Charter Communications said Wednesday that it has named Christopher Winfrey president and CEO and that current chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge will become executive chairman effective December 1, ending a 10-year run as the chief architect of the cable giant’s strategy.

Rutledge joined Charter in 2012, after serving as chief operating officer of Cablevision Systems for about 10 years, and led the company through its biggest period of growth, engineering the 2016 purchase of Time Warner Cable that vaulted Charter into the No. 2 spot among cable operators in the country.  Rutledge will serve as Charter’s executive chairman and serve on its board of directors through 2023, where he will maintain oversight of government affairs and help with a smooth transition. He then plans to retire after a 50-year career in the cable industry. 

“It has been an honor and a pleasure to lead Charter and this incredible team over the past 10 years,” Rutledge said in a press release. “We have grown the company through innovation and strategic investments and have positioned Charter to provide the best-converged connectivity products and services available today. During my 50 years in this industry, I have witnessed first-hand its ability to continually evolve and change the world, and our opportunity today is greater than ever with ubiquitous connectivity being central to everything we do.”

Also: SCTE Cable-Tec Expo: Talent Gap Depends on What You’re Doing, Cable Chiefs Say

Rutledge can trace his cable roots back to 1972, when he served as a technician for Eastern Telecom while still attending college. His first permanent job in the industry came in 1977, when he joined American Television and Communications (ATC), a predecessor of Time Warner Cable, as a manager trainee. He eventually became president of Time Warner Cable, and in 2002 left to head up operations for Cablevision, joining Charter a decade later and steering it to its greatest period of growth. Under Rutledge’s watch, Charter’s annual revenue rose more than 600% while its customer base has increased 500%. Rutledge also oversaw the launch of the Spectrum brand, the company’s forays into mobile and 1-gigabit per second broadband. Today Charter has more than 32 million customer relationships, second only to Comcast. 

“When Tom was chosen to lead Charter in 2012, his reputation as a skilled operator was second to none, but we never anticipated the new heights to which he would take this company,” Charter’s lead independent director, Eric Zinterhofer, said in a press release. “He redefined and exceeded every measure of success, establishing Charter as a best-in-class U.S. connectivity provider. He grew the company both organically and through transformative acquisitions, which included Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Optimum West (Bresnan). In addition, Tom has skillfully developed the next generation of leaders at Charter, including Chris. We are pleased Tom will continue to serve Charter and its shareholders as Executive Chairman of the Company and its Board in 2023.” 

Winfrey “has consistently demonstrated significant leadership and delivered an impressive track record of successes. He earned the respect and trust of his colleagues, the industry, the financial community and this Board,” Zinterhofer added. 

Winfrey joined Charter in 2010 as chief financial officer and was named chief operating officer in 2021. He has nearly 25 years of experience in the cable business, and before Charter served as managing director for cable operations, broadcasting and satellite entities at Unitymedia GmbH, Germany's second-largest cable operator. Earlier in his career, he served as senior VP, corporate finance and development at Cablecom GmbH, and was previously a director of financial planning and analysis and director of operations services of NTL’s Continental Europe operations, and a senior associate in the private equity group at Communications Equity Associates. 

“Chris’s leadership and expertise in both operations and finance have been pivotal to Charter’s growth and success,” Rutledge said in a press release. “He has repeatedly demonstrated innate strategic insight and keen market and industry awareness to drive an organization to perform at the highest level. Having worked closely with Chris for more than 10 years, he is the right choice to be our next CEO and will serve Charter’s customers, employees and shareholders with integrity and skill, leading the company to new and extraordinary heights.” 

Also: Texas Judge Cuts Charter Damages Bill to $1.15 Billion in Case of Customer Murdered by Installer

Currently, Winfrey is leading Charter’s rural construction initiative including its $5 billion investment associated with the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), making gigabit broadband connectivity available to more than 1 million currently unserved locations. He also will lead the company’s path to a fully converged broadband offering with symmetrical and multi-gigabit speeds across its entire network. As CFO, he spearheaded Charter’s transformative M&A activity, played an integral role in the Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks integrations and managed Charter’s financial activities through a period of significant growth. 

“I am grateful to Tom and the Board for entrusting me with this appointment and the incredible opportunity to lead this top-flight management team and company,” Winfrey said in the press release. “I am deeply committed to Charter’s success and will continue our track record of delivering the best connectivity products and service to our customers, investing in the careers of our employees and building long-term value for shareholders.” ■

Charter Communications has been ordered to pay $1.15 billion to the family of an 83-year-old customer slain three years ago by one of the cable company's off-duty installers in a botched robbery attempt.

Dallas County Court Judge Juan Renteria's "final judgment" reduced a $7 billion punitive damages award rendered by a jury in July to around $809 million. That's combined with a $337.5 million compensatory damages verdict awarded by the same jury in June.

According to the plaintiffs' attorney Chris Hamilton, the victim's family "voluntarily remitted the $7 billion punitive damages award to an amount equal to two times the compensatory damages in requesting entry of judgment. This conservative damages multiplier will make the judgment exceedingly unlikely to be overturned on appeal given the criminal forgery findings against Charter and established Supreme Court precedent."

Judge Renteria's ruling included a determination that Charter knowingly committed forgery in its defense.

Irving, Texas grandmother Betty Thomas was fatally stabbed by Roy Holden in December 2019, a day after he visited the victim's residence on official company business. Holden plead guilty to criminal charges and is now serving a life sentence in a Texas prison.

For its part, Charter still plans to appeal.

“Our hearts go out to Mrs. Thomas’ family in the wake of this senseless and tragic crime. The responsibility for this horrible act rests solely with Mr. Holden, who was not on duty, and we are grateful he is in prison for life. While we respect the jury and the justice system, we strongly disagree with the verdict and will appeal," Charter said in a statement.

The plaintiffs said a cursory look at Holden's background would have revealed his history of firings for forging documents and harassing coworkers.

Further, the plaintiffs argued that Charter ignored obvious cries for help from the convicted killer, who was fresh off a divorce and distraught over his financial situation. In his desperation, he turned to robbing elderly Charter employees he came in contact with through his job, plaintiffs say.

 “The law in Texas and the facts presented at trial clearly show this crime was not foreseeable -- and the plaintiffs’ claims of wrongdoing by Charter are categorically false," Charter added. "We are committed to the safety of all our customers and took the necessary steps, including a thorough pre-employment criminal background check -- which showed no arrests, convictions or other criminal behavior. Nor did anything in Mr. Holden’s performance after he was hired suggest he was capable of the crime he committed, including more than 1,000 completed service calls with zero customer complaints about his behavior.”

Blair Levin, a policy analyst for New Street Research, believes that Charter's punitive damages burden will be reduced yet again on appeal.  Based on precedent, Levin speculated that punitive damages will ultimately come in at a number ratio'd at 1:1 with the $337.5 million compensatory damages award.

Certainly, even a reduced $675 million final "final" damages judgement will impact the balance sheet of a cable company that's seen its stock price decline 44% since the beginning of 2022. ■

Charter Communications officially opened its new Stamford, Connecticut, headquarters Monday, a state-of-the-art facility that has been five years in the making. 

Charter first unveiled plans for a  new Stamford HQ in 2017. The new facility  was officially unveiled on Monday (June 6) in a ribbon-cutting ceremony that included Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons. Located in the city’s revitalized Harbor Point neighborhood, Charter’s new corporate campus provides the company’s Stamford-based employees with an amenity-rich, commuter-friendly workspace with room for continued growth.

“Over the past 10 years we have been proud members of the Stamford community and have experienced tremendous growth,” Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said in a press release. “Our Stamford headquarters has grown from a handful of employees in a small portion of a single floor to 1,700 employees in a two-building, 900,000 square-foot campus. This region provides access to a robust talent base and at Charter, we are committed to attracting and retaining highly-skilled employees who live and work in this area and to contributing to the growth and success of this community.”

Also: Charter Chief Tom Rutledge Sees the Day When All Video Is IP-Delivered

Charter has more than 93,000 employees nationwide, and the company is currently hiring for more than 150 positions at the new Stamford campus, including professional-level roles in business planning, corporate security, customer operations, facilities, field operations, finance, human resources, information technology, legal, marketing, network engineering and sales.  

“Charter is a leading Connecticut-based business, invested in the success of the state, Stamford and the many communities it serves across the country,” Lamont said in a press release. “The company’s continued growth is a testament to its commitment to employees, customers and the communities in which they live and work.”

Charter’s Stamford campus is conveniently located by car, bus or train from New York City and other areas of Connecticut and Westchester County and has direct access to the Stamford train station platform, which offers Metro-North and Amtrak Acela services, and is located just off Interstate 95. 

Also: Charter, Comcast Set Joint Venture To Create New Streaming Platform

“We are so thrilled and grateful to have Charter Communications in Stamford,” Simmons said in a press release. “Charter has brought over 1,700 jobs and invested over $500 million in this headquarters, bringing economic prosperity to our city. Charter has also been an excellent corporate partner, contributing to philanthropic efforts including a five year commitment to funding job training programs within our Community Action Agency in the South End. We are so grateful and happy to see Charter’s continued growth in Stamford.”

The new campus includes:

• A two-story food hall, three 24/7 self-serve markets; a coffee shop serving Starbucks coffee and food, and a Pure Juice Bar with indoor and outdoor dining space.
• A free fitness center with complimentary group exercise classes, fitness assessments and individualized exercise programs.
• A health-care center that is scheduled to open in August, which will provide employees in-building access to services.
• A conference center with 10 conference rooms, three huddle rooms, three phone rooms, a break room, and a training room that holds more than 100 people.
• A 250-seat auditorium set to open in August.
• An outdoor amphitheater scheduled to open in the fall.

More information about Stamford job openings is available here. 

Charter Communications said Tuesday that it will commit an additional $1 million to its 2022 Spectrum Digital Education grant initiative, boosting the total amount invested in the six-year program to $8 million. 

“As one of the nation’s largest broadband providers, Charter is committed to supporting local programs that promote digital literacy and inclusion, further investing in the communities we serve,” Charter VP of Community Impact Rahman Khan said in a press release. “Through Spectrum Digital Education, thousands of people across our footprint have had the opportunity to learn about the benefits of digital technology and incorporate it into their lives, teaching critical skills that help improve and strengthen the cities and towns where we live and work.”

Charter launched Spectrum Digital Education in 2017, and through February 2022 the company said grants and in-kind contributions have helped 99 nonprofit organizations and more than 95,000 people in 22 states and Washington, D.C. According to Charter, the funding has been used to provide computers to those without digital access and digital literacy training for older adults, as well as assisting organizations to expand their online programs, purchase software to make technology more accessible for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and to combat isolation amongst senior citizens.

Recent grantees include Ashbury Community Services, Inc., a Cleveland, Ohio nonprofit which has used the grant funding to provide educational programs to help seniors enhance their technology skills using digital devices and tools to improve their quality of life. Kramden Institute in Raleigh, North Carolina, recently was awarded funding to provide basic computer training for up to 150 senior citizens giving each participant a refurbished laptop. Charter also gave $45,000 in Spectrum Digital Education funding to two Madison, Wisconsin-area nonprofits, Urban League of Greater Madison and 100 Black Men. The grant will help the Urban League expand the digital capacity of its employment programs and provide 100 Black Men technical help towards its goal of connecting 3,000 families to the internet.

Nonprofit organizations that offer broadband education, training and technology can apply for support here, beginning Wednesday, June 1 through Friday, June 24, at 5 p.m. ET. Recipients will be announced in the fall.

To be eligible for a Spectrum Digital Education grant, organizations must serve communities located within Charter’s 41-state service area and have 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. More information on how to apply is available here.

Charter Communications and Comcast have formed a joint venture to develop a new streaming platform that will be able to handle a new generation of devices and provide additional functions.

To form the joint venture, Comcast is licensing its Flex streaming platform and contributing the retail business of its XClass TVs and the Xumo streaming service. Charter will be contributing $900 million, funded over multiple years.

"We’re thrilled to partner with Charter to bring this platform and its award-winning experience to millions of new customers,“ Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said.  “These products are all designed to make search and discovery across live, on-demand and streaming video seamless and incredibly simple for consumers.  

“This partnership uniquely brings together more than a decade of technical innovation, national scale and new opportunities to monetize our combined investment,” Watson said. 

Also: Xfinity Flex Now Up to 3.5 Million Deployments

Added Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge: “Our new venture will bring a full-featured operating platform, new devices, and smart TVs with a robust app store providing a more streamlined and aggregated experience for the customer. As the video landscape continues to evolve, this venture will increase retail consumer options, compete at scale with established national platforms, and join our existing lineup of options for the Spectrum TV App available on most customer-owned streaming devices.” 

The joint venture will offer app developers, streamers, retailers, operators and hardware manufacturers an opportunity to reach customers in major markets across the country with the platform.

It will support a variety of branded 4K streaming devices and smart TVs, providing consumers with a world-class user experience and navigation, all the top apps and more choice in the streaming marketplace, Charter and Comcast said. ▪️

Charter Communications has restored Spectrum landline services to much of the Los Angeles area after a fire damaged the company's fiber-optic cables and left local subscribers without internet from about 9 a.m. Sunday to after midnight Monday. 

"Our network sustained extensive damage caused by an intense fire earlier today. Our technicians are working to restore service as soon as possible," read a message we received at 7:38 p.m., over 10 hours after the blackout began. 

Charter said a fire under a freeway overpass in South Los Angeles was at the root of the problem. The outage blacked out service for Charter subscribers in South Los Angeles, but also customers in southeast Los Angeles, Ladera Heights, Hyde Park and Mid-City.

Charter is the largest supplier of high-speed internet in Los Angeles. 

Six years ago, several embarrassing viral audio clips emerged, featuring befuddled Comcast customers desperately trying to cancel their service, only to be flummoxed by a confounding shell game of transfers, lengthy holds and inexplicable badgering from reps trying convince them to upgrade their service, not cancel it. 

The ghastly optics convinced Comcast to embark on what it marketed as a $350 million customer service face lift.

In regard to Comcast and the rest of the U.S. cable and telecom industry, nothing as unseemly seems to have hit the social internet since that time. 

Nonetheless, the public image damage to the broader cable biz seems to be: when Saturday Night Live decides to skewer something in a sketch, it's usually a phenomenon or annoyance that's become relatable in a mainstream way. 

And unfortunately for Charter Communications and its Spectrum brand, Saturday night's latest SNL sketch featuring guest star Kieran Culkin, titled Cancelling Cable, doesn't feature Xfinity reps. 

Meh, these regional monopolists share so much. Might as well share awful reputations. 

Take a gander at the sketch below. 

Ah, the hunter has become the hunted! The blackout-er has become the blackout-ed! (Yeah, we’re playing up the irony here.)

Cable company Charter Communications has informed its customers that its Spectrum TV app is no longer available for download on Roku, with the cable operator's distribution deal with the OTT company expired. 

The “blackout” of the cable company’s OTT app on the No. 1 connected TV device platform was first discovered by TV Answer Man analyst Phillip Swann. A Charter rep told him that the Spectrum TV app, which lets Charter pay TV subscribers watch their service without a traditional set-top box, can still be used if the customer already has it downloaded on their Roku device.

UPDATED 12/14/2020: In a Monday morning email, a Roku press rep said, "This is not a carriage dispute as noted." Spectrum TV app downloads, he said, were disabled because Roku's deal with Charter expired. But the app has not been blocked--those who already have it can still use it. Roku and Charter are working on a renewal.

"Importantly, all current users still have access to the app," the rep added. 

The Spectrum TV app had been available on Roku since 2015. 

This isn’t the first time Roku has pulled download access to a pay TV operator’s app—the AT&T TV app was removed from the platform a year ago over fees and advertising issues, but was restored earlier this year

The Spectrum TV app can still be accessed on Apple TV and iOS devices, as well as on Samsung smart TVs and Microsoft Xbox consoles 

Charter Communications has begun notifying customers that it will no longer prorate the final month of billing for customers cancelling their service.

This would mean that customers who, say, move halfway through a billing cycle and cancel service are still on the hook for the entire monthly bill.

“Effective on or after June 23, 2019 and consistent with the terms and conditions of service, Spectrum will no longer provide pro rata credit for services sold on a monthly basis that are cancelled prior to the end of the current billing month,” reads a graph included on May billing statement for broadband service delivered to MCN’s Los Angeles office.

Charter reps didn’t immediately respond to MCN’s inquires for comment and clarification. It’s unclear as to whether the policy change is footprint-wide across the 41 states Charter services. Stop the Cap was the first notice and report on the change. Ars Technica confirmed it with a statement received in Texas for internet, TV and phone triple-play service, as well as in Ohio.

As Ars also noted, AT&T and Altice USA have similar policies. Comcast and Verizon still prorate final monthly bills, the site added, quoting policy.

Once relegated to the sidelines, retail locations are increasingly becoming the new face of cable companies, allowing customers not only to pay their bills and pick up equipment, but to try out new services in a relaxed, high-tech atmosphere.

Comcast arguably unveiled the new face of cable in 2015, when it announced plans to revamp its Xfinity stores across the country, turning its retail locations into cable versions of Apple’s Genius Bars. With sleek lines and stacks of high-tech equipment, big-screen TVs and video game consoles, the stores not only showcased what Comcast had to offer, but educated customers in the nuances of broadband, home security and control and all they could do with those services.

Related: Helping Subscribers Help Themselves

Back in 2015, at the launch of its flagship Studio Xfinity in Chicago during INTX: The Internet & Television Expo, Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said the operator saw the new retail initiative as a huge opportunity.

“As we improve the service and offer more and more products, customers are saying ‘Gosh, I didn’t know I could do that,’” Roberts told Multichannel News at the time.

Comcast has since built or refurbished 258 Xfinity retail stores across the country, with new plans to upgrade the experience even more. Clearly Comcast, and others, are seeing the power of putting on a good face.

Charter Communications is revamping hundreds of Spectrum stores across its footprint, partly in anticipation of the planned June launch of its wireless product. Cox Communications has more than 100 Cox Solutions stores across its footprint and Altice USA opened Optimum Experience Centers in Long Island, N.Y., and Paramus, N.J., where customers can interact with new products like the Altice One hub, “smart home” offerings from Nest and see high-speed internet demonstrations. The Experience Centers are separate from the company’s Optimum retail walk-in stores that continue to handle all exchanges, returns and requests for equipment and in-person bill payments.

Comcast vice president of retail John Giacomazzi said Comcast has conducted reams of research, and has spoken with employees and individual customers to make the normally transactional nature of customer interactions more palatable. In the retail business, he added, if a customer walks in with a piece of equipment to return or repair, they are met at the door by a greeter, who takes the equipment, gives them a receipt and encourages them to browse around the store while their transaction is completed.

The retail location is set up in zones — X1 for entertainment, home security and the connected home, internet and Xfinity Mobile. Within each of those zones, the product is on display so they can use it themselves or be walked through its operation by a sales consultant.

“It’s a much brighter retail store experience and [has] more of a residential feel, as opposed to an industrial service center,” Giacomazzi said. “It’s a warm environment. We have solid oak floors; we have bright lights and a very neutral palette. Everything is out and open and available for receiving a customer’s touch and engagement.”

The stores are also in high-traffic retail areas, such as malls and shopping centers, away from the more industrial office park locations of the past.

“We’re with traditional retailers — Apple and Sephora, Starbucks, Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma,” Giacomazzi said, adding that most of the stores are standalone, but the company has a few mall locations coming up. Comcast expects to add more than 50 new stores throughout the footprint this year alone. The goal, he said, is to eventually have every customer within a 15 minute drive of an Xfinity retail location.

The stores also are chock full of accessories like new xFi pods — plug-in devices that extend the reach of WiFi service throughout the home — as well as cell phone cases, protection, power, speakers and headsets.

“We’re expanding the complementary accessories,” Giacomazzi said, adding that Comcast is moving toward accessories that will enhance the overall experience. “If you are streaming or DVR-ing your content away from home, we have a nice headset that will help you listen to that content.”

Cox Communications senior vice president of customer care Peter Lilly agreed, adding that at Cox Solutions stores, Cox sells everything from lightbulbs to modems.

“It’s not meant to break the bank as much as make sure that customers are getting the most of what they want from us as a full service business,” Lilly said. “It’s as much about retaining a customer, making sure we’re adding value and sharing knowledge about what our products can do for them. We want somebody when they walk in to pay their bill to know not only that their bill was paid, but to learn something new about their products and services. Maybe it’s something they are already paying for, but they didn’t understand how to get the most out of it. That’s another benefit for us and a value-add for the customer long-term.”

Video-on-demand programming continues to grow as an advertising medium, according to new figures from Canoe.

Ads served by Canoe in video-on-demand programming registered 6.995 billion impressions in the fourth quarter, up 37% from 5.111 billion a year ago.

Canoe ran 3,412 campaigns in the fourth quarter of 2017, up 46% from 2,341 a year ago. Campaigns for clients represented 82% of the campaigns while network tune in ads comprised 18% of the campaigns. A year ago, 79% of the campaigns were run for clients.

Related: Set-Top VOD Ads Must Evolve to Survive

For the full year, Canoe racked up 23.326 billion impressions in 2017, up 30% from 17.903 billion in 2016.

Canoe ran 7,822 campaigns in 2017, up 35% from 5,783.

On average, Canoe is putting more ads in each VOD program. During fourth-quarter breaks in the middle of programs, an average of 4.04 ads ran in the fourth quarter, up from 3.73 a year ago. During pre-roll, 1.17 ads appear, up from 1.1, with 1.41 appearing in post-roll, up from 1.02.

During the fourth quarter nearly all of the impressions came from mid-roll ads. There were 5.9 billion impressions in mid-roll, compared with 969 million in pre-roll and 102 million in post roll ads.

Related: Canoe Marks 100 Billion Spots Inserted in VOD Programming

Campaigns that employ frequency capping put that cap at two impressions, on average.

The ads are overwhelmingly run completely. In mid-roll, 99% of the ads run to completion. In pre-roll, it’s 90.2% and in post-roll its’s 93.4%.

VOD viewing and ad delivery peaks during the weekend. Canoe delivered 1.196 billion impression on Sundays and 1.185 billion on Saturdays, the two biggest days of the week during the fourth quarter.

Canoe inserts ads in programming in 36 million households service by Charter Spectrum, Comcast and Cox, up from 35 million households a year ago. Those operators own Canoe as a joint venture.

Charter Communications has launched a new humorous Star Trek-themed Spectrum ad campaign featuring actor, comedian and  Saturday Night Live alum Kevin Nealon that pokes fun at satellite TV rivals, taking specific aim at rain fade and promotional pricing.

And, yes, the ads even target customer service issues, an area that's never been a strong suit for the cable industry.

Nealon is Captain Telstar, commanding the orbiting (and aging) Satellite TV Headquarters vessel that launched in 1994. The ads advance the viewer to present day to see how the orbiter is dealing with current challenges, suggesting that the ship's technology is getting a bit, shall we say, long in the tooth. 

On how to deal with rain fade, Telstar recommends: “Did you try turning it off and turning it back on again?”

Each ad, clearly targeted at Dish Network and DirecTV (now part of AT&T), concludes with the tagline: “It’s time to move on from satellite.”

Charter developed the “Satellite TV Spaceship” campaign, which also features gifs and memes, with Pereira & O’Dell New York. The ads were directed by Fred Savage.

You can view the first trio of ads below or by going here:

·         

Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge alluded to the deal that got away at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference Wednesday, but added that second prize in the battle for Time Warner Cable – sales, swaps and spins that will double the size of his company – is ample consolation.

Charter spent the better part of 2013 pursuing Time Warner Cable, but ultimately lost out in February of this year when Comcast – at one time a proposed partner in a Charter-TWC combination – swooped in with an all-stock deal valued at about $69 billion.

But the loss of TWC was softened by a series of transactions that will effectively add about 5 million subscribers to the Stanford, Conn.-based MSOs, through sales, swaps and a 33% interest in a separately publicly traded company, dubbed GreatLand Connections.

“Well, I had another deal in mind and this was the best I could do and it's a good deal,” Rutledge said at Communacopia. He added that in addition to doubling its footprint, the deal concentrates Charter’s operations more tightly allowing it to mass market to practically its entire footprint at once as opposed to just 48% currently.

Rutledge said the company is already working through the regulatory process – it met with Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit and his team recently to discuss transition service agreements.

“Our goal is to close the deal as quickly as possible,” Rutledge said.

Rutledge offered some further insight to the company’s relationship with GreatLand, adding that in some markets, it will co-brand service with its own Spectrum moniker.

“I think in certain markets, we'd bring Spectrum services by GreatLand and the products set will be similar or if not identical from what a customer experiences regardless of which cable footprint they live in,” Rutledge said. “When we market it and take a sale, the customer will get a bill from GreatLand if they're in a GreatLand area; they'll get a bill from Charter if they're in a Charter area, but the experience of buying Spectrum services will be uniform.”

Charter Communications said it’s unleashing faster broadband speeds and a heavier HDTV channel lineup in its Southern California systems following all-digital upgrades that are coupled with the introduction of the MSO’s new “Spectrum” branding.

Charter is bidding adieu to its analog spectrum and using that reclaimed capacity toward the boosting of the downstream speeds of its flagship broadband service from 30 Mbps to 60 Mbps, the broadening of its HDTV lineup to more than 200 channels, and enhancing its voice service with features such as unlimited nationwide calling. Charter Spectrum also touts a VOD menu of more than 10,000 “choices.”

The operator kicked off its all-digital plan in Southern California in August 2013 in areas such as Glendale, Burbank and Long Beach, and launched the second phase in March 2014 that hit other areas served by Charter in the region.

Charter said the all-digital upgrades, which are being implemented through the expanded distribution of two-way, VOD-capable set-tops, are part of a recent $271 million capital investment into the MSO’s California operations.

The operator noted that it’s spending more than $2 billion on its national network and still plans to complete the all-digital shift across its 29-state footprint by the end of 2014. In late July, Charter said it had completed all-digital upgrades in 60% of its current footprint.

Charter has already completed those upgrades in systems serving Texas, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Illinois, Missouri, South Carolina, Michigan and Massachusetts. Work is underway in areas such as central California as well as “Mountain States” markets in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado that Charter acquired from Cablevision Systems.

Charter is also testing a new cloud-based user interface for the set-top, called “Spectrum Guide,” in Fort Worth, Texas, with other markets slated for tests later this year ahead of anticipated widespread commercial deployments in 2015.

Charter Communications’ launch of a new app that can stream more than 130 live TV channels in the home to tablets and smartphones (with some out-of-home access expected down the road) marks the latest step in the operator’s transformational process under Tom Rutledge, who took the helm more than two years ago.

A big piece of this shift involves other services as well as a fresh brand that Charter will use as it completes all-digital upgrades.

Following up on plans first revealed by Rutledge last November, the company confirmed (subscription required) that Charter (hat tip: DSL Reports) has already introduced that new brand, “Spectrum,” in two markets -- Fort Worth, Texas, and Greenville, S.C. 

Similar to Comcast’s Xfinity playbook, Charter is introducing the brand with new services that are tied to this analog-reclamation process. At this stage, Spectrum means the doubling of max Internet download speeds – from 30 Mbps to 60 Mbps – at no additional cost, alongside a hefty expansion of live HDTV channels, a larger VOD library, and advanced voice service paired with unlimited nationwide calling

As this site shows, Charter is using the new brand to tout a set of new triple-play packages: Select, Silver and Gold.

And expect the brand to reach several more Charter markets in the coming weeks and months, as the MSO expects to complete its all-digital shift in all markets by the end of 2014. Those efforts are already underway in markets such as southern California, and parts of Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Massachusetts and Missouri.