Charter Communications lost about 145,000 residential and business video customers in Q1, a slight increase over the 111,000 subscribers it shed in the prior year, but the cable operator saw strong growth in broadband and its new wireless offering during the period.
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Charter added about 428,000 residential and business broadband customers in the quarter, up from 367,000 additions in the previous year. The company also added 176,000 mobile lines in Q1, up from the 113,000 lines it added in the prior year. Charter launched its mobile service -- Spectrum Mobile -- in June, part of a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement with Verizon Communications.
Overall revenue increased 5.1% to $11.2 billion in the period, while cash flow rose 4.2% to $4.1 billion. Charter added about 321,000 customer relationships, up from the 231,000 it added in Q1 2018. As of March 31, 2019, Charter had 26.6 million residential customer relationships and 50.0 million residential PSUs.
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"With the most customer-impacting elements of our integration behind us, we are now focused on growing our business," Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said in a press release. "We are doing that by driving high quality subscriptions, reducing transactions and churn, and maintaining and creating product superiority with a value proposition that our competitors don't provide. In the first quarter, we accelerated our customer relationship growth and grew our cable free cash flow by nearly $1 billion year-over-year. We are pleased with our progress and our operating model is designed to drive continuous improvement, and long- 2 term growth, in a way that works for customers, our employees, the communities we serve, and our shareholders."
