BofA Securities' Jessica Reif Ehrlich on Charter's Q2 results, future of media

Industry Dynamics - Cable, after a decade of share gains, now faces a very competitive and mature market [2] - Telcos are gaining share, especially with less expensive fixed wireless offerings like T-Mobile [3] - Cable companies are responding with price guarantees, which could pressure ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) [4] Company Performance (Charter Communications) - Charter's shares fell more than 18% after reporting unexpected internet customer losses in the second quarter [1] - Challenges for Charter are not going away, and the second half of the year will be difficult [6] - Charter is offering streaming services (Peacock, Max, RML Plus, Disney Plus, etc) for free to Spectrum customers, providing close to $100 in value [4] - Charter has a solid management team, a good product, and a good network [6] Media Landscape & M&A - Expects a lot of M&A activity in the media space, especially with spin-offs from Comcast (Versent) and WBD [7][8] - Warner Brothers Discovery's global networks are expected to be rolled up, and Warner Brothers with HBO Max is unlikely to remain an independent studio long-term [9] - There's bound to be a lot of movement in the media industry in the next one to two years [9]