Charter CEO: Streaming Competition 'Relatively Insignificant'

A million pay TV customers cut the TV cord last quarter and the trend only accelerating, but Charter CEO Tom Rutledge continues to believe there's nothing to worry about. Charter lost another 90,000 video customers last quarter thanks to the slow but steady rise in cord cutting, as well as the company's bungled acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Worse customer service and higher rates than ever are driving these users away from the company, something Rutledge clearly wanted to downplay in comments to analysts and the media.

“I think we will have more video customers three years from now than we do today,” Rutledge told attendees of an industry conference this week , clearly ignoring obvious trends in the other direction.

“Clearly, the market has shifted to some extent,” Rutledge admitted. “The whole multi-channel video market is shrinking at a slow rate, which is mostly price driven in my opinion. And you have new competitors; so far they had been relatively insignificant in terms of their impact on the marketplace.”

And while the highest paid CEO in America acknowledged that much of this consumer disdain is "price driven," he omitted the fact he's the one driving that particular bus. Users in acquired Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks markets have been having been complaining for months that Charter is now charging them 40% more money for the same service post-merger. Cities like Lexington have been holding town halls in the futile attempt to hold the company accountable.

The CEO expressed an outsized optimism regarding the company's new set top box cable guide, and its ability to increase the "perception of value" among Charter subscribers.

“The two-way video on demand platform and how state-of-the-art user interface can affect the perception of value in all of the content that we have is better now than it was previously,” claimed the CEO.

“So, our assets actually work better in a two-way on demand world than they did in a linear world from a value perception perspective relative to competitors. And I think we have a big advantage against satellite going forward that is even more pronounced now than it was a few years ago,” Rutledge added.

In the real world, it's not clear that a better cable box GUI is going to be enough to protect Charter from market evolutions to come. What Charter needs to do is shore up its abysmal customer service, stop lagging on broadband upgrades (Charter's well behind every major cable operator in terms of DOCSIS 3.1 upgrades), and lower prices -- none of which appear to be happening anyway soon. In large part because the highest paid executive in America appears largely out of touch with the realities of a shifting market.