Charter and Paramount

Charter roared last week. Market fails to understand how beneficial the resilience of Charter is to Paramount. Indeed, after cutting the cord in 2016, I just upgraded my internet package with Spectrum to include television.

Disclosure: yes, I do have a small position in Charter.

Charter is the only game in town in my neighborhood for a fat interner pipe. AT&T, distracted for ten years, has failed to upgrade my house to fiber. So I've had Spectrum high speed internet for years. However,In 2016, Charter was uncompetitive. For one thing , they didn't feature HDTV without a ludicrous upcharge. I rejected Spectrum's ridiculous and uncompetitive TV offerings, preferring a powdered antenna for HDTV broadcasting and a variety of as-free streaming services.

Times have changed.

Meanwhile, Spectrum TV is now a good and easy app on Roku on two of my TV. The Xumi box for one TV just plugs in to the HDMI. There's no cable guy to deal with.

With set up easy, the price for my HDTV package that includes local channels, sports, NFL RedZone,news, the Paramount channel and other favorites, is about the same as YouTube offers. The Spectrum interface and response is notably better than YouTube.

Spectrum TV includes streaming services as well. I've been offered Disney+ already.

Spectrum suddenly is competitive. They are better than they used to be. Personally, I'm in. Renewed competitiveness is what's showing up in Charter's results.

The line between MVPDs and vMVPDs has blurred to vanishing. Aside from compatibility with fewer of the innumerable OSs, requiring a Xumi box or a Roku stick, Spectrum TV works just like YouTube TV.

Cable TV is now a vMVPD - with streaming services merging and premium channels now one and the same. Cable is not dead but is competing using better technology. Will little-viewed channels like Oxygen fall away? Probably. They always can't and went and never generated a large percentage of revenue anyway.