Charter chief blames content companies for dips in pay TV subscribers

Charter CEO Tom Rutledge blames content providers who offer content for free for taking a big dent out of pay TV numbers.

On the company’s second quarter earnings call, the company emphasized its broadcast business efforts and said it does not “look at video as a standalone business.”

Charter offers paid television service under its Spectrum brand, which, in turn, produces its own original content in the form of multiple regional news channels.

Channels like that originally became popular under a cable industry trend of a customer retention strategy of giving paying subscribers access to exclusive local content.