Tom Rutledge: Celebs Rumors

The chief executive of Charter Communications Christopher Winfrey saw total compensation last year of just over $89 million, inflated by $75 million in option awards.

Addressing Thursday night’s carriage impasse with Disney, Charter Communications executives told Wall Street investors on a conference call today that their linear video business is “at the edge of a precipice.”

Charter Communications, a major broadband provider and the No. 2 U.S. cable TV operator, has promoted Chris Winfrey to CEO. On December 1, he will succeed longtime cable business leader Tom Rutledge, who will segue to an executive chairman role after five decades in the industry.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Chris Winfrey, a longtime senior executive at cable giant Charter Communications, will become president and CEO of the company, starting December 1. He will succeed Tom Rutledge, the cable-industry veteran ,who will serve as executive chairman of the company and its board of directors. Winfrey has been chief operating officer of Charter, the operator of the massive Spectrum cable service, after a long stint working as its chief financial officer., “It has been an honor and a pleasure to lead Charter and this incredible team over the past 10 years,” said Rutledge, in a statement. “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.”

Charter Communications and Comcast Corporation have announced Marcien Jenckes will lead their recently announced streaming platform joint venture. Jenckes will focus on leading the team and developing the business and monetization models, the companies said in a joint release.“Marcien has been an outstanding leader within our company for over a decade,” Dave Watson, CEO of Comcast Cable, said in a statement.

Charter CEO Tom Rutledge says Netflix’s recently announced plan to limit password sharing is “a point we’ve been trying to make for years.”

Charter Communications and Comcast on Wednesday announced a 50/50 joint venture to develop a new streaming platform for branded 4K streaming devices and smart TVs.Comcast will license Flex, the company’s aggregated streaming platform and hardware, to the new venture, contribute the retail business for XClass TVs as well as Xumo, a free ad-supported streaming service acquired in 2020. Charter will make an initial contribution of $900 million, funded over multiple years.The new platform will feature hundreds of free content options through Xumo, which currently delivers more than 200 unique streaming channels.

Comcast and Charter, the top two cable TV operators in the U.S., are forming a streaming joint venture based on Comcast’s popular Xfinity Flex devices.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorComcast and Charter Communications, the two biggest cable operators in the U.S., are joining forces in the streaming wars.The two companies on Wednesday announced a 50-50 joint venture to develop and offer a next-generation streaming platform on a variety of branded 4K streaming devices and smart TVs to reach customers in major markets across the country with the platform.Comcast will license Flex, its aggregated streaming platform and hardware to the JV, contribute the retail business for XClass TVs, and contribute Xumo, the free, ad-supported streaming service it acquired in 2020. Charter will make an initial contribution of $900 million, funded over multiple years.The XClass TVs will be available through national retail partners and potentially direct from Comcast and Charter to provide more customer choice.

Tom Rutledge, chairman and CEO of Charter Communications, saw his 2021 compensation rise to $41.9 million from $38.8 million in 2020.

After a conversation covering broadband, wireless spectrum, DOCSIS and other “wonky” corners of Charter Communications’ business, CEO Tom Rutledge saved his pay-TV punches for the closing stretch.

Charter Communications chairman and CEO Thomas Rutledge received compensation worth $38.8 million in 2020, a big jump from $8.74 million in 2019 and $8.15 million in 2018. An SEC filing issued on Thursday by Charter, in which John Malone's Liberty Broadband owns a big stake, indicated Rutledge's base salary for 2020 was $2.07 million, just up from $2 million in 2019.

Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge sees the pay-TV bundle continuing to shrink because it has been “priced out of the market” during the streaming era. But video will remain a key part of the company’s strategy.

Cable operator Charter Communications, in which John Malone's Liberty Broadband owns a big stake, lost fewer pay TV subscribers in the fourth quarter than in the year-ago period, but its broadband user gains,a key growth engine amid the coronavirus pandemic, slowed. Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge lauded the firm's performance for all of 2020, including overall user trends, saying: "We added nearly two million customer relationships in 2020 — 800,000 more than we added in 2019 — and demand for our connectivity products remains strong." Charter lost 66,000 residential pay TV subscribers in the final quarter of 2020, compared with a loss of 105,000 in the year-ago period.

Cable operator Charter Communications, in which John Malone's Liberty Broadband owns a big stake, expects to continue selling video services successfully despite high programming costs. But over time Hollywood giants' growing focus on direct-to-consumer services could make paying for content bundles untenable, chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge suggested during a virtual investor conference on Monday.

Cable operator Charter Communications, in which John Malone's Liberty Broadband owns a big stake, sees its pay TV future in the role of a "video store," chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said during a virtual investor conference Wednesday. Speaking during a session at theGoldman Sachs Communacopia Conference, which was webcast, he noted that Charter posted a video subscriber gain in the second quarter, a rarity for the sector.

Jill Goldsmith Co-Business EditorCharter Communications – the nation’s second largest cable company with about 30 million subscribers – topped Wall Street estimates with a quarterly earnings report that saw strong growth in Internet and wireless and surprising resiliency in video.CEO Tom Rutledge told analysts on a conference call that he will be extending his contract, which expires in April, 2021.“I intend to continue to be here and the board would like me to stay,” Rutledge said in response to a question. It hasn’t been announced and he didn’t give details.The shares were up a hefty 3.3%.As expected, the company ended the June quarter with more Internet subscribers, 26.3 million — up 8.5% with 842,000 net new additions.

Cable operator Charter Communications, in which John Malone's Liberty Broadband owns a big stake, would love to see financial relief for its subscribers for sports events that have been canceled amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge on the company's Friday first-quarter earnings conference call said that he and his team have talked "for years about the reality of programming costs and how sports drives" most of them.

Cable operator Charter Communications, in which John Malone's Liberty Broadband owns a big stake, on Friday reported that it lost 70,000 pay TV subscribers in the first quarter, fewer than in the year-ago quarter. It also added more broadband users than in the year-ago period during what was the first quarter to be affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. cable giant Charter Communications said it plans no employee layoffs or furloughs for two months as it expands its workforce to keep its businesses running amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Charter Communications chairman and CEO Thomas Rutledge received compensation worth $8.74 million in 2019, up slightly from $8.15 million in 2018 and $7.8 million in 2017. His latest annual pay package was down, however, from his $98.5 million take for 2016 when Charter acquired Time Warner Cable and Bright House, according to a regulatory filing.