Understanding Charter’s Strategic Priorities

In 2016, Charter Communications (CHTR) completed its merger with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Charter has outlined a list of key integration issues around the Time Warner Cable and Bright House mergers. The top priority for Charter is to introduce its Spectrum brand suite of video, Internet, and voice services, including 200 HD channels and minimum Internet speeds of 60 Mbps, into legacy Time Warner Cable and Bright House markets.

Charter began to introduce its Spectrum service package into legacy Time Warner Cable and Bright House markets in Texas and Southern California in September. It plans a rollout in New York City in mid-November and in other markets in early 2017.

Charter’s second priority is to complete the conversion of all of the legacy Time Warner Cable and Bright House markets to all-digital, enabling the delivery of higher value services. This will enable the use of a cloud-based user interface and a two-way interactive connection that will allow the company to offer new services. Charter expects the integration and conversion process to extend through 2018 and result in significant capital expenditure and operating costs during this period.

Charter’s third priority is systems integration, though the management does not expect to complete the integration and insourcing of customer care, billing, field operation, network and IT operations until the end of 2019.

With this strategic approach—and if it can overcome the above challenges—Charter will become a big threat to nationwide rivals Comcast (CMCSA), Verizon Communications (VZ), and AT&T (T) in the long run.