Charter Communications has promoted Danny Bowman to EVP of product, adding the company’s video organization to his command.
Bowman joined Charter as chief mobile officer in 2018 to launch and manage Spectrum Mobile – the company’s suite of broadband services that currently delivers to more than 6 million mobile lines across the U.S.
His role was expanded in 2021 to include Charter’s internet, Wi-Fi, mobile and voice organizations, aligning all connectivity products under his leadership.
Charter said that alignment would help “drive coordination and convergence," and Bowman in 2022 helped launch Spectrum One, which combines broadband, Wi-Fi and mobile into one bundle.
Now, Bowman will add Charter’s video organization to his stead.
That includes an IP-based video streaming platform that Charter and Comcast teamed up to develop in April 2022. While video has typically taken a back seat to broadband for major cable companies, CEO Tom Rutledge at the time said the video-focused joint venture with Comcast would increase retail consumer options and compete at scale with established national platforms."
In his new EVP role Bowman will continue to report to Rich DiGeronimo, Charter’s president of product and technology.
“[Bowman] led the Spectrum Mobile product from launch to becoming the fastest-growing mobile provider in the nation,” said DiGeronimo. “By aligning our video, internet, Wi-Fi and mobile products under his leadership, [Bowman] will continue to drive Charter’s product convergence, further Charter’s unmatched Gig-Powered Wireless connectivity offerings and ensure our products best serve our customers today and in the future.”
Charter declined to comment on any further plans for Bowman or the video, internet, Wi-Fi and mobile products under his new leadership role.
The announcement comes on the heels of a positive year so far for Charter.
In May, CEO Chris Winfrey touted the company’s position in “the convergence wars” against the mobile providers, noting that Charter can offer both fixed broadband and mobile across its entire footprint.
“We have a convergence advantage,” said Winfrey. “Mobile will be an extension of our footprint.'
Winfrey pointed out that the big American wireless operators don't have the ability to provide both wireline internet and mobile in the exact same spot, all the time. However, it should be noted that Charter doesn’t have a national footprint, and the big wireless carriers do.
That said, Charter is still having success with its Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) offering. In the second quarter 2023 Charter added 686,000 new mobile lines across its footprint. A lot of that success with mobile can be attributed to the company’s Spectrum One bundle, which has picked up a healthy subscriber base.
Charter and Comcast this year also announced they are sharing their Wi-Fi networks to offload mobile traffic from Verizon’s network in order to save costs and increase margins. Both companies have indicated that their MVNO contracts with Verizon are “very good” in terms of their financial margins.
MoffettNathanson has estimated that the MVNO margins for Charter and Comcast might be as high as 70% over the cost of the product.
Charter reported positive broadband subscriber growth in Q1, as it continues its work on rural buildouts and network enhancements in preparation for DOCSIS 4.0.
The cable giant said it will build hundreds of thousands of fiber passings this year, and already added 76,000 broadband customers in the first quarter of 2023. That number represents a year-over-year decline from 185,000, but Charter fared better than competitor Comcast, which ended Q1 with 5,000 broadband net additions.
Additionally, Charter’s Spectrum claimed the top download speeds for the second quarter in a row (although cable rivals Cox and Comcast weren’t far behind) on Ookla’s Q2 2023 Speedtest Intelligence report.
Charter’s Spectrum touted a median download speed of 243.02 Mbps in Q2, which was a boost from the 234.80 Mbps speeds the operator posted in Q1.