Charter’s Quarterly Loss Widens

Charter Communications Inc., the cable television operator controlled by billionaire Paul Allen, said Monday that its first-quarter loss widened to $293 million as the company spent more to market its services.

The net loss expanded to $1 a share from $181 million, or 62 cents, a year earlier. Sales rose 3.1% to $1.21 billion, St. Louis-based Charter said.

Charter Chief Executive Carl Vogel said the company lost 8,500 cable TV customers in the quarter, most of them to satellite TV operators. Vogel last year tried to stem the loss of cable customers, which account for the largest part of Charter’s revenue, with an offer of free service for two months.

Shares of Charter, the third-largest U.S. cable TV company, fell 25 cents to $3.61 on Nasdaq. They had about doubled in the last year.

The company added 125,200 residential customers for its high-speed Internet service and 68,800 digital-video subscribers in the first quarter.

Vogel last year reduced the company’s marketing efforts as he consolidated call centers, cut jobs and sold some cable systems to reduce expenses and pay debt. He also hired new managers after firing some executives, including former Chief Financial Officer Kent Kalkwarf, amid a federal probe into Charter’s accounting practices.