Altice USA Reports First Quarter 2025 Results

Company Provides Full Year 2025 Outlook

Lowest Quarterly Customer and Broadband Churn in Three Years

All-time High Fiber Customer Growth of +69k; Surpassed 600k Customer Milestone

Best Mobile Line Performance in 5 Years of +49k; Surpassed 500k Mobile Line Milestone

Embedding AI and Digital Tools Across Operations, Including Through New Partnership with Google Cloud

Altice USA (NYSE: ATUS) today reports results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2025.

Dennis Mathew, Altice USA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: "Our first quarter results reflect steady progress against our operational and financial priorities. We achieved record customer growth in our fiber and mobile businesses and saw sequential improvement in our broadband subscriber performance, all while successfully completing two major programming negotiations with favorable outcomes and minimal disruptions to our customers. We are activating competitive strategies with enhanced go-to-market effectiveness, deepening penetration of both new and existing products, and transforming our operations to drive efficiency, leading to our lowest churn levels in three years. Based on our continued progress and momentum we expect to deliver approximately $3.4bn of Adjusted EBITDA in Full Year 2025, representing a meaningful improvement from prior year trends, as we stay focused on sustainable growth, shareholder value, and delivering best-in-class services to the communities we serve."

First Quarter 2025 Financial Overview

• Total revenue of $2.2 billion (-4.4% year over year)
  • Residential revenue of $1.7 billion (-5.7% year over year)
  • Residential revenue per user (ARPU)⁽¹⁾ of $133.93 (-1.3% year over year)
  • Broadband ARPU⁽²⁾ of $75.31 (+2.4% year over year)
  • Business Services revenue of $363.5 million (-0.4% year over year)
  • News and Advertising revenue of $102.4 million (-3.1% year over year)
• Net loss attributable to stockholders of ($75.7) million ($(0.16)/share on a diluted basis) in Q1 2025, compared to ($21.2) million ($(0.05)/share on a diluted basis) in Q1 2024
• Net cash flows from operating activities of $0.2 billion compared to $0.4 billion in Q1 2024
• Adjusted EBITDA⁽³⁾ of $799.0 million (-5.6% year over year) and margin of 37.1%
• Cash capital expenditures of $356.1 million (+6.0% year over year) and capital intensity⁽⁴⁾ of 16.5% in Q1 2025 (12.1% excluding FTTH and new build⁽⁵⁾)
• Free Cash Flow (Deficit)⁽³⁾ of ($168.6) million

First Quarter 2025 Key Operational Highlights

• Fiber Growth: Highest Ever Fiber Net Additions, Reaching 607k Fiber Customers, a 54% Increase in Total Fiber Customers in Q1 2025 Compared to Q1 2024
  • Fiber customer growth accelerated with +69k fiber net additions, representing Optimum's best quarter ever for fiber net adds
  • Fiber network penetration reached 20.3%, up from 14.2% in Q1 2024
• Mobile Growth: Best Mobile Line Net Add Performance in Five Years, Reaching 509k Lines, a 45% Increase in Ending Mobile Lines Compared to Q1 2024
  • Mobile line net additions of +49k in Q1 2025
  • Broadband and mobile convergence⁽⁶⁾ grew to 6.3% at the end of Q1 2025, up from 5.7% at the end of Q4 2024
• Broadband Performance: Total Broadband Primary Service Units (PSUs) Net Losses of -37k in Q1 2025, Ending Total Broadband Subscribers of 4.3 million
  • Broadband net losses of -37k, compared to -30k in Q1 2024; sequential improvement compared to -39k in Q4 2024, supported by performance improvements in the East footprint
• Churn Improvement: Lowest Quarterly Churn in Three Years
  • Total residential customer and residential broadband subscriber quarterly churn reached three-year lows, with annualized broadband churn improvement of 90bps year over year in Q1 2025
• Expanding and Enhancing Our Networks with Efficiency
  • Added +25k total passings in Q1-25 and +185k in the last twelve months (LTM); Targeting 175k total additional passings in FY 2025
  • Added +33k fiber passings in Q1-25 and +215k LTM
  • Initiated mid-split upgrades on DOCSIS 3.1 network, expanding and reallocating spectrum to enable multi-gig speeds
  • Lightpath continues to expand in hyperscaler community with the recent announcement of its entrance into the Columbus, Ohio market anchored by a major hyperscaler partner
  • Focus on high-impact network investments, paired with ongoing efforts to enhance cost efficiency; Targeting approximately $1.2bn cash capital expenditures in FY 2025
• Focused Execution to Drive Improved Trends
  • Activating competitive go-to-market strategies across our hyper-local markets
  • Deepening penetration of new and existing products across broadband, mobile, video, and B2B
  • Transforming operations by expanding digital and AI capabilities, innovative programming deals, and more

Full Year 2025 Outlook

• Revenue of $8.6bn - $8.7bn in FY 2025
• Programming & Other Direct Costs of approximately $2.6bn in FY 2025
• Other Operating Expense of approximately $2.6bn in FY 2025
• Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $3.4bn in FY 2025⁽⁷⁾
• Cash Capital Expenditures of approximately $1.2bn in FY 2025

Balance Sheet Review as of March 31, 2025

• Net debt⁽⁸⁾ for CSC Holdings, LLC Restricted Group was $23,486 million at the end of Q1 2025, representing net leverage of 7.8x L2QA⁽⁹⁾
  • The weighted average cost of debt for CSC Holdings, LLC Restricted Group was 6.9% and the weighted average life of debt was 3.9 years
• Net debt⁽⁸⁾ for Cablevision Lightpath LLC was $1,445 million at the end of Q1 2025, representing net leverage of 5.5x L2QA⁽⁹⁾
  • The weighted average cost of debt for Cablevision Lightpath LLC was 5.3%⁽¹⁰⁾ and the weighted average life of debt was 2.8 years
• Consolidated net debt⁽⁸⁾ for Altice USA was $24,907 million, representing consolidated net leverage of 7.6x L2QA⁽⁹⁾
  • The weighted average cost of debt for consolidated Altice USA was 6.8%⁽¹⁰⁾ and the weighted average life of debt was 3.8 years

Shares Outstanding

• As of March 31, 2025, Altice USA had 467,726,018 combined shares of Class A and Class B common stock outstanding

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We define Adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure, as net income (loss) excluding income taxes, non-operating income or expenses, gain (loss) on extinguishment of debt and write-off of deferred financing costs, gain (loss) on interest rate swap contracts, gain (loss) on derivative contracts, gain (loss) on investments and sale of affiliate interests, interest expense, net, depreciation and amortization, share-based compensation, restructuring, impairments and other operating items (such as significant legal settlements and contractual payments for terminated employees). We define Adjusted EBITDA margin as Adjusted EBITDA divided by total revenue.

Adjusted EBITDA eliminates the significant non-cash depreciation and amortization expense that results from the capital-intensive nature of our business and from intangible assets recognized from acquisitions, as well as certain non-cash and other operating items that affect the period-to-period comparability of our operating performance. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA is unaffected by our capital and tax structures and by our investment activities.

We believe Adjusted EBITDA is an appropriate measure for evaluating our operating performance. Adjusted EBITDA and similar measures with similar titles are common performance measures used by investors, analysts and peers to compare performance in our industry. Internally, we use revenue and Adjusted EBITDA measures as important indicators of our business performance and evaluate management’s effectiveness with specific reference to these indicators. We believe Adjusted EBITDA provides management and investors a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of our core business and operating results by excluding items that are not comparable across reporting periods or that do not otherwise relate to our ongoing operating results. Adjusted EBITDA should be viewed as a supplement to and not a substitute for operating income (loss), net income (loss), and other measures of performance presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). Since Adjusted EBITDA is not a measure of performance calculated in accordance with GAAP, this measure may not be comparable to similar measures with similar titles used by other companies.

We also use Free Cash Flow (defined as net cash flows from operating activities less cash capital expenditures) as a liquidity measure. We believe this measure is useful to investors in evaluating our ability to service our debt and make continuing investments with internally generated funds, although it may not be directly comparable to similar measures reported by other companies.

Certain numerical information is presented on a rounded basis. Minor differences in totals and percentage calculations may exist due to rounding.

About Altice USA

Altice USA (NYSE: ATUS) is one of the largest broadband communications and video services providers in the United States, delivering broadband, video, mobile, proprietary content and advertising services to approximately 4.5 million residential and business customers across 21 states through its Optimum brand. We operate Optimum Media, an advanced advertising and data business, which provides audience-based, multiscreen advertising solutions to local, regional and national businesses and advertising clients. We also operate News 12, which is focused on delivering best-in-class hyperlocal news content.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements in this earnings release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, all statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this earnings release, including, without limitation, those regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things: our future financial condition, liquidity and results of operations; our strategy, objectives, prospects and trends; mobile and fiber growth; our priorities, including revenue opportunity, operational efficiency, network enhancements and sustainable capital structure; our go-to-market strategies, deepening penetration of new and existing product offerings, operational transformation (including our digital and AI capabilities and our focus on operating expense and capital expenditure return on investment); our ability to achieve targets for Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin, revenue, programming and direct costs, other operating expense and cash capital expenditures; our ARPU stability and strategy; our ability to expand our passings footprint and increase network efficiency (including our hyperscaler expansion opportunities); our ability to consummate strategic transactions (including the sale of non-core assets); and future developments in the markets in which we participate or are seeking to participate. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including without limitation the terms “anticipate”, “believe”, “could”, “estimate”, “expect”, “forecast”, “intend”, “may”, “opportunity”, “plan”, “project”, “should”, “target”, “outlook”, or “will” or, in each case, their negative, or other variations or comparable terminology. Where, in any forward-looking statement, we express an expectation or belief as to future results or events, such expectation or belief is expressed in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis, but there can be no assurance that the expectation or belief will result or be achieved or accomplished. To the extent that statements in this earnings release are not recitations of historical fact, such statements constitute forward-looking statements, which, by definition, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements including risks referred to in our SEC filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. You are cautioned to not place undue reliance on Altice USA’s forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it was made. Altice USA specifically disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, as of any future date.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250508196852/en/