Media Q2 results: Charter Communications sales rose 4.7...

Media Q2 results: Charter Communications sales rose 4.7 percent from the year-ago quarter to $1.97 billion. The number of residential customers rose 2 percent to 5.09 million, though video subscribers fell 4 percent to 3.92 million. Two-thirds of Internet customers “receive” speeds of at least 30 Mbps, said CEO Tom Rutledge in Tuesday’s earnings release (http://bit.ly/1889IDc). The net loss widened to $96 million from $83 million. Triple-play bundled product sales were behind the “strong metrics,” wrote UBS analyst John Hodulik to investors, but he and other analysts said cash flow disappointed. Adjusted EBITDA declined 0.1 percent to $692 million. ... Liberty Media, which said its stake in Charter is worth $3.5 billion, said (http://bit.ly/13ZuhgM) net earnings fell 90 percent in Q2 to $96 million from the year-ago quarter. SiriusXM, in which Liberty has a controlling stake, had a 12 percent Q2 revenue increase to $940 million. Liberty sales rose eightfold to $1.08 billion. ... Entercom sales fell 3 percent from Q2 2012 to $101.2 million, which CEO David Field called “disappointing.” Station operating income fell 4 percent to $35.5 million, said the radio broadcaster (http://bit.ly/155NsG3). “Field made no bones about” the revenue decline on an earnings conference call, wrote Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker to investors. “He spent much” of the call “blaming the poor performance” on “sales execution,” she added.