Charter losses narrow to $67 mil

Charter Communications, with new CEO Tom Rutledge at the helm, said net losses narrowed last quarter to $67 million from $70 million a year earlier.Revenue at the St. Louis-based company owned by Paul Allen nosed up to $1.83 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from $1.79 billion on higher Internet, telephone and commercial sales."This will be an important year for Charter and our customers, and I'm excited to be a part of it," Rutledge said. A highly regarded cable exec, he shocked the industry when he bolted from his longtime perch at NY operator Cablevision in late December to move to Charter.Charter's total customer base grew 8,700 in the fourth quarter, compared to a loss of 35,700 in the year-ago quarter. Residential Internet customers grew 67,700, more than double the number of a year ago.Video losses of 45,000 were down from 62,000 in the year-ago quarter. But Charter added fewer telephone subscribers than it had the year before.Charter put out a separate release for fast-growing commercial services division Charter Business, where revenue jumped 20% for full-year 2011 to $583 million. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com