Charter 2001 Annual Report Download - page 10

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full VCR-style functionality. Just as importantly, it meshes
perfectly with a demonstrated appetite among a new
generation of television viewers to watch what they
want, when they want it. By the end of 2002, we
expect that as many as half of our digital customers
will be able to enjoy VOD, and we believe VOD will
be a strong economic contributor in 2003 and beyond.
We are expanding our interactive television initiatives.
We are delivering diverse, interactive television content
and services to selected markets, and are rapidly
expanding our interactive TV footprint to help customers
become acclimated to a new medium. For a very modest
cost, we are making television better with on-demand
information services ranging from weather reports for
anywhere in the country to personalized stock quotes
and local movie theater listings.
We have initiated fully modernized network monitoring
and customer care centers. Our company now has
at its disposal efficient technical and customer care
resources that provide us a level of stability, reliability
and performance unprecedented in the 50-year history
of the cable television industry.
We have put a new face on our company. Through
inventive and effective marketing initiatives, we have
set the stage for a new way of thinking about Charter
Communications – not just as a cable television company,
but as a provider of multiple high-value, high-utility
consumer products over a state-of-the-art broadband
connection. A series of engaging and enlightening
commercials featuring the popular actor Dan Aykroyd
has acquainted millions of people with a new Charter
Communications – the company that is bringing home
the vast promise of the Wired World.
And most of all, we are executing. Supporting each of
these key accomplishments is an overriding principle
that propels everything we do at Charter. We execute
our business plan with passion, desire and energy. Every
new cable modem installation, in-home digital service
demonstration, marketing bill insert, employee team-
building event and customer telephone conversation
contributes to executing on our plan. Advancing in the
broadband business means doing the little things right –
day after day in each and every market – to make your
company the leader of the new digital broadband age.
Our ability to innovate and execute also is apparent
in our numbers. In 2001, revenues on a pro forma basis
climbed 14.0 percent, to $4.1 billion. Our pro forma
operating cash flow rose 10.9 percent, to $1.8 billion.
And our 2001 average monthly revenue per basic
customer increased as we began to experience the
financial impact of delivering multiple services from
a single, high-capacity network.
Nearly seven million customer households now
receive some form of video, data or interactive television
services from Charter Communications.
We are immensely proud of our state-of-the art broad-
band network, which won accolades for its engineering
design from a national industry publication in 2001. At
the same time, we recognize that the true value of our
company, more so than our advanced digital technology
or the ever-expanding capacity of our network, is the
relationship we enjoy with our customers. It is a relation-
ship that deserves and inspires our full dedication, and
it is a relationship that will serve, always, as the center-
piece of value creation for our shareholders. Thank you
for your continued interest and support.
Carl E. Vogel,
President and Chief Executive Officer
Paul G. Allen,
Chairman
June 5, 2002
Letter to Shareholders
Paul G. Allen, Chairman, and
Carl E. Vogel, President and
Chief Executive Officer