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Segment Reporting (Notes)
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2024
Segment Reporting [Abstract]  
Segment Reporting Disclosure Segment Reporting
The Company’s operations are managed and reported to its Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”), the Company’s chief operating decision maker ("CODM"), on a consolidated basis. The Company provides broadband connectivity services with all of its services delivered to customers over an advanced communications network. The CODM assesses performance and allocates resources based on the Company’s consolidated statements of operations, as the converged network requires the CODM to manage and evaluate the results of the business in a consolidated manner to drive efficiencies and develop uniform strategies. Accordingly, key components and processes of the Company’s operations are managed centrally, including contracting for programming, capital and new technology development and deployment, plant engineering, customer service, marketing, legal and government affairs. Segment asset information is not used by the CODM to allocate resources. Under this organizational and reporting structure, the Company has one reportable segment.

As a single reportable segment entity, the Company’s segment performance measure is net income attributable to Charter shareholders. See Note 13 for a description of the Company's disaggregated revenues by product line. Significant segment expenses are presented in the Company’s consolidated statements of operations. Additional disaggregated significant segment expenses on a functional basis, that are not separately presented on the Company’s consolidated statements of operations, are presented below.

Operating Costs and Expenses

Year Ended December 31,
202420232022
Programming$9,653 $10,638 $11,620 
Other costs of revenue6,351 5,587 4,804 
Field and technology operations5,083 5,113 4,793 
Customer operations3,221 3,302 3,294 
Sales and marketing3,714 3,653 3,585 
Stock compensation expense (see Note 15)651 692 470 
Other4,494 4,420 4,310 
$33,167 $33,405 $32,876 

Programming costs consist primarily of costs paid to programmers for basic, premium, video on demand and pay-per-view programming. Other costs of revenue include costs directly related to providing Internet, video, mobile and voice services including mobile device costs, payments to franchise and regulatory authorities, payments for sports, local and news content produced by the Company and direct costs associated with selling advertising. Also included in other costs of revenue are content acquisition costs for the Los Angeles Lakers’ basketball games and Los Angeles Dodgers’ baseball games, which are recorded as games are exhibited over the contract period. Field and technology operations costs include indirect costs incurred to manage the Company's inside and outside cable network, including labor for the non-capitalizable portion of customer installations and service and repairs. Customer operations costs include call center labor costs for customer care, billing costs, bad debt expense, and collections. Sales and marketing costs represent the costs of selling and marketing our Internet, video, mobile and voice services to current and potential non-bulk residential and SMB customers, including labor cost. Other expense
includes corporate overhead costs, as well as indirect costs associated with Spectrum Enterprise, Spectrum Reach, Spectrum Networks and Spectrum Community Solutions, including related sales and marketing and bad debt expenses.

Other Operating (Income) Expense, Net

Year Ended December 31,
202420232022
Special charges, net$139 $198 $273 
(Gain) loss on disposal of assets, net(12)(251)8 
$127 $(53)$281 

Special charges, net primarily includes severance costs and net amounts of litigation settlements. For the year ended December 31, 2022, special charges, net also includes an impairment on non-strategic assets and is offset by a gain related to the settlement of a multiemployer pension plan. (Gain) loss on disposal of assets, net includes a $262 million gain on sale of towers during the year ended December 31, 2023.

Other Income (Expense), Net

Year Ended December 31,
202420232022
Gain (loss) on extinguishment of debt (see Note 8)$1 $(3)$(3)
Gain (loss) on financial instruments, net (see Note 12)(34)45 (95)
Other pension benefits (costs), net (see Note 20)(23)(216)254 
Loss on equity investments, net (see Note 5)(331)(343)(100)
$(387)$(517)$56