Spectrum reports sales uplift in former Cox markets before rebrand

TL;DR: Charter Communications CEO Chris Winfrey said last week that the combined Charter-Cox business is seeing a sales uplift in former Cox markets ahead of this week's Spectrum rebrand, new pricing, and new product packages.

Charter Communications CEO Chris Winfrey said last week at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference that the newly combined Charter-Cox business is seeing a sales uplift in former Cox Communications markets ahead of this week's Spectrum rebrand. Winfrey said the uptick came late in the third quarter as the company introduced a free mobile line for one year and improved Internet pricing in those markets.

This week's "Spectrum Week" changes rebrand former Cox markets as Spectrum and extend the pricing and packaging used in legacy Charter markets to those customers. Winfrey said he expects the changes to increase sales and reduce churn in the former Cox footprint.

Winfrey said operational expense synergies from the Charter-Cox merger are now expected to exceed $1 billion, up from an earlier estimate of $800 million. He also said Charter will make the Xumo Stream Box the default device for new video subscribers in former Cox areas and will include ad-supported Disney+, Peacock, Paramount+ and HBO Max for pay-TV customers at no additional cost.

Winfrey said video penetration in the former Cox footprint is 10% and that video is intended to support broadband growth and retention rather than stand alone as a growth target. He also said Spectrum has more than 1,200 local edge data centers and about 250 megawatts of capacity across 600 of those facilities at current investment levels.