Charter Communications Inc. added fewer internet subscribers than expected in the third quarter, though the company still racked up positive gains on the metric unlike rival Comcast Corp.
The company also continued to shed video subscribers, losing a net of 327,000 in the third quarter compared with 204,000 in the same period a year before. Analysts had been expecting a net loss of 306,000 on the metric.
Charter
CHTR,
spent the early part of September locked in a carriage dispute with Walt Disney Co.
DIS,
that was eventually resolved. The video-subscriber declines in the third quarter were “partly driven by video disconnects related to the temporary loss of Disney programming in early September,” Charter shared in its release.
See also: It turns out Disney’s ESPN isn’t eroding. But here comes the hard part.
The company recorded third-quarter net income of $1.26 billion, or $8.25 a share, compared with $1.19 billion, or $7.38 a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Analysts tracked by FactSet were expecting $8.06 in earnings per share.
Charter’s revenue was essentially flat, coming in at $13.58 billion versus $13.55 billion a year prior, while analysts had been modeling $13.64 billion.
The company saw 63,000 total internet quarterly net additions in the third quarter. That trailed the FactSet consensus, which called for 88,000, but perhaps came as some relief to investors after peer Comcast
CMCSA,
a day earlier posted declining broadband net additions.
Charter added a net of 594,000 mobile lines in the quarter.
The company bought back 2 million shares in the third quarter for $854.
The stock was down 3% premarket Friday, but has gained 21.4% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX
has gained 7.8%.
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