costs tied to device revenue, customer acquisition and MVNO usage costs and operating expenses.

我們持續大幅降低每項客戶關係服務的成本。受勞動成本和佣金上漲的影響，有線電視行銷費用較去年同期成長 4.2%。行動支出總計 3.74 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。

In total, we grew adjusted EBITDA by 8.4% in the quarter when including our mobile EBITDA loss of $116 million. Cable adjusted EBITDA grew by 8.1%. We generated $396 million of net income attributable to Charter shareholders in the first quarter, and capital expenditures totaled $1.5 billion. We generated $1.4 billion of consolidated free cash flow. And excluding our investment in mobile, we generated $1.6 billion of cable free cash, up about $700 million versus last year's first quarter. During the quarter, we repurchased 5.2 million Charter shares and Charter Holding common units totaling about $2.6 billion at an average price of $490 per share.

本季度，包括行動業務 EBITDA 虧損 1.16 億美元在內，我們調整後的 EBITDA 總計成長了 8.4%。有線電視業務調整後 EBITDA 成長 8.1%。第一季度，歸屬於Charter股東的淨收入為3.96億美元，資本支出總額為15億美元。我們創造了14億美元的合併自由現金流。除去我們在行動領域的投資，我們創造了 16 億美元的無有線電視現金流，比去年第一季增加了約 7 億美元。本季度，我們以每股 490 美元的平均價格回購了 520 萬股 Charter 股票和 Charter Holding 普通股單位，總計約 26 億美元。

Let me briefly turn to our customer results before addressing our business outlook in more detail. Including the impact of COVID-19-related customer offers and programs, we grew total residential and SMB customer relationships by close to 1.3 million over the last 12 months, or by 4.5%, and by 486,000 relationships in the first quarter. Including residential and SMB, we grew our Internet customers by 582,000 in the quarter and by close to 1.6 million or 6.1% over the last 12 months. Video declined by 70,000 in the quarter, better than last year's first quarter decline of 145,000. And wireline voice declined by 65,000. It was also better than last year's first quarter decline of 99,000.

在更詳細地闡述我們的業務前景之前，讓我先簡單介紹一下我們的客戶成果。考慮到 COVID-19 相關的客戶優惠和計劃的影響，過去 12 個月裡，我們的住宅和中小企業客戶關係總數增加了近 130 萬，增幅為 4.5%，第一季增加了 48.6 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 58.2 萬，過去 12 個月增加了近 160 萬，增幅達 6.1%。本季影片觀看量下降了 7 萬，優於去年第一季下降的 14.5 萬。有線語音用戶減少了 65,000 人。這比去年第一季下降9.9萬人的情況好。

Through February, total customer relationships, Internet and video net additions were all better year-over-year, and mobile net additions had continued to accelerate. By mid-March, due to increased social distancing practices and shelter-in-place orders throughout the country, demand increased significantly for our products. But we temporarily yielded less mobile as sales call time focused on self-installation instructions and our mobile retail channel has been partially impacted.

截至2月份，客戶關係總數、網際網路和視訊網路新增用戶數均較去年同期成長，行動網路新增用戶數也持續加速成長。到三月中旬，由於全國各地加強了社交隔離措施和居家隔離令，對我們產品的需求大幅增加。但由於銷售電話時間主要用於提供自助安裝說明，我們的行動零售通路受到了一定程度的影響，因此我們暫時減少了行動端的使用。

Also beginning in mid-March, we introduced 3 COVID-19-related offers and programs for our customers. In today's materials, we've provided an addendum showing customer counts for each of these. I expect we'll continue to report this addendum for a couple of quarters to provide investors with transparency on the impact of our COVID-19-related offers and programs.

此外，從 3 月中旬開始，我們為客戶推出了 3 項與 COVID-19 相關的優惠和計劃。在今天的資料中，我們提供了一個附錄，列出了每項服務的客戶數量。我預計我們將在接下來的幾個季度繼續發布這份補充報告，以便讓投資者了解我們與 COVID-19 相關的優惠和計劃的影響。

The first of 3 offers available for customers is our 60-day free Internet offer for new Internet customers with students or educators in the household. We launched the offer in mid-March, and it accounted for 119,000 of our 582,000 total Internet net additions in the quarter. At the end of March, we still had a large number of pending connects, and customers on the offer continued to grow at a fast pace in April.

我們為客戶提供的 3 項優惠中的第一項是：為家中有學生或教育工作者的新網路客戶提供 60 天免費上網優惠。我們在 3 月中旬推出了這項服務，該服務為我們帶來了 582,000 例互聯網淨新增用戶中的 119,000 例。3 月底，我們仍有大量待處理的連接，4 月份，該服務的客戶數量持續快速成長。

Interestingly and uniquely, about 50% of the customers who participated in the offer in March chose to order additional products with immediate billing. The vast majority of these customers are taking our flagship Internet product to 200 megabits per second or 100 megabits per second, and a small minority subscribed to our low-income offer or our Ultra and 1-gigabit premium offerings. The profile of these customers is very similar to the profile of our typical Internet customer acquisition stream. And while some of these customers will no longer subscribe to some of these services after 60 days, the payment trends for customers who took video and phone at the same time already indicate to us that most of these customers will remain.

有趣的是，參與 3 月優惠活動的顧客中，約有 50% 選擇訂購其他產品並立即付款。絕大多數客戶選擇我們的旗艦網路產品，速度可達每秒 200 兆位元或每秒 100 兆位元；只有少數客戶訂閱了我們的低收入套餐或我們的 Ultra 和 1 千兆位元高級套餐。這些客戶的特徵與我們典型的網路客戶獲取管道的特徵非常相似。雖然有些客戶在 60 天後將不再訂閱某些服務，但同時使用視訊和電話服務的客戶的付款趨勢已經表明，大多數此類客戶將繼續使用。

The second offer or customer category reflects customers under our 60-day Keep Americans Connected pledge to the FCC. These are customers who have indicated an inability to pay for the service for COVID-19-related reasons. As of March 31, 140,000 residential customers were in this program, many who would have been in a collection cycle in normal circumstances. And only 1,000 of which had passed the point in the collection cycle where we would have normally disconnected their service at March 31.

第二類優惠或客戶類別反映了根據我們向聯邦通信委員會 (FCC) 做出的 60 天「保持美國人互聯互通」承諾而獲得的客戶。這些客戶表示，由於新冠肺炎疫情相關原因，他們無力支付服務費用。截至 3 月 31 日，已有 14 萬戶居民用戶參與該計劃，其中許多人在正常情況下都會進入催收週期。其中只有 1,000 戶已經過了催收週期，我們通常會在 3 月 31 日斷開他們的服務。

To give this some color, approximately 25% of the 140,000 customers today have balances which are fully current. And in total, nearly 50% have made partial or full payments since entering into this protection program. However, approximately 65,000 of those customers now have past due balances beyond the point of normal disconnections, meaning at the end of April. The number of customers requesting disconnection protection has continued to grow in April, and we expect it to grow further through the rest of Q2. We intend to work with these COVID-19-impacted customers to get them back into good payment status with the objective of fully continuing their service with us.

為了更直觀地說明這一點，目前 14 萬客戶中約有 25% 的客戶帳戶餘額完全正常。總計近 50% 的人自加入該保障計劃以來已支付部分或全部款項。然而，大約有 65,000 名客戶目前的欠款餘額已經超過了正常斷電時間點，也就是 4 月底。4 月申請斷網保護的客戶數量持續成長，我們預計在第二季剩餘時間內，這一數字還會進一步成長。我們打算與這些受 COVID-19 影響的客戶合作，幫助他們恢復良好的付款狀態，目標是讓他們能夠繼續享受我們的全面服務。

The final category of customers we've isolated in our addendum are SMB customers who have requested a seasonal suspension of service or temporary downgrade of a line of service while their operations are closed or diminished. Certain restaurants, bars and hotels are good examples where we've reduced service to a minimum level and reduced the monthly bill until these customers fully reopen. We also expect this category to grow in Q2.

我們在附錄中單獨列出的最後一類客戶是中小企業客戶，他們在業務關閉或縮減期間要求季節性暫停服務或暫時降低服務等級。一些餐廳、酒吧和酒店就是很好的例子，我們已將服務降低到最低水平，並減少了每月帳單，直到這些客戶完全重新開業。我們也預計該類別在第二季將實現成長。

So what does all this mean beyond temporary ARPU dislocation and back-end subscriber risk? First, even if you exclude the impact of these offers and programs from our first quarter results, residential customer relationships and Internet grew at a faster pace year-over-year. That remains our long-term opportunity. Second, customers may move in, out or between these categories over time as the economy contracts and ultimately expands. Our issue is not demand for our products, it will be our customers' ability to pay and how we help them in that respect over time. So until we have a better sense for the depth and the duration of the COVID-19 crisis and its economic impact, it's difficult for us to project what the help we offer our customers will look like. However, we think we could end up creating more value over the long term as we continue to treat our customers and our employees well.

那麼，除了暫時的ARPU值波動和後端用戶風險之外，這一切還意味著什麼？首先，即使不考慮這些優惠和計劃對我們第一季業績的影響，住宅客戶關係和互聯網業務的同比增長速度也更快。那仍然是我們的長期機會。其次，隨著經濟萎縮和最終擴張，顧客可能會隨著時間的推移而進入、離開或在這些類別之間轉換。我們面臨的問題不是產品需求，而是客戶的支付能力以及我們如何在這方面幫助他們。因此，在我們對 COVID-19 危機的深度和持續時間及其經濟影響有更清晰的認識之前，我們很難預測我們將為客戶提供的幫助會是什麼樣子。但是，我們認為，如果我們繼續善待客戶和員工，從長遠來看，我們最終可能會創造更大的價值。

With that in mind, I'd like to expand on Tom's remarks as it relates to our business outlook and where we're likely to see pressure and opportunities over the coming months and quarters depending how and when the economy reaccelerates. For our residential and mobile services, the quality and value of our products are clear and demand is high, with Internet up in March significantly, even without the COVID-19-related offers. And video and phone also saw positive net adds in March, at least temporarily.

考慮到這一點，我想就湯姆的發言做一些補充，談談我們公司的業務前景，以及在未來幾個月和幾個季度裡，我們可能會面臨哪些壓力和機遇，這取決於經濟何時以及如何重新加速。對於我們的住宅和行動服務而言，我們產品的品質和價值顯而易見，需求也很高，即使沒有與 COVID-19 相關的優惠，3 月份的網路需求也大幅成長。3月份視訊和手機業務也出現了淨增長，至少是暫時的。

Looking forward, the risks are that household formation growth will be impacted. The other issue will be customers' ability to pay either via their wages or extended employment benefits under the CARES Act or other stimulus packages; and if, how and over what period of time, we can get some customers to repay back balances when they're able to make payments again. So there are all kinds of questions here about financial presentation, accounts receivables, revenue recognition, bad debt provision and write-offs, which really reflected in Q2 and we'll work through in the coming months and quarters. And we intend to provide our investors transparency as we go through a unique reporting exercise. When the economy begins to recover and assuming our customers can pay us, I expect our residential business will be in good shape.

展望未來，家庭組成成長可能會受到影響。另一個問題是客戶是否有能力透過工資或根據《新冠病毒援助、救濟和經濟安全法案》(CARES Act) 或其他刺激計劃獲得的延長就業福利來支付；以及當一些客戶能夠再次支付款項時，我們能否、如何以及在多長時間內讓他們償還欠款。因此，這裡存在著各種關於財務報表、應收帳款、收入確認、壞帳準備和核銷的問題，這些問題在第二季度得到了充分體現，我們將在接下來的幾個月和幾個季度中逐步解決。我們將透過一項獨特的報告機制，為投資者提供透明度。當經濟開始復甦，並且假設我們的客戶能夠支付費用時，我預計我們的住宅業務將會發展良好。

SMB represented $3.9 billion of revenue for us last year or 8.5% of our total revenue. In the back half of March, we began to see softness in our SMB sales, where essentially our entire direct sales force has been on hold, and that channel is a larger contributor to SMB sales than it is to residential. We estimate that less than 20% of our SMB customers are restaurants, hotels, bars, theaters and the like, many of which will struggle in this downturn. We're working with all of our SMB customers in this difficult time and believe we can return to growth in an economic recovery.

去年，中小企業為我們帶來了 39 億美元的收入，占我們總收入的 8.5%。3 月下旬，我們開始看到中小企業銷售疲軟，基本上我們所有的直銷人員都處於停工狀態，而該通路對中小企業銷售的貢獻比對住宅銷售的貢獻更大。我們估計，在我們的中小企業客戶中，餐廳、飯店、酒吧、劇院等場所佔比不到 20%，其中許多場所將在此次經濟衰退中舉步維艱。我們正與所有中小企業客戶攜手共渡難關，相信隨著經濟復甦，我們能夠重回成長軌道。

We expect the retail base for enterprise to be more stable. In March and April, we saw significant demand from health care and government segments to upgrade and add new services, which has taken the place of new connects in other areas. But we expect new sales to taper off in retail services growth in the short term for enterprise, will be moderated by customers' willingness to make changes, particularly for physical services, in this climate. We'll have an offsetting benefit in churn, but absent higher new sales, it will be difficult to grow retail enterprise significantly in the short term.

我們預計企業零售基礎將更加穩定。3 月和 4 月，我們看到醫療保健和政府部門對升級和增加新服務有顯著需求，取代了其他領域的新連結。但我們預計，短期內企業零售服務的新銷售成長將會放緩，在這種環境下，客戶（尤其是實體服務客戶）改變意願的降低將抑制這一成長。我們雖然會因客戶流失而獲得一些補償，但如果沒有更高的新銷售額，短期內零售業務很難實現顯著成長。

For Spectrum Reach, our advertising group, the second quarter will be challenging. March revenue was below our expectations by more than $30 million due to cancellations, and the April variance was more than double that amount. We're proactively working with clients to move their advertising spend from sports events to reach their audiences in different places or to move out their orders generally. We believe there's an opportunity to both recover and earn more advertising business once the economy picks back up. We still expect significant political spend in the back half of this year, so the full year impact won't be as dramatic on a year-over-year basis.

對我們的廣告集團 Spectrum Reach 而言，第二季將充滿挑戰。由於訂單取消，3 月份的收入比預期低了 3,000 多萬美元，4 月份的差額更是超過了這個數字的兩倍。我們積極與客戶合作，將他們的廣告支出從體育賽事轉移到其他地區，以接觸他們的受眾，或將他們的訂單轉移到其他領域。我們相信，一旦經濟復甦，就有機會恢復元氣並贏得更多廣告業務。我們預計今年下半年政治支出仍將相當可觀，因此全年影響不會像去年同期那麼顯著。

So those are the short-term revenue challenges and long-term opportunities. What are the potential offsets in our cost structure? Churn across all of our subscription services was already declining significantly before the crisis. Mover churn and voluntary churn is declining even more now, but new sales will also decline. All of which says that we expect a much lower level of service calls, truck rolls, installations, commissions and labor-related activity. That applies to residential, SMB and enterprise.

所以，這些都是短期收入的挑戰和長期機會。我們的成本結構中有哪些潛在的抵銷因素？在危機爆發之前，我們所有訂閱服務的用戶流失率就已經顯著下降了。現在搬家客戶流失率和自願流失率都在進一步下降，但新銷售額也會下降。所有這些都表明，我們預計服務電話、車輛出動、安裝、佣金和與勞動力相關的活動量將大幅減少。這適用於住宅用戶、中小企業用戶和大型企業用戶。

As Tom mentioned, self-installation is now over 90%, up from 55% in the first part of the first quarter. And with utilization of digital self-care up over 30%, our integration investments in our self-service platforms and portals are paying off. The current crisis has accelerated customers' adoption curve for digital service, and we don't think it goes back to where it was. So outside of bad debt and some accelerated wage increases to our front line, our cost to service will decrease with less activity.

正如湯姆所提到的，現在自助安裝率已超過 90%，高於第一季前半段的 55%。隨著數位自助護理的使用率上升超過 30%，我們在自助服務平台和入口網站的整合投資正在取得成效。當前的危機加速了客戶對數位化服務的接受度，我們認為這種情況不會再回到以前的狀態了。因此，除了壞帳和第一線員工薪資的加速成長之外，隨著業務量的減少，我們的服務成本將會降低。

Employee turnover will decline and hiring activity is likely to slow across the business, which has direct cost and tenure benefits. And we think any remaining EBITDA shortfall relative to our plans would likely be offset by CapEx that will be lower than previously expected due to higher self-installation, lower churn, the timing of scalable infrastructure spend and potential construction delays.

員工流動率將會下降，整個企業的招募活動可能會放緩，這將直接帶來成本和員工留任方面的好處。我們認為，相對於我們的計劃，任何剩餘的 EBITDA 缺口都可能被資本支出所抵消，資本支出將低於先前的預期，這是由於更高的自安裝率、更低的客戶流失率、可擴展的基礎設施支出的時間安排以及潛在的建設延誤。

So that's how we believe the model will flex. What we don't know is the depth and duration of a recession. But we like our business model, how we manage the business across various climates, and we believe we can grow long term. It's probably a good transition to the balance sheet and our liquidity profile.

所以我們認為該模型會以這種方式靈活調整。我們不知道的是經濟衰退的深度和持續性。但我們喜歡我們的商業模式，喜歡我們在各種環境下管理業務的方式，我們相信我們可以實現長期成長。這或許能很好地改善資產負債表和我們的流動性狀況。

As Tom mentioned, we have done a lot of modeling to stress-test our balance sheet under various economic scenarios. We finished the quarter with $2.9 billion of cash and $4.7 billion of availability under our revolver. In early March, at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, we priced a long-dated high-yield financing at an all-time low coupon. And on April 17, we issued $3 billion of our tightest coupons ever for 10- and 30-year investment-grade tranches.

正如湯姆所提到的，我們已經進行了大量的建模，以在各種經濟情境下對我們的資產負債表進行壓力測試。本季末，我們擁有 29 億美元的現金，循環信貸額度下可用資金為 47 億美元。3月初，在COVID-19危機爆發之初，我們以歷史最低的票息對一筆長期高收益融資進行了定價。4 月 17 日，我們發行了 30 億美元的債券，票息額度為有史以來最低的 10 年期和 30 年期投資等級債券。

Pro forma for those investment-grade bonds and recently called debt, at March 31, we had $8.4 billion of total available liquidity. As of the end of the first quarter, our net debt to last 12-month adjusted EBITDA was 4.4x or 4.3x if you look at cable only. In that respect, we have already been deleveraging slightly. Pro forma for our recent financing activities, our weighted average cost of debt is only 4.9%. And the weighted average life of our debt is 12.2 years, with more than 90% of our debt maturing beyond 2022.

截至 3 月 31 日，以投資等級債券和最近贖回的債務計算，我們總共有 84 億美元的可用流動資金。截至第一季末，我們的淨債務與過去 12 個月調整後的 EBITDA 比率為 4.4 倍，如果只看有線電視業務，則為 4.3 倍。在這方面，我們已經略微降低了槓桿率。根據我們最近的融資活動，我們的加權平均債務成本僅為 4.9%。我們的債務加權平均期限為 12.2 年，超過 90% 的債務將在 2022 年以後到期。

We have a schedule on Slide 13 of today's presentation which puts our maturity profile in perspective relative to last year's cable EBITDA. Together with our significant liquidity and positive free cash flow, we remain in a very good position to finance our operations organically as well as through the capital markets, which remain open to Charter.

我們在今天簡報的第 13 張投影片上有一個時間表，該時間表將我們的成熟度狀況與去年的有線電視 EBITDA 進行了對比。憑藉我們充裕的流動資金和正向自由現金流，我們仍然處於非常有利的地位，可以透過自身發展以及資本市場融資來為我們的營運提供資金，而資本市場對Charter仍然開放。

As it relates to our stock repurchases, we've been under a 10b5-1 plan which was entered into right before the COVID-19 crisis began here in the U.S. Due to lower share prices in March, we purchased more of the targeted volume in March than April. We have never provided guidance on buybacks because we think it can encourage bad decision-making relative to better alternative uses of cash over time. So we're going to be thoughtful and responsive to where we think the economy is going, our stock price, our liquidity and any organic -- or organic opportunities -- inorganic opportunities which may arise. While the current environment does suggest caution in the short term, we are not modifying our 4 to 4.5x leverage target range today. And we'll continue to monitor the economic climate and the interest rate market and regularly evaluating our leverage target.

關於我們的股票回購，我們一直執行 10b5-1 計劃，該計劃是在美國 COVID-19 危機爆發前不久制定的。由於 3 月股價較低，我們在 3 月購買的目標數量比 4 月要多。我們從未就股票回購提供指導意見，因為我們認為，從長遠來看，這可能會導致相對於現金的更好用途而言，做出錯誤的決策。因此，我們將認真思考並積極應對我們認為經濟走向、股價、流動性以及可能出現的任何有機成長或無機成長機會。雖然目前環境顯示短期內應保持謹慎，但我們今天不會調整 4 至 4.5 倍槓桿目標範圍。我們將繼續關注經濟環境和利率市場，並定期評估我們的槓桿目標。

We know that we have a high-quality, resilient asset with dedicated employees across our local communities. And we've invested significantly in our network and people over the years. And there's high demand for our product across every part of our footprint in both homes and businesses in good times and bad, 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. Our goal is to stay focused on what we do well and execute a proven operating strategy that works for customers and employees across various economic and regulatory climates to create shareholder value over the long term.

我們知道，我們擁有高品質、高韌性的資產，以及遍佈當地社區的敬業員工。多年來，我們對人脈和人才進行了大量投資。無論經濟狀況好壞，我們產品在各個覆蓋區域（包括家庭和企業）的需求都很高，因此我們將繼續積極建造更多寬頻線路，並確保我們的網路得到充分投資，隨時準備迎接未來的機遇。我們的目標是專注於我們擅長的領域，並執行行之有效的營運策略，在各種經濟和監管環境下為客戶和員工創造長期股東價值。

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 Craig Moffett with MoffettNathanson.

（操作說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Craig Moffett 和 MoffettNathanson 的線路。

I want to sort of take a bigger-picture question for a moment. Just given the strength of your results and the enviable position that you find yourself in of having a business that is relatively resilient in this kind of a market, what are the things that you can do that sort of take advantage of the dislocation, whether it's more edge-outs, potentially acquisitions, a faster move in acquiring spectrum and trying to take some share in wireless? How do you think about using this dislocation as a way to make your business stronger when we come out the other side of this disruption?

我想暫時從更宏觀的角度來看一個問題。鑑於貴公司業績強勁，且貴公司在這種市場環境下擁有相對強大的韌性，貴公司可以採取哪些措施來利用這種市場動盪，例如進一步拓展業務、進行潛在的收購、加快頻譜收購以及嘗試在無線通信領域搶佔一些市場份額？您認為如何利用這次市場動盪來增強企業實力，讓企業在度過這場危機後變得更強大？

Craig, obviously, we think about that every day. And we have some cash on hand to be opportunistic if there is an opportunity that would require investment. But the biggest opportunity we see is to continue doing what we're doing and just doing it better and well and being able to execute better and well and continue to succeed in the marketplace.

克雷格，很顯然，我們每天都在考慮這個問題。我們手頭上還有一些現金，以便在出現需要投資的機會時能夠抓住機會。但我們看到的最大機會是繼續做我們正在做的事情，並且做得更好、更出色，執行得更好、更到位，從而在市場上繼續取得成功。

Our biggest opportunity as a company is to continue to create customer relationships. And we think that we have a great set of assets that we've put together and invested in properly. And therefore, we have advantages in terms of the products that we can sell relative to others at the moment. And we have a high-quality, high-skilled workforce that's capable of generating and operating activity. And that's our biggest direct upside. And we think we can continue to operate well and execute well going forward. And to the extent that we're better at that than others, we create more value more quickly.

公司最大的機會在於持續發展與客戶的關係。我們認為我們已經累積並妥善投資了一系列優質資產。因此，就目前我們能夠銷售的產品而言，我們相對於其他公司具有優勢。我們擁有一支高素質、高技能的勞動力隊伍，能夠創造和進行各種活動。這就是我們最大的直接收益。我們認為我們能夠繼續保持良好的營運和執行力。我們在這方面比其他人做得更好，就能更快創造更多價值。

That's helpful. If I could just ask another maybe slightly more prosaic question. Just given all the attention being paid to sports right now, can you just talk about the way you'd like to see the issue of sports payments to RSNs and national sports networks work out, and with the pressure to rebate to customers and that sort of thing?

那很有幫助。我可以再問一個可能稍微普通一點的問題嗎？鑑於目前體育界受到的廣泛關注，您能否談談您希望如何解決向區域體育網絡和國家體育網絡支付體育款項的問題，以及在向客戶返還款項等方面面臨的壓力？

Yes. Well, look, I mean, we talked for years about the reality of programming costs and how sports drives the bulk of the programming cost. If you look at our average cost of programming per customer in the $60 -- in the high-$60 range on average, that's the wholesale cost that we're paying per customer, my guess is that if sports was not involved in the negotiations for the creation of that cost, that it would be less than half of what it is. So sports is the major driver in the cost of content. And obviously, it makes the whole product difficult to sell because of the cost that consumers have to pay and the effect that -- I mean just simply, it's a very expensive product and people have a hard time paying for it.

是的。嗯，你看，我的意思是，我們多年來一直在討論節目製作成本的現實情況，以及體育賽事如何佔據了節目製作成本的大部分。如果你看我們每位客戶的平均節目製作成本，大約在 60 美元到 60 美元之間，這是我們為每位客戶支付的批發成本。我猜，如果體育賽事沒有參與制定這個成本的談判，那麼成本應該會不到現在的一半。因此，體育賽事是內容成本的主要驅動因素。顯然，由於消費者必須支付的成本，以及由此產生的影響，使得整個產品難以銷售——我的意思是，簡單來說，這是一款非常昂貴的產品，人們很難負擔得起。

The reality is that we would love to pass through the sports programming cost back to the customer if it isn't paid or the events don't occur. There's still a big question about whether the games are going to be played. And if they are played, most likely, the cost will not be rebated to the customer.

事實上，如果體育節目費用沒有支付或賽事沒有舉行，我們很樂意將體育節目成本轉嫁給客戶。比賽能否如期舉行仍是個未知數。而且如果這些費用都被支付，很可能不會退還給客戶。

So I don't -- at this point in time, we have a structure in the industry in how we pay for content. It's all bundled together and tied together and contractually, and we have very little control over it directly. So we'd love to see our customers relieved if they can be. Ultimately, it's the athletes who are getting the money. And if at some point, somebody has to give up their money and give it back to the customer. And that hasn't happened yet.

所以，目前我們產業內已經有了內容付費的機制。所有這些都捆綁在一起，透過合約捆綁在一起，我們對其幾乎沒有直接控制權。所以，如果可以的話，我們非常樂意看到我們的客戶感到輕鬆自在。最終，拿到錢的還是運動員。如果到了某個時候，有人必須放棄自己的錢，把它退還給顧客。而這種情況尚未發生。

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 Tom, given that you obviously have exposure across the country, can you just talk about how the markets are different for areas like New York and California, where lockdown started early? And compared to the other markets, are you sort of seeing any sort of green shoots as some of these states start opening up? And any sort of change in direction of business?

湯姆，鑑於你的業務顯然遍及全國，你能談談紐約和加州等地區（這些地區很早就開始封鎖）的市場有何不同嗎？與其他市場相比，隨著一些州開始開放，您是否看到任何復甦的跡象？業務方向有改變嗎？

And then just a simple question on the network. Obviously, it's highly resilient right now, but I'm assuming that from the work-from-home sort of orders right now, that data transfer is becoming more symmetrical, and your upstream on your network is not conducive for that kind of thing, I think. Can you sort of help us think about, is there any stress on the network from that side? And what needs to be done, if any?

然後只是在網路上提出了一個簡單的問題。顯然，它現在具有很強的恢復能力，但我假設從目前的居家辦公指令來看，資料傳輸正變得更加對稱，而你網路上的上行鏈路並不適合這種用途。您能否幫我們思考一下，網路那邊是否有任何壓力？那麼，如果需要採取任何措施，具體是什麼？

Sure. Well, in terms of variation by various parts of the country, obviously, there are reopenings occurring. And we're preparing to operate differently in different parts of the country, depending on what the local regulatory climate is with regard to what's allowed from a business practice perspective.

當然。嗯，就全國各地的情況而言，顯然有些地方已經重新開放。我們正準備根據當地監管環境以及從商業實踐角度來看允許的行為，在全國各地採取不同的運作方式。

As an essential business, we've been operating in -- the whole time. And obviously, we have to keep our business running. So we've been running it under the tightest conditions that exist in terms of what we can do and how we have to take care of our employees and how we have to take care of our customers.

作為一家必需企業，我們一直都在運作。顯然，我們必須維持業務運作。因此，我們一直在最嚴格的條件下運營，既要考慮我們能做什麼，又要照顧好我們的員工和客戶。

So as we begin to see places opening up, we're preparing to respond to the local markets individually and to project our capability locally. I can't tell you that I can see at this moment any differences from one location to another in terms of -- I mean, New York City is a unique place, but it's unique in every way, always is. But broadly speaking, we've been locked down everywhere up until now and...

隨著各地陸續開放，我們正準備根據當地市場的具體情況做出相應調整，並在當地展現我們的能力。就目前而言，我無法看出不同地點之間有什麼區別——我的意思是，紐約市是一個獨特的地方，但它在各個方面都是獨一無二的，而且一直都是如此。但總的來說，到目前為止，我們各地都處於封鎖狀態…

We're growing market share everywhere.

我們在各個市場都擴大了市場佔有率。

We are growing consistently everywhere.

我們各個方面都在持續成長。

Now in terms of the future of the network and the load on it, we've been able to handle the very quick change in demand. And one interesting thing about -- the demand has gone up a lot in terms of network utilization, but it's also spread out. You build your network to maximum peak utilization and not total utilization. So it's the Mother's Day call effect from a network build perspective: You build for the 1 day a year when you need every bit of your network. And the network has been built and it's absorbed what we think of as a year's worth of augmentation in a few weeks.

至於網路的未來及其負載，我們已經能夠應對需求的快速變化。還有一點很有趣——網路利用率方面的需求大幅上升，但這種上升也是分散的。網路建置應以峰值利用率最大化為目標，而不是以總利用率最大化為目標。所以從網路建置的角度來看，這就是母親節電話效應：你為一年中唯一需要你所有網路資源的日子而建立網路。網路已經建成，並且在短短幾週內就吸收了我們認為需要一年才能吸收的增強數據。

But the general trend that we now see in a few weeks has been going on for quite a long time, and we expect it to continue. And so we have a pathway in terms of our assets to developing what we think the future of communications is, including an upstream capability as upstream utilization continues to grow. So that's what we call 10G, it's also called DOCSIS 4.0 in terms of the way we describe it from a specifications perspective.

但我們現在看到的這種總體趨勢已經持續了相當長一段時間，我們預計它還會繼續下去。因此，就我們的資產而言，我們有了一條發展我們認為的未來通訊方式的途徑，包括隨著上游利用率的不斷增長而發展上游能力。所以這就是我們所說的 10G，從規範的角度來看，它也被稱為 DOCSIS 4.0。

But we are -- we're still rapidly moving down the path of augmenting our networks in smart ways, in capitally efficient ways, to continue to allow capacity to grow and to create new products that are hard to even envision. And we think that we're very well positioned to do that over the long term. It's going to require continued investment, but a proportional investment that's significantly less than any sort of brand-new build.

但是，我們仍在快速地以智慧的方式、資本高效的方式增強我們的網絡，以繼續擴大產能並創造難以想像的新產品。我們認為，從長遠來看，我們完全有能力做到這一點。這需要持續投資，但投資比例遠低於任何全新建設項目。

So we think we're in great -- a great position to make those investments and to realize the benefits of them and to create the new products that are going to come from them. But we don't have an immediate upstream problem and we don't have a downstream problem. We have opportunities in both places in the long run.

所以我們認為我們處於非常有利的地位，可以進行這些投資，實現投資收益，並創造出由此產生的新產品。但我們目前既沒有上游問題，也沒有下游問題。從長遠來看，我們在這兩個地方都有發展機會。

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

我們的下一個問題來自古根漢合夥公司的麥克‧麥科馬克。

Tom, maybe just a quick question on spectrum. I know you mentioned the FCC's move recently. Does that change your appetite in any way for the CBRS spectrum auction later this year?

湯姆，關於光譜方面，我可能要問你一個問題。我知道你最近提到了聯邦通信委員會的舉措。這是否會以任何方式改變您對今年稍後舉行的 CBRS 頻譜拍賣的看法？

And then thinking about sports rights, I know you touched on it briefly, but what are your thoughts just more generally on the value of sports rights coming out of all this?

然後，關於體育版權，我知道你之前簡要地提到過，但你對體育版權的價值，從目前的情況來看，有什麼更普遍的看法呢？

Well, in terms of the -- you mean, if I understand your question, you were saying that the FCC's 6-gigahertz WiFi spectrum would affect our valuation of CBRS? The answer is no. They're really separate notions. I look at the 6-gigahertz spectrum as inside-house-type spectrum. So all of our products are delivered wirelessly, so the real issue is mobility versus of stationary or sedentary behavior. And the 6-gigahertz spectrum is really for in-house, high-capacity use for a whole new set of products that will come along.

嗯，就——你的意思是，如果我理解你的問題沒錯的話，你是說 FCC 的 6 吉赫茲 WiFi 頻譜會影響我們對 CBRS 的估值嗎？答案是否定的。它們其實是兩個不同的概念。我認為 6 吉赫茲頻譜是室內用頻譜。因此，我們所有的產品都是透過無線方式交付的，所以真正的問題是移動性與固定或久坐行為之間的區別。而 6 吉赫茲頻譜實際上是為內部高容量應用而設計的，用於即將推出的一系列新產品。

The CBRS spectrum really allows for more efficient use of the mobile platform, at least the way we look at it. Although it could be used indoors as well, and it can be used indoors both for mobile service and enterprise environments and externally. And so we see them as separate notions and separate values, and it hasn't affected -- one hasn't affected the other in our view.

CBRS 頻譜確實能夠更有效地利用行動平台，至少在我們看來是如此。雖然它也可以用於室內，並且既可以用於室內移動服務和企業環境，也可以用於室外。因此，我們認為它們是不同的概念和不同的價值觀，而且它們之間並沒有相互影響——在我們看來，一個概念並沒有影響另一個概念。

Regarding sports rights. Everybody misses sports, and it really -- it obviously is an extremely valuable product and is the glue that holds the bundle together. And assuming that sports come back and that leagues generally play, the secular trends that are going on shouldn't change in my view. The same forces will exist going forward that existed before the crisis. So absent a complete collapse of the sports business, I don't see a major change.

關於體育版權。每個人都想念體育運動，而且它確實——顯然是一種極其有價值的產品，是把整個體系凝聚在一起的黏合劑。假設體育賽事恢復，聯賽正常進行，我認為目前的長期趨勢不應該改變。危機爆發前就存在的各種力量，未來仍將持續存在。所以，除非體育產業徹底崩潰，否則我認為不會有重大變化。

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Rollins with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的麥可‧羅林斯。

I was curious if you could frame some of the scenarios that you were running for your SMB customers in trying to think through the exposure and how you frame the bad debt reserves in the quarter?

我想請您介紹一下，在為中小企業客戶分析風險敞口以及您如何計算季度壞帳準備金的過程中，您都模擬過哪些場景？

Sure.

當然。

Yes, go ahead.

好的，請繼續。

Mike, on the SMB, I mean, I'd just put it a little bit in perspective. It's 8.5% of our revenue. And so you can get to some pretty wicked scenarios, and it still doesn't have that material of an impact to the company. Certainly, when you're talking about liquidity or balance sheet perspective, it has an impact on the revenue growth rate for the entire company.

Mike，關於 SMB，我的意思是，我只是想稍微客觀地看待這個問題。這占我們收入的8.5%。因此，即使出現一些非常糟糕的情況，也不會對公司造成實質的影響。當然，從流動性或資產負債表的角度來看，這會對整個公司的收入成長率產生影響。

And so I think given some of the stats that I was providing inside the prepared remarks, the idea was that people could take their own view of how bad in particular that segment of bars, restaurants and theaters could be hit and for how long. And that would give you some sensitivity of what the trough looks like. We don't know any more than anybody else in terms of the depth and duration of the recession. But that's why we wanted to give some of those stats to give a framework for people to think about it.

因此，我認為，鑑於我在準備好的演講稿中提供了一些統計數據，人們可以自行判斷酒吧、餐廳和劇院這部分行業可能會受到多大的衝擊，以及會持續多久。這樣就能讓你對水槽的形狀有所感知。就經濟衰退的深度和持續時間而言，我們並不比其他人知道更多。但也因為如此，我們才想提供一些統計數據，為人們思考這個問題提供一個框架。

The second question was -- the first one was SMB. The second was...

第二個問題是──第一個問題是中小企業。第二個是…

How you frame your bad debt.

你如何看待你的壞帳。

Bad debt.

壞帳。

Well, look, every company has had to modify to a new GAAP standard, which requires you to estimate your bad debt reserves for the receivables that you have at a period of time as opposed to when they age. And so you've heard everybody talk about that this quarter. We're no different. We had in total between cable and mobile, about $30 million of additional bad debt as an estimate for what might not be payable on the accounts of receivables that existed at the time of close.

你看，每家公司都必須修改以適應新的 GAAP 標準，該標準要求你根據應收帳款的帳齡來估算壞帳準備金。所以這季大家都在談論這件事。我們也不例外。我們估計，在結算時已存在的應收帳款中，總共約有 3,000 萬美元的額外壞賬，包括有線電視和行動業務。

In Q2, let me start maybe back with the first objective. Our goal through all of this is, a, to do well by the customer by providing good offers for remote education as well as for, in this case, Keep American Connected pledge. But our goal is also not going to be to quickly get into a collection environment and cut them off. Our goal is going to be to keep these customers. And in the second quarter, to the extent that we work with a customer to rightsize their receivable, some of that could impact the revenue recognition inside of Q2; and some of that for a financed portion that they may need to pay back over time, could impact our estimate for bad debt reserve. That will apply for residential and SMB.

第二季度，或許我可以先從第一個目標開始。我們做這一切的目標是：a. 透過提供遠距教育的優惠以及（在本例中）「保持美國互聯」承諾，為客戶提供良好的服務。但我們的目標也不是迅速進入催收環境並切斷他們的聯繫。我們的目標是留住這些客戶。在第二季度，如果我們與客戶合作調整其應收帳款規模，其中一部分可能會影響第二季度的收入確認；而對於他們可能需要分期償還的融資部分，其中一部分可能會影響我們對壞帳準備金的估計。這適用於住宅用戶和中小企業。

And so when I mentioned in the prepared remarks that we're going to have a lot of technical accounting and reporting issues to deal with in Q2, it's true. But we're going to be focused on not the accounting outcome or how Q2 is going to look. We're going to be focused on what's the right long-term outcome for the customers and for the company. And we'll make sure that the accounting does what's appropriate on the back end.

所以，當我在準備好的演講稿中提到，我們在第二季將面臨許多技術會計和報告問題時，這是真的。但我們關注的重點不會是會計結果，也不會是第二季的業績表現。我們將專注於為客戶和公司帶來正確的長期結果。我們會確保後台會計工作依規定進行。

But I think there'll be a little bit of noise, and we'll make sure that we disclose any revenue impacts and any bad debt impacts in our Q2 reporting.

但我認為可能會有一些波動，我們會確保在第二季報告中揭露任何收入影響和任何壞帳影響。

So that's kind of an accounting explanation. The way I look at bad debt is -- have you created customers? And did you keep them? And do they pay you? And if you create customers and they pay you, that's good. And if you don't, you have a lot of bad debt.

以上是一種會計方面的解釋。我看待壞帳的方式是──你是否創造了客戶？你把它們都保存下來了嗎？他們會付你錢嗎？如果你能吸引到客戶，而且他們願意付費，那就很好了。否則，你就會背負很多壞帳。

It's -- and when I look at the customers that we're creating, we have -- they're taking our high-quality products and -- in the residential space. And they -- from a profile perspective, they look like the customers we've always created. And so they're going to be affected by the macro climate, obviously. But we have products that we can sell to those customers that have value regardless of what -- where they fall in the income range. We sell to very poor people and we sell to very rich people. And we have a product mix that can work across the entire marketplace. So I'm confident that we can create customer relationship -- valuable customer relationships through time.

是的——當我審視我們正在創造的客戶群時，我們發現——他們正在將我們的高品質產品應用於住宅領域。從使用者畫像來看，他們看起來就像我們一直以來所創造的客戶群。因此，它們顯然會受到宏觀氣候的影響。但是，無論客戶的收入水平如何，我們都有值得銷售的產品，這些產品對他們來說都是有價值的。我們既向非常貧窮的人銷售產品，也向非常富有的人銷售產品。我們擁有能夠滿足整個市場需求的產品組合。所以我相信我們能夠建立客戶關係—隨著時間的推移，建立有價值的客戶關係。

Even in the small business arena, we're still creating customers today. And even in -- if you think about the restaurant business, which is closed, the vast majority of those customer relationships are still intact. They still want websites, and they may have takeout businesses or whatever. But even if a business is closed, it doesn't mean that they don't want to have a relationship with us.

即使在小型企業領域，我們今天仍然在創造客戶。即使以已關閉的餐飲業為例，絕大多數顧客關係仍然完好無損。他們仍然需要網站，他們可能還會經營外送生意或其他類型的生意。即使一家企業關門了，也不代表他們不想和我們保持聯繫。

Our next question comes from the line of Peter Supino with Bernstein.

我們的下一個問題來自彼得·蘇皮諾和伯恩斯坦的對話。

When you all analyzed the improvements in churn, what are the drivers of that other than the all-digital upgrade that we've talked about at length and the insourcing of customer service? I wonder if your performance in the Legacy Charter territories continues to provide any helpful data to answer this question.

在分析客戶流失率的改善情況時，除了我們已經詳細討論過的全數位化升級和客戶服務內部化之外，還有哪些因素推動了這種改善？我想知道您在傳統特許經營區域的表現是否繼續提供任何有助於回答這個問題的有用數據。

So what's good for churn -- look, churn was -- before the impact of COVID, our churn was coming down steadily. And we've -- all -- everything we've done post-COVID has been consistent with the strategies that we had before in terms of having high-quality service, high-quality product, high-quality workers insourced in the United States who are trained and capable of providing excellent service. If you do that, you have less activity. And the ultimate value proposition that drives the cost to serve is activity.

那麼，什麼對降低客戶流失率有利呢？ ——你看，在新冠疫情的影響之前，我們的客戶流失率一直在穩定下降。而且，我們在新冠疫情後所做的一切，都與我們先前的策略保持一致，即提供高品質的服務、高品質的產品，並在美國僱用訓練有素、能夠提供優質服務的高品質員工。如果你那樣做，你的活動量就會減少。而最終決定服務成本的價值主張是活動量。

And if you can -- if your service is better and your products have longer lives, inherently, you have less activity per dollar of revenue generated, which means that you have a higher margin or a lower cost to serve. And churn is one of the measurements of customer satisfaction. It's also a measure of mobility in the economy and other things of that nature. But all of those things being held constant, if your churn rate is going down, it means your customer satisfaction is going up because your products are better. And that's been our objective in terms of managing the company, and it still is.

如果可以的話——如果你的服務更好，產品壽命更長，那麼從本質上講，你每產生一美元收入所需的活動就更少，這意味著你的利潤率更高或服務成本更低。客戶流失率是衡量顧客滿意度的指標之一。它也是衡量經濟流動性及其他類似事物的指標。但是，在所有這些因素保持不變的情況下，如果你的客戶流失率下降，那就代表你的客戶滿意度上升了，因為你的產品變得更好了。而這正是我們管理公司的目標，現在依然如此。

So the Legacy Charter platform, churn was coming down and Legacy Time Warner platform and Legacy Bright House platform, churn was coming down across all of those businesses. And cost to serve is coming down, too, because of the self-installation models and all-digital models in terms of digital buy flows that we created, allow for ease from a consumer perspective of dealing with us and less friction in the actual transaction because an appointment isn't necessary to keep, for that process to occur. And all of that creates less activity and higher satisfaction, which is a very virtuous cycle in the sense that if you have less activity and you have less failure in your activities, meaning you have less service calls, you'll have less missed appointments; you actually create more satisfaction, which extends subscriber life even longer, which by itself, reduces activity.

因此，Legacy Charter 平台、Legacy Time Warner 平台和 Legacy Bright House 平台的客戶流失率都在下降，所有這些業務的客戶流失率都在下降。而且，由於我們創建的自助安裝模式和全數位化模式（就數位化購買流程而言），服務成本也在下降，從消費者的角度來看，這簡化了與我們打交道的過程，減少了實際交易中的摩擦，因為無需預約即可完成交易。所有這些都會減少用戶活動，提高用戶滿意度，這是一個非常良性循環，因為如果用戶活動減少，用戶活動中的失敗次數減少（即服務電話減少，預約爽約次數減少），實際上就能提高用戶滿意度，從而延長用戶生命週期，而用戶生命週期本身又會減少用戶活動。

So that was the path we were on and it's still, I believe, the path we're on. It's a little bit confused by the volume that we're currently under. We've had enormous uptick in activity in the last 2 months due to sales. And interestingly, we've created in the last 60 days 10,000 new broadband customers a day, so 600,000 customers in 60 days. That's a lot of work, and we've done that pretty seamlessly.

所以，這就是我們當時所走的路，而且我相信，我們現在仍然在走這條路。它有點被我們目前的音量搞糊塗了。由於銷售旺盛，過去兩個月我們的業務量大幅成長。有趣的是，在過去的 60 天裡，我們每天新增 10,000 名寬頻用戶，因此 60 天內新增了 60 萬名用戶。那工作量很大，但我們完成得相當順利。

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

我們的下一個問題來自 New Street Research 的 Jonathan Chaplin。

Two quick ones, if I may. Tom, for you. You mentioned that the importance of the sort of the secular trends in sports haven't changed. I'm wondering if you can touch on some of the secular trends in the business that you think have changed, how the business is going to look different when we come out of the current environment.

可以的話，請容許我快速回答兩個問題。湯姆，這是給你的。你提到體育運動中這類世俗趨勢的重要性並沒有改變。我想請您談談您認為已經改變的商業長期趨勢，以及當我們走出當前環境後，商業格局將會發生哪些變化。

And then, Chris, I think you said that nonprogramming costs were down year-over-year when you exclude the COVID impacts on -- from wages and bad debt. Is that a trend that you would have expected to continue throughout the year, but for the impact of the pandemic? And then should we annualize that $30 million and $25 million of COVID-related impact? Or is it -- does it sort of flow differently as we go through the year?

然後，克里斯，我想你說過，如果排除 COVID 對工資和壞帳的影響，非程式成本同比下降。如果不是因為疫情的影響，您是否預期這種趨勢會持續一整年？那麼，我們是否應該將這 3000 萬美元和 2500 萬美元的新冠疫情相關影響按年計算呢？或者說——隨著一年的進行，它的走向會有所不同嗎？

So Jonathan, on secular change. I would say it this way. I don't know that they're permanently changed, but they're permanently advanced, meaning we took years of secular change and compressed it into a very short period of time. And they're -- and we're not going to go back to the original trend line. We may have just moved way up the trend line.

喬納森，關於世俗變革。我會這樣說。我不知道它們是否發生了永久性的改變，但它們肯定取得了永久性的進步，這意味著我們將多年的世俗變革壓縮到了很短的時間內。而且──我們不會回到原來的趨勢線。我們可能只是大幅超越了趨勢線。

And I think network utilization is one of those, and I think customer self-serve is the other, and the cost to serve as a result of that. We were already fairly down -- far down the road in the customer self-service model. And we were fortunate, when we got hit with what we did and with the marketing tactics that we employed, that we were able to actually deal with it. Because we had started the quarter in the 55% range, I think, of self-installation. And we were about at 70% when everything changed. And we're over 90% now of self-installation. So the fact that we were already at 70% allowed us to get to 90% with a fair degree of operational efficiency. And so we were prepared, fortunately, at that moment.

我認為網路利用率是其中之一，客戶自助服務是另一個因素，以及由此產生的服務成本。我們在客戶自助服務模式方面已經走得很遠了。我們很幸運，當我們所做的事情以及我們所採用的行銷策略為我們帶來負面影響時，我們能夠有效地應對。因為我認為，本季初我們的自安裝率在 55% 左右。當時進度大概達到了70%，然後一切都改變了。現在我們已經實現了超過 90% 的自助安裝。因此，由於我們已經達到了 70% 的完成率，我們得以在相當高的營運效率下達到 90% 的完成率。幸好，我們當時做好了準備。

But I think that's a big change in the business going forward. And I think people using Zoom and other kinds of 2-way communications in a work-like environment in their homes has probably advanced by a number of years for the long term.

但我認為這將對未來的商業發展產生重大影響。我認為，從長遠來看，人們在家中類似工作環境中使用 Zoom 和其他類型的雙向通訊技術，可能已經取得了數年的進步。

And Jonathan, you talked about non -- go ahead. Go ahead.

喬納森，你剛剛談到了非——請繼續。前進。

And just -- I was going to say, just to follow up on that, and this was probably directed at you, Chris. Going from 55% to 90%, what does that do for margins? When we -- in a year or maybe it's 2 years when we get out of this environment, how much -- are margins structurally higher because of that?

我本來想說，就這件事繼續說下去，這大概是說給你聽的，克里斯。從 55% 提高到 90%，這對利潤率有什麼影響？當我們──或許一年後，或許兩年後──擺脫這種環境時，利潤率會因此而結構性地提高多少？

Yes. I don't want to get into a percentage margin discussion. But the cost of a self-installation is about 1/3 of the cost of a professional install. And the benefit of that inures to both OpEx and CapEx, depending on what type of installation it is. So it's significant. But keep in mind that we were already at 55%. We would have been at 70% by the end of the quarter absent the acceleration.

是的。我不想討論利潤率百分比的問題。但自行安裝的成本大約只有專業安裝成本的三分之一。這樣做的好處體現在營運支出和資本支出上，取決於安裝類型。所以這意義重大。但請記住，我們當時已經達到了 55%。如果沒有加速成長，到本季末我們本應達到 70% 的完成率。

Your second question was on nonprogramming expense. There's marketing, there's advertising expense, there's enterprise expenses in there. So I prefer to think about cost to service customers, which is really the residential and SMB cost to provide network operations, field operations and customer service operations, the call centers and billing, just the bulk of our cost. That cost, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, absent -- leaving aside just bad debt, was down year-over-year in gross dollars, and it was down as a per-relationship basis.

你的第二個問題是關於非程式設計方面的支出。其中包括行銷費用、廣告費用和企業營運費用。所以我更傾向於考慮服務客戶的成本，這實際上是為住宅用戶和中小企業提供網路運營、現場運營和客戶服務運營、呼叫中心和計費的成本，這構成了我們成本的大部分。正如我在準備好的發言稿中提到的那樣，撇開壞帳不談，這項成本按總額計算同比下降，按每個客戶關係計算也下降了。

And I know I've cautioned in the past that what we're committed to is that per-relationship cost to serve is going to continue to decline. And I've been hesitant to say that the dollar cost to serve, excluding bad debt, would also decline on a gross basis. Clearly, it would have inside of Q1 year-over-year. And given that we do expect, once we get beyond April, April has been a high-activity month, we think that transaction, sales transactions and move churn and all of the different service transactions, will start to slow down. And so that could actually accelerate, excluding bad debt, the cost to serve decline year-over-year certainly on a per-relationship basis.

我知道我過去曾警告過，我們致力於讓每段關係的維護成本持續下降。我一直猶豫要不要說，扣除壞帳後，服務成本總額也會下降。顯然，它在第一季同比數據中有所體現。鑑於我們預計，一旦過了四月（四月是一個活躍的月份），我們認為交易、銷售交易、搬家週轉率以及所有不同的服務交易都會開始放緩。因此，如果不計壞賬，服務成本實際上可能會逐年下降，當然，就每個客戶關係而言。

So I think the trends there are good and they continue. There is an increase in the amount of our labor expense because we accelerated the path that Tom was already putting the company on to a $20 minimum wage. That was $30 million in the quarter for really 1.5 months of expense. So yes, that will get annualized at the appropriate rate. But I think that's a small dollar amount relative to the amount of transactions that come out of the business. And I think our operating strategy fully funds that. And the acceleration of the adoption of self-service and self-install are very helpful in making that viable for not just our employees but for all stakeholders.

所以我認為那裡的發展趨勢是好的，而且還會繼續下去。由於我們加快了湯姆已經帶領公司走上的將最低工資提高到 20 美元的道路，我們的勞動成本增加。那是一個季度3000萬美元的支出，實際上只相當於1.5個月的開支。是的，這將以適當的年化率進行計算。但我認為，相對於該企業的交易額而言，這只是很小的一筆錢。我認為我們的營運策略完全能夠為此提供資金支持。自助服務和自助安裝的加速普及，不僅對我們的員工，而且對所有利害關係人來說，都非常有助於實現這一目標。

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。

I just want to ask you both about 2 comments you made in the prepared remarks. Tom, you've been in the business for a long time and you've been through lots of cycles. And I don't think I'm breaking news to say that the cable company historically has not had the best customer reputation and even reputation with sort of regulators and politicians. And you mentioned sort of the reputational benefits that the company is seeing. I'm just wondering if you have sort of conviction in that being sustainable or any real data behind that. Because obviously, that's not been the lens with which cable operators historically have been looked at.

我只想問問你們二位在準備好的發言稿中提到的兩點。湯姆，你入行很久了，經歷過很多起伏。我想我說有線電視公司歷來客戶口碑不佳，甚至在監管機構和政界人士中的聲譽也不佳，這應該不是什麼新鮮事。你也提到了公司正在獲得的聲譽利益。我只是想知道你是否確信這種做法是可持續的，或者是否有任何實際數據支持這一觀點。顯然，從歷史上看，人們並不是用這種視角來看待有線電視業者的。

And then, Chris, you were talking about capital allocation and the buyback. You mentioned organic or inorganic opportunities. I'm just wondering if you could just take a minute to remind us of kind of your M&A framework and sort of the kinds of things you guys historically have talked about either being interested in or not interested in, just so we can flesh out that comment a little bit more, if you're willing.

然後，克里斯，你剛剛談到了資本配置和股票回購。您提到了有機或無機投資機會。我只是想問你們能否花一分鐘時間，提醒我們你們的併購框架，以及你們過去對哪些方面感興趣或不感興趣，這樣我們就可以更詳細地闡述一下你們的評論，如果你們願意的話。

Well, Ben, I've always loved the cable industry and what it does. And -- but -- and I've always thought that it has done great things consistently. If you think about the upsides of our reputation, we transformed telecommunications.

本，我一直都很喜歡有線電視產業及其所做的一切。而且——但是——我一直認為它一直都做得很好。想想我們聲譽帶來的好處，我們改變了電信業。

And if you think -- I remember just 15 years ago, 20 years ago, the average wireline phone bill was $75 in the New York area. Today, it's $9.99. And the -- if you look at what the cost of broadband was, particularly on a per-gigabit basis, think about dial-up, AOL dial-up in the year 2001, we acquired Time Warner, was $20 a month, and you got 56 baud -- or 56k. The cost of broadband has gone way down, and the telecommunications outputs of the investments that the cable industry has made have been tremendous in terms of the benefits that it's created for consumers.

想想看——我記得就在 15 年前、20 年前，紐約地區的平均固定電話帳單是 75 美元。今天的價格是 9.99 美元。如果你看看寬頻的成本，特別是以千兆位元計算的成本，想想撥接上網，2001 年我們收購時代華納時 AOL 的撥接上網，每月 20 美元，速度是 56 波特——也就是 56k。寬頻成本已大幅下降，有線電視產業在電信領域的投資產出，為消費者帶來了巨大的好處。

Nobody likes paying their cable bill and nobody likes paying for programming costs, and that's always been a difficult aspect of our business. Since we've had competition in video, since the rise of satellite and the cable industry had to divest itself of programming essentially because of the vertical integration rules, the programming cost increased massively because programming is a copyright, which is a legal monopoly. And they've had pricing power over a competitive video business. And consumers don't like that. And -- but now, you have the rise of a la carte direct-to-consumer programming in Netflix and in Warner Home Media and Disney and so forth. And so a lot of our customers have the video they want to buy at prices they want to pay.

沒有人喜歡支付有線電視費，也沒有人喜歡支付節目製作費用，這始終是我們業務中一個棘手的問題。自從視頻領域出現競爭以來，隨著衛星電視的興起，有線電視行業不得不剝離其節目製作業務，這主要是因為垂直整合規則的限制，節目製作成本大幅增加，因為節目製作受版權保護，而版權是一種合法的壟斷。而且他們在競爭激烈的視訊業務中擁有定價權。消費者不喜歡這樣。但現在，Netflix、華納家庭媒體、迪士尼等公司推出了按需付費的直接面向消費者的節目服務。因此，我們的許多客戶都能以他們想要的價格購買他們想要的影片。

And so I think it's from a -- the biggest driver of negativity in the cable business, I think, has been the price of video. And to some extent, that's breaking up. So I'm relatively optimistic about our status. And I think that when you really look at it objectively, we have done great things. And I think the facilities-based competition model that we have in the country has done a really great job of producing really high-quality communication services for consumers.

所以我認為，有線電視產業負面情緒的最大驅動因素是影片價格。某種程度上來說，那就是分手。所以我對我們的現況比較樂觀。我認為，客觀地來看，我們已經取得了巨大的成就。我認為我國採用的基於設施的競爭模式在為消費者提供高品質的通訊服務方面做得非常出色。

Ben, on the M&A framework on the inorganic side, I think the prospect is probably more actionable on the organic side, some of the things that Tom's also talked about in the past. But on the inorganic side would be M&A. Nothing's changed with the way that we think about opportunities. We -- as Tom just mentioned, we love cable. At the right price, we would do cable all day long. And that means tack-ons, which we do frequently as we can, as well as bigger acquisitions. That hasn't been the case today. They're mostly family-controlled or family-owned. And so that will be not in our hands, that will be in the hands of others who decide that.

Ben，就併購框架中的非有機成長方面而言，我認為有機成長方面的前景可能更可行，Tom 過去也談到過一些相關的事情。但就非有機成長而言，則是併購。我們對機會的看法沒有任何改變。正如湯姆剛才提到的，我們喜歡有線電視。只要價格合適，我們願意整天做有線電視。這意味著我們會盡可能經常地進行一些附加收購，以及進行更大規模的收購。但今天情況並非如此。它們大多是家族控製或家族所有。因此，這不是由我們決定，而是由其他人決定。

We have looked all around to see if there's anything on the content side. We haven't found anything that really matches up well with our assets and capabilities other than some of the local news that we've expanded organically, and that makes a lot of sense for us, and particularly in this environment, has been a big asset.

我們已經四處查看，看看內容方面是否有任何進展。除了我們自然而然發展的一些本地新聞之外，我們還沒有找到任何真正與我們的資產和能力相匹配的東西，而這對我們來說意義重大，尤其是在當前環境下，這已成為一項巨大的資產。

We've thought a lot about wireless. But given the assets that we have, the ability to deploy small cells, the attractive MVNO that we have, we haven't found a scenario that made a whole lot of sense for us or for the industry.

我們對無線技術進行了深入思考。但考慮到我們擁有的資產、部署小型基地台的能力以及我們極具吸引力的行動虛擬網路營運商 (MVNO) 優勢，​​我們還沒有找到對我們或整個產業真正有意義的方案。

There are pieces that we can take a look at to accelerate growth, whether that's in enterprise or whether that's in wireless technology, where we've made some minority and some joint investments with Comcast. Same would apply to advertising, but none of those are going to be particularly material. They will be great for those segments of business and the ability to accelerate growth, hopefully. But it's not going to be something that really materially shows up on the balance sheet and impacts our liquidity.

我們可以著手研究一些加速成長的領域，無論是企業領域還是無線技術領域，我們在無線技術領域已經與康卡斯特進行了一些少數股權投資和一些共同投資。廣告方面的情況也類似，但這些都不會造成實質的影響。它們對這些業務領域和加速成長的能力將大有裨益，希望如此。但這並不會在資產負債表上真正產生實質影響，也不會影響我們的流動性。

All of which leads you back to, I think, unless Tom's got something else he'd add, is -- leads you back to we think the organic opportunities, and if you can't buy somebody else's cable stock, buy more of your stock. At some point in the future, it's probably between organic and that, is where we've ended up in the meantime.

我認為，除非湯姆還有其他補充，否則這一切最終都會回到我們認為的有機成長機會上來——如果你買不到別人的有線電視股票，那就買更多自己的股票。在未來的某個時候，它可能介於有機食品和目前我們最終選擇的食品之間。

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。

I was just wondering if you could talk about maybe some of the new offers for customers. I think I saw something that you're doing with Sirius.

我只是想問您是否可以談談一些針對客戶的新優惠活動。我好像看到你和天狼星在做什麼了。

Could you talk about any plans you have for Peacock? Do you need to wait for your NBCU renewal at the end of the year?

可以談談您對Peacock的未來規劃嗎？你的NBCU續約需要等到年底嗎？

And then finally, in terms of customer offers, does the AT&T promo offer for HBO impact the way you would sell or offer HBO?

最後，就客戶優惠而言，AT&T 針對 HBO 的促銷優惠是否會影響您銷售或提供 HBO 的方式？

I had a hard time hearing.

我聽力不太好。

So the first question was any new offers, including, I think, the Sirius trial that we've run out in the marketplace was the question there.

所以第一個問題是是否有新的優惠活動，包括我們已經在市場上推出的 Sirius 試用活動，我認為這就是當時的問題。

And then the second was Peacock, whether that needs to -- that could happen now or needs to wait until a future renewal.

其次是孔雀（Peacock）項目，它是否需要──是現在就進行，還是需要等到未來的續約。

And the third was the HBO Max, to the extent that it impacts the way that we sell the -- or package the HBO product.

第三點是 HBO Max，因為它影響了我們銷售或包裝 HBO 產品的方式。

In terms of our offer strategy, I wouldn't disclose those before we do them. We experiment with various offers through time. But not to minimize the -- our marketing prowess, but we -- ultimately, it's do you have good products and are they worth what they cost? And that's what affects your ability to sell and to take in the marketplace. But we experiment with marketing tactics all the time, and Sirius is one of them. And so we don't have any announcements about future tactics that we might employ.

至於我們的報價策略，在實施之前我不會透露。我們會不時嘗試推出各種不同的優惠活動。但並非要貶低我們的行銷能力，但歸根結底，關鍵在於你的產品是否優質，以及它們是否物有所值？而這會影響你在市場上的銷售和銷售能力。但我們一直在嘗試各種行銷策略，Sirius 就是其中之一。因此，我們目前沒有任何關於未來可能採取的策略的公告。

In terms of Peacock. We have ongoing discussions with NBC, and we haven't concluded anything yet.

就孔雀而言。我們正與NBC進行磋商，目前尚未達成任何結論。

In terms of HBO Max, we just completed an agreement with AT&T, and we're going to convert our customers who have HBO to the new product. And then we're going to market new product as part of our overall video offering. And we look forward to doing that.

關於 HBO Max，我們剛剛與 AT&T 完成了一項協議，我們將把擁有 HBO 的用戶轉移到新產品上。然後，我們將把新產品作為我們整體視訊產品的一部分進行推廣。我們期待著這樣做。

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

接線員，我們最後一個問題請問。

And our last question comes from the line of John Hodulik from UBS.

最後一個問題來自瑞銀集團的約翰‧霍杜利克。

Great. I'll make it quick. First -- I guess just 2 quick ones. The -- first, Chris, on the comment on March advertising, I guess -- or April advertising. I guess, you said it's twice as -- the variance is twice what you saw in March. Does that mean that we're down sort of 36% so far in April? And any color you could give on what you think the -- how the quarter is going to shape up there.

偉大的。我會盡快完成。首先——我想就問兩個簡單的問題。首先，克里斯，關於三月的廣告，我想──或是四月的廣告。我猜，你說過它是原來的兩倍——變異數是三月的兩倍。那是不是代表我們四月至今的跌幅達到了36%？你可以用任何顏色來描述你認為這塊硬幣最終會如何成型。

And then on the CapEx question, you said, given the outbreak, it will likely come in lighter than you previously expected, which was already lower capital intensity. Is there any magnitude of change there? And if you could give us any color on the buckets, it would be great, too.

關於資本支出問題，您曾表示，鑑於疫情爆發，實際支出可能會比您之前預期的要少，而您先前的預期已經屬於較低的資本密集度。那裡的變化幅度大嗎？如果你能給水桶塗上任何顏色，那就太好了。

So the April comment that I made was really not related to the percentage decline year-over-year. It was really the variance to our -- what would have been our expectation. So $30 million we had literally come off the books in March, it was already sold, came off the books. It's over twice that, that came off the books for April. We think that will probably be the trough in April, small if that recovery in May. And maybe depending on how the openings occur, June starts to come back.

因此，我四月份發表的評論實際上與同比下降百分比無關。這和我們預想的完全不一樣。所以，3000萬美元的款項實際上在3月份從帳面上消失了，它已經售出，從帳面上消失了。是四月帳面上減少的兩倍多。我們認為4月份可能是低谷，5月份即使有回升，幅度也不會很大。或許，根據市場開放情況，六月會開始回歸。

So Q2 is going to be a rough advertising -- it's not a big portion, part of our business, but it's going to be a rough advertising quarter. We do think as things come back online that there will be some pent-up demand for advertising on the core local, which for us, has been growing. Our core business has been growing at 3% to 4% year-over-year. On top of that, there will be pent-up demand. So whenever the market opens back up, and that's -- a lot of that's tied to the health of SMBs and when the recession -- or when the distancing starts to open back up, but Q2 will be the rougher point.

所以第二季廣告業務將會比較艱難——雖然它在我們業務中所佔比例不大，但這個季度廣告業務將會比較艱難。我們認為，隨著網路活動的恢復，核心本地廣告的需求將會得到一定程度的釋放，而對我們來說，這種需求一直在增加。我們的核心業務每年成長 3% 至 4%。除此之外，還會出現被壓抑的需求。所以，無論何時市場重新開放，這很大程度上取決於中小企業的健康狀況以及經濟衰退何時結束，或何時社交隔離措施開始重新實施，但第二季將是一個比較艱難的時期。

And then the back half of the year, we'll have political advertising, which takes a little bit -- from a full year perspective, it takes a little bit of the sting out of the collapse that we're seeing inside of Q2. And there's nothing about us that's unique there.

然後到了下半年，我們將迎來政治廣告，從全年來看，這將稍微緩解我們在第二季看到的經濟崩潰帶來的衝擊。我們並沒有什麼特別之處。

The CapEx side, I think it's way too early. I think all we're signaling at this point is that we've been focused on a lot of different activities right now, and there's the possibility that some of the programs that we've had that might be slightly delayed. Construction could be slightly delayed. Your installation CapEx certainly is, on one hand, going to be lower because of lower unit cost because of self-installation; on the other hand, we're doing a lot of installations. The volume is very, very high, as Tom mentioned. So there's a lot of moving parts there. But if we had to guess, it will probably be slightly off relative to the dollar amount that we intended to spend.

就資本支出方面而言，我認為現在還為時過早。我認為我們目前所表達的意思是，我們一直專注於許多不同的活動，因此我們之前的一些項目可能會稍微延遲。施工可能會略有延誤。一方面，由於自行安裝，單位成本較低，因此您的安裝資本支出肯定會降低；另一方面，我們正在進行大量的安裝工作。正如湯姆所說，音量非常非常高。所以這裡面涉及很多環節。但如果非要猜測的話，實際花費的金額可能會與我們計劃花費的美元金額略有偏差。

That being said, Craig asked at the very beginning of the Q&A, are there areas that we could accelerate our spend, given the strength of our balance sheet and the strength of the business? And we'll be moving from a reactive mode into very much a proactive to thinking about how -- what are the things that we could do longer term to even take more advantage of the assets we have. So I don't want to prejudice too much other than to say right now, in the path we're on, it probably looks like it would be slight, minimal, lower dollar amount than we intended to spend this year.

話雖如此，克雷格在問答環節一開始就問道，鑑於我們強勁的資產負債表和強勁的業務實力，我們是否可以在某些領域加快支出？我們將從被動應對轉變為主動思考——從長遠來看，我們可以做些什麼來更好地利用我們擁有的資產。所以我不想妄下斷言，只想說，就目前我們走的這條路來看，最終的支出金額可能會比我們今年計劃的支出金額略低一些。

Yes. The thing I would say about capital spending is we were -- we talked about it in terms of pressure-testing, really.

是的。關於資本支出，我想說的是，我們當時——我們實際上是把它當作壓力測試來討論的。

Yes.

是的。

And we haven't changed our commitment to the projects that we're building and the products that we're building, and we're continuing to take the business forward. But a lot of our capital is success-based. And so it's modulated automatically by customer creation. And so to the extent that the market moves around based on macroeconomic effects, so does capital.

我們並未改變對正在建造的項目和正在開發的產品的承諾，我們將繼續推動業務向前發展。但我們的許多資金都是基於成功而獲得的。因此，它會根據客戶需求自動調整。因此，市場在某種程度上會根據宏觀經濟因素而波動，資本也會隨之波動。

Operator, that concludes our call.

接線員，通話到此結束。

Thank you all very much.

非常感謝大家。

And ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's call. We do 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。非常感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線了。