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Segment Reporting (Notes)
 9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2025
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 9 for 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

Three Months Ended September 30,Nine Months Ended September 30,
2025202420252024
Programming$2,184 $2,336 $6,739 $7,378 
Other costs of revenue1,677 1,604 4,912 4,600 
Field and technology operations1,328 1,325 3,912 3,864 
Customer operations814 833 2,391 2,424 
Marketing and residential sales976 926 2,883 2,689 
Stock compensation expense (see Note 11)151 146 530 513 
Other expense1,132 1,124 3,319 3,395 
$8,262 $8,294 $24,686 $24,863 

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, mobile, video 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. Marketing and residential sales costs represent the costs of marketing residential and business Internet, mobile, video and voice services and costs to sell to current and potential non-bulk residential customers, including labor cost. Other expense includes corporate overhead costs, as well as certain indirect costs associated with Spectrum Business, Spectrum Reach, Spectrum Networks and Spectrum Community Solutions, including related sales expenses.

Other Operating Expenses, Net

Three Months Ended September 30,Nine Months Ended September 30,
2025202420252024
Special charges, net$79 $6 $139 $95 
Merger and acquisition costs21 — 65 — 
(Gain) loss on disposal of assets, net19 15 119 (33)
$119 $21 $323 $62 

Special charges, net primarily includes severance costs and net amounts of litigation settlements. Merger and acquisition costs represents costs incurred primarily in connection with the Cox Transactions, such as advisory, legal and accounting fees, among others. (Gain) loss on disposal of assets, net includes a $90 million impairment on the Company’s Los Angeles Lakers regional sports network intangibles during the nine months ended September 30, 2025 and a $67 million gain on sale of towers during the nine months ended September 30, 2024.
Other Expenses, Net

Other expenses, net consist of the following for the periods presented:

Three Months Ended September 30,Nine Months Ended September 30,
2025202420252024
Loss on equity investments, net$(78)$(67)$(282)$(234)
Loss on financial instruments, net (see Note 8)(35)(79)(80)(97)
Gain (loss) on extinguishment of debt (see Note 4)(28)— (28)9 
Net periodic pension benefit12 2 12 4 
$(129)$(144)$(378)$(318)