In an attempt to combat dwindling subscribers, Variety reports that cable giants Cox Communications and Charter Communications have struck a deal that is worth $34.5 billion.  This comes at a time when consumers have flocked to “cord-cutting” or digital streaming services, leaving cable companies to team up and get creative to woo back their customers.

Variety details the terms of the deal; Charter is set to acquire Cox Communications’ commercial fiber and manage online services, and in turn, Cox Enterprises will hand over its residential cable services to Charter Holdings, a subsidiary of Charter. The deal requires the now combined companies to be renamed Cox Communications, possibly alluding to which company has taken the upper hand in the merger. Although Spectrum is set to become the face of the company within the communities Cox serves.

The main issue driving the merger could be the expected annual cost savings of $500 million due to the combination of assets. Variety also reports the companies as to saying cost savings would stem from “overhead savings,” although, at the same time, they claim the merger will bring new jobs to the economy.

Variety quotes the Charter president and CEO, Chris Winfrey, “We’re honored that the Cox family has entrusted us with its impressive legacy and are excited by the opportunity to benefit from the terrific operating history and community leadership of Cox.” He goes on to detail the benefits of the merger, “This combination will augment our ability to innovate and provide high-quality, competitively priced products, delivered with outstanding customer service, to millions of homes and businesses. We will continue to deliver high-value products that save American families money, and we’ll onshore jobs from overseas to create new, good-paying careers for U.S. employees that come with great benefits, career training and advancement, and retirement and ownership opportunities.”

Variety reports that this merger also comes at a time when the relationship between cable companies and leading networks is becoming strained. Recently, ESPN, Fox, and CNN have announced that they will be venturing out, bringing standalone streaming platforms to their customers, which would essentially provide a way to completely undercut traditional cable services.  Although the networks have stated that this move would still give some benefits to cable subscribers, many skeptics claim this is just a short-term commitment to appease the cable companies while there is still money left in the industry.

An article by Forbes details the fall of major cable. They reported that Neilson’s monthly Gauge Reports chronicle the decline in total viewership. Beginning in November of ’22, cable networks accounted for 31.8 percent of total viewership. By November of ’24, the viewership had dropped to 25 percent, with trends continuing downward. They also detail the decline in viewership for most legacy media post-election, save for Fox News, which now has the top two shows in primetime cable television in The Five and Jesse Watters Primetime, respectively. Not to mention, Fox News also has the number one show in late-night television with its news comedy talk show Gutfeld!. All of this is just another hit to corded television as Fox has announced it will be dropping its new streaming platform, Fox One, later this year. The platform will allow access to all of is content, including live programming and sports events.

Not to pile on, but there also remains the issue with dwindling broadband subscribers. Variety reports that in the first quarter, the combined companies took a loss of almost 200,600 subscribers to their internet services. CNET reports that much of this loss could be due to the ending of the COVID-era Affordable Connectivity Program that supplemented the cost of broadband services to millions of low-income families. In the current climate, it seems that ACP may have been just as much of a lifeline for the Cable companies as it was for struggling Americans.