Charter 2000 Annual Report Download - page 5

3CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS
>> We accelerated our schedule to build a state-of-the-art broadband network –
a $3.5 billion investment – while improving the company’s ratio of debt to cash flow.
>> We surpassed our aggressive targets in the rollout of advanced digital services and
reached the milestone of 1,000,000 digital cable customers by year-end.
>> We were among industry leaders in key measures of performance, including
operating cash flow growth and internal customer growth.
Pro forma revenues for the year 2000 increased 11.9 percent to $3.30 billion, and oper-
ating cash flow increased 19.0 percent to $1.56 billion, compared to pro forma 1999 annual
results. Pro forma internal customer growth was 2.5 percent for the year 2000, almost twice
the industry average. Our aggressive approach to competition enabled us to cap the year
with growth in operating cash flow that was nearly twice that of any other cable operator.
Your investment in Charter is helping to construct the most advanced broadband infra-
structure in the industry. Your decision to invest in Charter was recently validated by the
Association for Corporate Growth’s selection of Charter as the international winner of the
Outstanding Corporate Growth Award for the year 2000, as well as Cablevision Magazine’s
2000 Innovator Award for Technology, and the Southern Cable Telecommunications
Association’s 2001 R.E.“Ted” Turner Innovator of the Year Award.
BUILDING ON OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Now that we’ve successfully integrated our acquisitions from the past two years – which
more than doubled the size of our company – we’ll seize every opportunity to attract new
customers and retain existing ones. Our plant now passes more than 10 million homes, of
which 6.4 million are Charter customers. That means there are some 3.6 million potential
customers within our footprint.
While we’ve achieved the scale of operations necessary to succeed in today’s competitive
marketplace, we’ll continue to evaluate opportunities for growth through strategic acquisi-
tions, such as the recently announced transactions with AT&T Broadband. When completed,
we’ll add some 574,000 customers in the St. Louis metropolitan area, a top-20 ranked U.S.
cable market; areas of Auburn, Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma, Alabama; and the
Reno area of Nevada, a market that offers significant residential growth. The transactions
are expected to close in the late second or early third quarter.
CAPITALIZING ON OUR TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE
Our digital platform serves as the launch pad for rapid growth with new interactive digital
services. Our last-mile two-way broadband connection into millions of homes and businesses
is unmatched by our competitors, including telephone companies offering DSL Internet