Charter 2005 Annual Report Download - page 4

2 Charter Communications
To Our Stockholders:
In 2005, we made great progress in strengthening the fi nancial
and operating foundation of our company. As a result, we entered
2006 as a stronger company executing clear strategies for
growth. Backed by our talented
employees, our senior leadership
team is focused on profi table
growth. We are confi dent we
have the people, products, and
vision necessary to capture
the exciting opportunities in
our marketplace.
Sharpening Our Focus
on Profi table Growth
Over the past year, we have
taken important steps to sharpen
our focus on profi table growth:
We completed our senior
leadership team
In addition to hiring a new
Chief Executive Offi cer, we
made a number of appoint-
ments and promotions,
including Mike Lovett, Chief
Operating Offi cer; JT Fisher, Chief Financial Offi cer; Bob
Quigley, Chief Marketing Offi cer; and Grier Raclin, General
Counsel. Charter now has a strong management team with
the skill and experience to compete and win in our rapidly
changing marketplace.
We enhanced our fi nancial fl exibility
We extended the maturities and improved the terms of our
public debt and commercial credit facilities and reached
agreements to sell geographically non-strategic systems,
further optimizing our footprint. These actions enhanced
liquidity and provided resources to continue to invest in
growth. As a result, we expect to have suffi cient liquidity
to meet our cash needs through 2007.
We made strategic and disciplined investments
in our business
The progress we made on the fi nancial front freed up the
resources for several strategic initiatives, including targeted
marketing to attract the right kind of customers; enhanced
customer service to support higher growth rates and ensure
we serve our customers well; and operational improvements
to streamline our business. These initiatives, together with
Charter’s advanced products and services such as video
on demand, high-defi nition television, and digital video
recording, allowed us to both
attract new customers and
increase average monthly
revenue per customer.
We are focusing much of
our investment on extending
Charter’s telephone service
footprint. Telephone is a
key element of our growth
strategies, both on its own
and as part of the bundled
product offerings that set
us apart from traditional
voice service and DBS
(direct broadcast satellite)
providers. At the end of
March 2006, our telephone
service was available to nearly
four million homes, an increase
of approximately one million
homes in the fi rst quarter of
this year and about 550,000 homes in the fourth quarter of
2005. Expanding our telephone coverage strengthens our ability
to compete against other voice and bundled service providers.
Executing Our Four Strategic Priorities
In 2005, we showed we can distinguish ourselves from the
competition and capture the market’s demand for our products.
While we still have work to do, we believe the progress that we
made in 2005 sets the stage for strengthening performance in
2006 and beyond.
We expect to achieve continued improvements in our
operational and fi nancial performance by concentrating
on four strategic priorities:
Improving the end-to-end customer experience
In 2006, we will capitalize on initiatives launched during
2005 to sharpen our customer focus and achieve further
improvements in service levels, technical operations, sales
and marketing. Most importantly, our employees are
dedicated to Charter’s customer-fi rst philosophy and
In 2005, we showed we can
distinguish ourselves from
the competition and capture
the market’s demand for
our products. While we still
have work to do, we believe
the progress that we made
in 2005 sets the stage for
strengthening performance
in 2006 and beyond.
Letter to Stockholders