CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This document contains “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts, but rather are based on current expectations, estimates, assumptions and projections about the cable industry and our business and financial results. Forward-looking statements often include words such as “anticipates,” “estimates,” “expects,” “projects,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes” and words and terms of similar substance in connection with discussions of future operating or financial performance. As with any projection or forecast, forward-looking statements are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Our actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on any forward-looking statement made by us or on our behalf. Important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those in our forward-looking statements include government regulation, economic, strategic, political and social conditions and the following factors:
Any forward-looking statements made by us in this document speak only as of the date on which they are made. We are under no obligation to, and expressly disclaim any obligation to, update or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, subsequent events or otherwise.
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Overview
On July 1, 2015, Cable One, Inc. ( “Cable One,” “us,” “our,” “we” or the “Company”) became an independent company traded under the ticker symbol “CABO” on the New York Stock Exchange after completion of its spin-off from Graham Holdings Company (“GHC”). The spin-off was effected through the distribution by GHC of 100% of the outstanding shares of common stock of Cable One to GHC stockholders as of the record date for the distribution (the “spin-off”) in a pro rata dividend (the “Distribution”). In connection with the spin-off, approximately 5.84 million shares of Cable One’s common stock were issued and outstanding on July 1, 2015 at 12:01 a.m., based on approximately 0.96 million shares of GHC Class A Common Stock and 4.88 million shares of GHC Class B Common Stock outstanding as of June 30, 2015. No preferred stock was issued or outstanding.
We are a fully integrated provider of data, video and voice services in 19 Western, Midwestern and Southern states. We provide these broadband services to residential and business customers in 38 cable systems covering over 400 cities and towns. The markets we serve are primarily non-metropolitan, secondary markets, with 75% of our customers located in five states: Mississippi, Idaho, Oklahoma, Texas and Arizona. Our biggest customer concentrations are in the Mississippi Gulf Coast region and in the greater Boise, Idaho region. We are the tenth-largest cable system operator in the United States based on customers and revenues in 2015, making services available to approximately 1,644,000 homes in the United States as of December 31, 2015.
As of December 31, 2015, we provided service to 664,604 residential and business customers out of approximately 1,644,000 homes passed. Of these customers, 501,241 subscribed to data services, 364,150 to video services and 127,094 to voice services. In the third quarter of 2015, we completed the implementation of a new billing system. This new billing system generally counts each unit in a multi-dwelling unit (“MDU”) as one home passed, whereas our prior billing system generally counted each MDU as a single home passed. Comparative period counts have not been adjusted for this new counting convention.
We offer a complete solution of data, video and voice services in all of our markets. Ranked by share of our total revenues in 2015, they are residential video (41.2%), residential data (36.5%), business services (data, voice and video – 11.0%), residential voice (6.2%) and advertising sales (3.8%). The profit margins, growth rates and capital intensity of our five primary products vary significantly due to competition and product maturity.
Prior to 2012, we were focused on growing revenues through subscriber retention and growth in overall primary service units (“PSUs”). To that end, our strategies consisted of, among others, offering promotional discounts to new and existing subscribers adding new services and to subscribers purchasing more than one service offering.
Since 2012, we have adapted our strategy to face the relatively recent trend, affecting the entire cable industry, of declining margins in residential video and voice services. We believe these declining margins are due to competition from other content providers, increasing programming costs, rate increases, high levels of market penetration and increasing use of wireless voice services in addition to, or instead of, wireline voice. From 2013 through the fourth quarter of 2015, we shifted our focus away from maximizing customer PSUs and towards growing and maintaining our higher margin businesses, namely residential data and business services. Separately, we have also focused on retaining customers with a relatively high expected life-time value (“LTV”), who are less attracted by discounting, require less support and churn less. This strategy focuses on increasing cash flow, free cash flow and margins.
The trends described above have impacted our four largest product lines in the following ways: