Charter 2004 Annual Report Download - page 18

CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS, INC. 2004 FORM 10-K
(d) ‘‘Digital video customers’’ include all households that have one or more digital set-top terminals. Included in ‘‘digital video customers’’ on December 31, 2004 and 2003
are approximately 10,100 and 12,200 customers, respectively, that receive digital video service directly through satellite transmission.
(e) All of these customers also receive video service and are included in the video statistics above, except for approximately 217,400 and 105,700 of these customers at
December 31, 2004 and 2003, respectively, who were residential high-speed data only customers.
(f) ‘‘Telephony customers’’ include all households receiving telephone service.
Video Services
Our video service offerings include the following: (High Definition Television. High definition television
offers our digital customers video programming at a higher
(Basic Analog Video. All of our video customers receive resolution than the standard analog or digital video image.
a package of basic programming which generally consists of
local broadcast television, local community programming, (Digital Video Recorder. DVR service enables customers
including governmental and public access, and limited to digitally record programming and to pause and rewind
satellite-delivered or non-broadcast channels, such as live programming.
weather, shopping and religious services. Our basic channel
line-up generally has between 15 and 30 channels.
High-Speed Data Services
(Expanded Basic Video. This expanded programming
level includes a package of satellite-delivered or non- We offer high-speed data services to our residential and
broadcast channels and generally has between 30 and commercial customers primarily via cable modems attached to
50 channels in addition to the basic channel line-up. personal computers. We generally offer our high-speed data
service as Charter High-Speed Internet
TM
. We also offer tradi-
(Premium Channels. These channels provide commer- tional dial-up Internet access in a very limited number of our
cial-free movies, sports and other special event entertain- markets.
ment programming. Although we offer subscriptions to We ended 2004 with 18% penetration of high-speed data
premium channels on an individual basis, we offer an homes passed, up from the 15% penetration of high-speed data
increasing number of premium channel packages and we homes passed at year-end 2003. This gave us an annual
offer premium channels with our advanced services. percentage increase in high-speed data customers of 20% and an
increase in high-speed data revenues of 33% in the year ended
(Pay-Per-View. These channels allow customers to pay
December 31, 2004.
on a per event basis to view a single showing of a recently
released movie, a one-time special sporting event, music
concert or similar event on a commercial-free basis.
Telephony Services
(Digital Video. We offer digital video service to our
customers in several different service combination packages. We continue to deploy voice communications services using
All of our digital packages include a digital set-top terminal, VOIP to transmit digital voice signals over our systems. At
an interactive electronic programming guide, an expanded December 31, 2004, telephone service was available to approxi-
menu of pay-per-view channels and the option to also mately 900,000 homes, and we were marketing to approximately
two-thirds of those homes. We will continue to prepare
receive digital packages which range from 4 to 30 addi-
additional markets for VOIP launches in 2005.
tional video channels. We also offer our customers certain
digital packages with one or more premium channels that
give customers access to several different versions of the
same premium channel. Some digital tier packages focus on Commercial Services
the interests of a particular customer demographic and We offer integrated network solutions to commercial and
emphasize, for example, sports, movies, family or ethnic institutional customers. These solutions include high-speed data
programming. In addition to video programming, digital and video services. In addition, we offer high-speed data services
video service enables customers to receive our advanced to small businesses.
services such as VOD and high definition television. Other
digital packages bundle digital television with our advanced
services, such as high-speed data services. Sale of Advertising
(Video On Demand and Subscription Video on We receive revenues from the sale of local advertising on
Demand. We offer VOD service, which allows customers satellite-delivered networks such as MTV˛, CNN˛ and ESPN˛.
to access hundreds of movies and other programming at In any particular market, we generally insert local advertising on
any time with digital picture quality. In some systems we up to 39 channels. Our system rebuilds have increased the
also offer subscription VOD (SVOD) for a monthly fee or number of available channels on which we are able to insert
included in a digital tier premium channel subscription. local advertising. We also provide cross-channel advertising to
some programmers.
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