Charter Leapfrogs to 'Net Marketing

Looking to boost the customer base for its high-speed Internet-access service, Charter Communications Inc. has decided to troll the Internet to hook more customers.

The cable operator has teamed with Leapfrog Online to create a so-called "e-tail" program by promoting the service on Web sites and search engines.

Charter has 1.7 million residential high-speed customers, which it has wooed through bill-stuffers, TV ads, and direct mail. Those efforts will continue, with the online pitch "another tool in the toolbox," said Charter's Dave Mack.

Leapfrog already counts Comcast, Adelphia and Time Warner among its e-tail clients.

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.