Event: Friday, July 24, 2026
Results: 7:00 a.m. ET | Earnings call: 8:00 a.m. ET
Quarter-end: June 30, 2026
Charter enters 2Q26 with expectations and sentiment decidedly low. The core issue is not mobile growth, video improvement, or even near-term EBITDA—it is whether Charter can stabilize broadband subscriber trends despite persistent fixed-wireless, fiber, weak housing/mover activity, and growing investor anxiety over satellite competition.
The bar appears modest on financials, but the stock needs evidence that the broadband trajectory is not deteriorating further and that management’s pricing, packaging, service, and converged-product strategy can eventually return the company to customer and free-cash-flow growth. The Cox transaction closing/timing and integration roadmap are the most important strategic variables beyond the headline results.
CHTR closed at $126.53 on July 23, down roughly 40% year-to-date and about 48% below its April 23 close immediately before 1Q earnings. That creates room for a relief rally if operational KPIs merely avoid a further reset—but it also means investors are focused on whether the business faces a more structural broadband-growth problem.
| Metric | 2Q26 consensus | 2Q25 actual | 1Q26 actual | Read-through |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ~$13.5B | $13.77B | $13.60B | Roughly -1.8% YoY expected |
| Adjusted EBITDA | ~$5.58B | $5.69B | $5.64B | About -2% YoY implied |
| Free cash flow | ~$1.13B | $1.05B | $1.37B | Working capital and capex timing remain important |
| Internet net adds | ~(142K) | (117K) | (120K) | The key KPI; consensus assumes worsening YoY losses |
| Mobile net adds | ~380K | 500K | 368K | Healthy, but likely below prior-year growth |
| Video net adds | ~(54K) | (80K) | (60K) | Continued improvement is expected |
Consensus figures reflect the market estimates cited in a July 17, 2026 news digest.
The market expects another quarter of declining revenue and EBITDA, continued broadband losses, slower mobile net additions, and modestly better video churn.
Charter lost 120,000 Internet customers in 1Q26, versus a loss of 59,000 in 1Q25. Management attributed the pressure primarily to lower new connects—not a major churn problem—amid fixed-wireless expansion, fiber overlap, muted household formation, low move activity, and some mobile substitution.
For 2Q26, consensus is modeling a 142,000 broadband loss, worse than both the 117,000 loss in 2Q25 and the 120,000 loss in 1Q26.
Management has emphasized that churn remains historically low and sales conversion is solid once prospects engage. The investment debate is therefore whether Charter can create enough customer consideration at the top of the funnel—not whether its installed base is imminently collapsing.
Spectrum Mobile added 368,000 lines in 1Q26, bringing the base to 12.1 million lines, up 17% YoY. That is still substantial growth, but net additions were below the 507,000 added in 1Q25 as national wireless carriers deployed aggressive device subsidies.
For 2Q26, consensus expects approximately 380,000 mobile net additions, versus 500,000 in 2Q25.
Mobile matters for three reasons:
The key question is whether mobile remains sufficiently accretive to offset pressure from lower-priced connectivity offers and whether the company can preserve customer lifetime value without increasing subsidy intensity.
Video is becoming less of a customer-loss problem but remains a revenue headwind. Charter lost only 60,000 video customers in 1Q26, a large improvement from the 181,000 lost in 1Q25, helped by simplified packages and the inclusion of streaming applications in video plans.
Consensus expects a 54,000 video-customer loss in 2Q26, better than the 80,000 loss in 2Q25.
However, video revenue is likely to remain pressured because Charter is embedding the cost of included streaming services within video revenue. In 1Q26, this allocation was $218 million, compared with $47 million a year earlier. That accounting presentation reduced reported video revenue and residential revenue per customer even as the bundled offering may improve customer value and retention.
Investor focus: distinguish between reported video-revenue pressure and the underlying retention/household-economics benefit of the revised package.
In 1Q26, Charter reported:
Management’s 2026 stand-alone framework remains:
This makes 2Q free cash flow particularly relevant. Charter generated $1.05B of FCF in 2Q25, while consensus is near $1.13B for 2Q26. A beat driven by lower capex or favorable working-capital timing will be less valuable than one supported by better underlying EBITDA or a more favorable full-year capex outlook.
At the 1Q26 call, management said all required approvals had been received except California, and it was working toward a summer 2026 close. The company had increased its estimate of Cox run-rate operating-expense synergies to at least $800 million, up from an earlier $500 million estimate.
The strategic appeal is clear:
But investors will be attentive to the costs:
The first reported post-close quarter will be inherently noisy because it will include a full quarter of legacy Charter plus only a partial-period contribution from Cox. Management has said it plans to provide pro forma trend disclosures and separate legacy operating data for several quarters, which will be important for preserving visibility.
CHTR is a low-expectations, high-KPI-sensitivity earnings setup. The quarterly headline numbers are likely to remain weak—consensus already expects declining revenue and EBITDA—but the stock’s direction should hinge on the answer to two questions:
A result showing broadband losses no worse than expected, resilient mobile additions, maintained financial guidance, and a tangible Cox-closing update could support a relief rally given the severity of the stock’s decline. Conversely, another reset in broadband expectations or uncertainty around Cox would reinforce the market’s concern that Charter’s long-term cash-flow recovery is being pushed out.