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Data: Company earnings reports; Chart: Axios Visuals

Charter is now the country's largest pay-TV provider solely because it lost fewer customers than everyone else.

Why it matters: Charter is trying to keep the pay-TV industry afloat by reimagining its distribution deals with content providers. Now it has the influence of being the biggest game in town.

By the numbers: Charter had been nipping at Comcast's heels for the past year but now holds a narrow lead of just 16,000 subscribers.

Over the past three years, Comcast has lost more than 5 million subscribers, while Charter has shed 1.9 million.

The big picture: The pay-TV bundle is in the middle of an existential crisis.

Amid its public carriage dispute with Disney last year, Charter threatened to leave the pay-TV business entirely, calling the model "broken." The result? A new deal with Disney that included some of its streaming services and fewer channels.

Charter inked a similar deal in January with TelevisaUnivision. It's carriage deal with Paramount expires this spring.

Yes, but: A potentially more dire issue for cable companies is their decline in broadband customers. Despite its new title as Pay-TV King, Charter's stock price has plummeted on a larger-than-expected decline in broadband subscribers.

Charter surpasses Comcast as top U.S. TV provider

Charter is the largest pay-TV provider by losing the least amount of customers.

Charter Communications

The line chart shows a steady decline in Pay TV subscribers for both Charter and Comcast from Q1 2021 to Q4 2023, with Comcast consistently having a higher number of subscribers than Charter throughout the period, until the last quarter, when Charter surpassed Comcast.

<p><strong>Charter is now</strong> the country&#x27;s largest pay-TV provider solely because it lost fewer customers than everyone else.</p>

Charter surpasses Comcast as top U.S. TV provider

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