NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Altice USA (NYSE: ATUS) today reports results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2024.

Dennis Mathew, Altice USA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: "2024 was a transformative year for Optimum, marked by significant progress in strengthening our operations, enhancing customer experiences, and reinforcing financial discipline. We delivered record fourth quarter and full-year fiber and mobile performance, improved operational efficiency, and maintained positive Free Cash Flow despite a challenging macro and competitive environment. As we enter phase two of our transformation in 2025, we remain focused on expanding our product portfolio and AI-driven capabilities, enhancing margins through continued efficiencies, and accelerating multi-gig availability — all while demonstrating strong capital stewardship to support our long-term growth objectives.”

Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Financial Overview

• Total revenue of $2.2 billion in Q4 2024 (-2.9% year over year), and $9.0 billion in FY 2024 (-3.1% year over year)
• Residential revenue of $1.7 billion in Q4 2024 (-5.6% year over year), and $6.9 billion in FY 2024 (-4.6% year over year)
• Residential revenue per user (“ARPU”)⁽¹⁾ of $133.95 in Q4 2024 (-1.5% year over year), and $135.44 in FY 2024 (-1.0% year over year)
• Business Services revenue of $371.3 million in Q4 2024 (-0.2% year over year), and $1.5 billion in FY 2024 (+0.3% year over year)
• News and Advertising revenue of $157.5 million in Q4 2024 (+23.0% year over year), and $486.2 million in FY 2024 (+8.6% year over year)
• Net income (loss) attributable to stockholders of ($54.1) million ($(0.12)/share on a diluted basis) in Q4 2024 and ($102.9) million ($(0.22)/share on a diluted basis) in FY 2024, compared to ($117.8) million ($(0.26)/share on a diluted basis) in Q4 2023 and $53.2 million ($0.12/share on a diluted basis) in FY 2023
• Net cash flows from operating activities of $1.6 billion in FY 2024 and $1.8 billion in FY 2023
• Adjusted EBITDA⁽²⁾ of $837.5 million (-7.3% year over year) and margin of 37.5% in Q4 2024. Adjusted EBITDA⁽²⁾ of $3.4 billion (-5.4% year over year) and margin of 38.1% in FY 2024
• Cash capital expenditures of $390.0 million (+32.1% year over year) and capital intensity⁽³⁾ of 17.5% (14.8% excluding fiber and new builds) in Q4 2024. Cash capital expenditures of $1.4 billion (-15.9% year over year) and capital intensity⁽³⁾ of 16.0% (13.0% excluding fiber and new builds) in FY 2024
• Free Cash Flow⁽²⁾ of $49.9 million in Q4 2024, and $149.4 million in FY 2024, including $37.3 million of higher cash interest in FY 2024 year over year

Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Key Operational Highlights

• Highest Ever Fiber Net Additions, Reaching 538k Fiber Customers, a +58% Increase in Total Fiber Customers Compared to Y/E 2023
  • Fiber customer growth accelerated in Q4 2024 and FY 2024 with +57k and +197k fiber net additions, respectively, representing Optimum's best quarter and full year ever for fiber net adds
  • Fiber network penetration reached 18.2% at the end of Q4 2024, up from 12.5% at the end of Q4 2023
• Best Mobile Line Net Add Performance in 5 Years, Reaching 460k Lines, a +43% Increase in Ending Mobile Lines Compared to Y/E 2023
  • Optimum Mobile added net mobile lines of +40k in Q4 2024 and +137k in FY 2024
  • 5.7% of broadband base converged with mobile⁽⁴⁾ at the end of Q4 2024, up from 3.5% at the end of Q4 2023
• Evolving Video Strategy To Align Products and Offerings With Customer Preferences
  • Keeping the customer at the center of the conversation and providing options and flexibility that customers want by leveraging data-driven viewership insights to guide negotiations and optimize value
  • Introduced new TV packages in 2024 -- Entertainment TV, Extra TV, & Everything TV -- which drive more value via mutually beneficial programming agreements, offer consumers more content flexibility and are available alongside a customer's favorite streaming services via Optimum Stream
  • Our new TV packages supported improvement in video gross add attachment rate⁽⁵⁾ to ~20% in Q4 2024, up over 200 basis points quarter over quarter, inflecting on multi-year trends of declining video attachment rates
  • FY 2024 video programming cost inflation per subscriber⁽⁶⁾ improved over the last two years to ~4% in FY 2024, a marked improvement from the average cost inflation of 6-8% in the years prior.
• Total Broadband Primary Service Units (PSUs) Net Losses of -39k⁽⁷⁾ in Q4 2024 and -170k⁽⁷⁾⁽⁸⁾ in FY 2024
  • Broadband net losses were -39k⁽⁷⁾ in Q4 2024, compared to -27k in Q4 2023, and -170k⁽⁷⁾⁽⁸⁾ in FY 2024, compared to -114k in FY 2023
  • Performance was driven by continued low levels of switching activity, competitive pressures across our footprint, and muted trends in the income-constrained segment
• Optimum Network Expansion and Multi-Gig Rollout
  • Total passings additions of +54k⁽⁷⁾ in Q4 2024 and +210k⁽⁷⁾ in FY 2024, reaching 9.8 million total passings and expanding Optimum's footprint by +2.1%⁽⁷⁾ in FY 2024
  • Fiber passings additions of +68k in Q4 2024 and +227k in FY 2024, reaching 3.0 million fiber passings and 18.2% penetration at Y/E 2024
  • At the end of 2024, multi-gig speeds were enabled in ~30% of the total footprint (on fiber network), with a path to 65% multi-gig enabled by year end 2028 through fiber network growth and HFC mid-split upgrades
  • Truck rolls⁽⁹⁾ and service calls⁽¹⁰⁾ each reduced by 11% in FY 2024
• Lightpath Establishing a Presence Within the Hyperscaler and AI Ecosystem
  • Lightpath's highest revenue of $414 million⁽¹¹⁾ in FY 2024 (+5.5% year over year)
  • At the end of 2024, Lightpath had $110 million in awarded contracts with Hyperscalers and an AI-related infrastructure connectivity sales pipeline of nearly $1 billion across 10 markets, which is expected to continue to grow
  • Lightpath completed its acquisition of substantially all of the assets of United Fiber and Data, which connects Lightpath’s existing network in NY with one of the largest data center markets in the world through long haul fiber, and increases the serviceable market in Manhattan by 20%

2025 Priorities

• Revenue Opportunity
  • Improve broadband subscriber trends; Increase value-added services; Grow mobile penetration; Expand B2B product portfolio
• Operational Efficiency
  • Expand product margins and the use of AI, digital, and self-service tools
• Network Strength
  • Grow fiber footprint through new builds; Grow multi-gig availability; Accelerate fiber migrations
• Sustainable Capital Structure
  • Deliver enhanced capital efficiency to support liquidity and growth objectives

Balance Sheet Review as of December 31, 2024

• Net debt⁽¹²⁾ for CSC Holdings, LLC Restricted Group was $23,241 million at the end of Q4 2024, representing net leverage of 7.4x L2QA⁽¹³⁾
  • The weighted average cost of debt for CSC Holdings, LLC Restricted Group was 6.7% and the weighted average life of debt was 4.1 years
• Net debt⁽¹²⁾ for Cablevision Lightpath LLC was $1,438 million at the end of Q4 2024, representing net leverage of 5.6x L2QA⁽¹³⁾
  • The weighted average cost of debt for Cablevision Lightpath LLC was 5.5% and the weighted average life of debt was 3.1 years
• Consolidated net debt⁽¹²⁾ for Altice USA was $24,644 million, representing consolidated net leverage of 7.3x L2QA⁽¹³⁾
  • The weighted average cost of debt for consolidated Altice USA was 6.7% and the weighted average life of debt was 4.1 years

Shares Outstanding

• As of December 31, 2024, Altice USA had 463,204,545 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.

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 4.6 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 conditions and performance, our revenue streams, results of operations and liquidity; our strategy, objectives, prospects, trends, service and operational improvements, capital expenditure plans, broadband, fiber, video and mobile growth, product offerings (including multi-gig plans) sales pipeline, network expansion and passings; our ability to achieve operational performance improvements (including our AI capabilities); our ability to achieve near and longer term revenue, penetration, operational efficiency and capital structure opportunities (including mobile lines, fiber subscribers, fiber penetration, gross margin, operating expenses, EBITDA margins and annual capital expenditures); 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”, 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. 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.

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