Charter 2015 Annual Report Download - page 76

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61
Contractual Obligations
The following table summarizes our payment obligations as of December 31, 2015 under our long-term debt and certain other
contractual obligations and commitments (dollars in millions.)
Payments by Period
Total
Less than
1 year 1-3 years 3-5 years
More than
5 years
Contractual Obligations (a)
Long-Term Debt Principal Payments (a) $ 35,902 $ 121 $ 984 $ 4,867 $ 29,930
Long-Term Debt Interest Payments (b) 21,751 1,838 3,730 3,617 12,566
Operating Lease Obligations (c) 183 51 78 35 19
Programming Minimum Commitments (d) 545 265 252 25 3
Other (e) 435 397 29 5 4
Total $ 58,816 $ 2,672 $ 5,073 $ 8,549 $ 42,522
(a) The table presents maturities of long-term debt outstanding as of December 31, 2015, including $21.8 billion which
proceeds are currently held in escrow pending consummation of the TWC Transaction. The maturities of the CCO Safari
III credit facilities assume the TWC Transaction closes in the second quarter of 2016. Refer to Notes 8 and 18 to our
accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary
Data” for a description of our long-term debt and other contractual obligations and commitments.
(b) Interest payments on variable debt are estimated using amounts outstanding at December 31, 2015 and the average implied
forward London Interbank Offering Rate (“LIBOR”) rates applicable for the quarter during the interest rate reset based
on the yield curve in effect at December 31, 2015. Actual interest payments will differ based on actual LIBOR rates and
actual amounts outstanding for applicable periods.
(c) We lease certain facilities and equipment under noncancelable operating leases. Leases and rental costs charged to expense
for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013, were $49 million, $43 million and $34 million, respectively.
(d) We pay programming fees under multi-year contracts ranging from three to ten years, typically based on a flat fee per
customer, which may be fixed for the term, or may in some cases escalate over the term. Programming costs included
in the accompanying statement of operations were approximately $2.7 billion, $2.5 billion and $2.1 billion, for the years
ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. Certain of our programming agreements are based on a flat fee
per month or have guaranteed minimum payments. The table sets forth the aggregate guaranteed minimum commitments
under our programming contracts.
(e) “Other” represents other guaranteed minimum commitments, which consist primarily of commitments to our customer
premise equipment vendors.
The following items are not included in the contractual obligations table because the obligations are not fixed and/or determinable
due to various factors discussed below. However, we incur these costs as part of our operations:
• We rent utility poles used in our operations. Generally, pole rentals are cancelable on short notice, but we anticipate that
such rentals will recur. Rent expense incurred for pole rental attachments for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014
and 2013 was $53 million, $49 million and $49 million, respectively.
• We pay franchise fees under multi-year franchise agreements based on a percentage of revenues generated from video
service per year. We also pay other franchise related costs, such as public education grants, under multi-year agreements.
Franchise fees and other franchise-related costs included in the accompanying statement of operations were $212 million,
$208 million and $190 million for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively.
• We also have $67 million in letters of credit, primarily to our various worker’s compensation, property and casualty, and
general liability carriers, as collateral for reimbursement of claims.
Charter has agreed to certain commitments that will be effective upon the consummation of the TWC Transaction and Bright
House Transaction. See "Part I. Item 1. Business" for a listing of these commitments. Also, contingent upon closing of the TWC
Transaction and release of the proceeds from escrow, Charter will be obligated to pay additional debt issuance fees. For more
information, see Note 8 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements contained in “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements
and Supplementary Data.”