When we refer to free cash flow during today's call, we mean adjusted EBITDA less capital expenditures as defined in our earnings release. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures discussed on this call to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release or on our website at ir.cableone.net. This is a business with a strong network, attractive markets, meaningful cash flow generation, and significant potential to improve operating performance. Today, I'd like to spend my time discussing what we're seeing in residential broadband, the competitive environment, the investments we're making across the business, and why we remain confident in the long-term outlook.

On the acquisition side, connect activity improved sequentially from the prior quarter and in each month of the second quarter, providing additional confidence that our customer acquisition initiatives are moving in the right direction. We are making progress toward building a more balanced acquisition approach as investments in our people, platforms, and go-to-market capabilities continue to gain traction. Over the past year, the contribution from door-to-door sales has more than doubled as a share of our quarterly connects, and we also continue to see encouraging momentum across our digital acquisition channels. These results reflect our efforts to diversify how we acquire new customers and build a more balanced mix of acquisition channels.

This approach is designed to balance revenue objectives with long-term customer relationships and lifetime value. This analysis reinforces our confidence in the business's long-term growth and value creation potential. This progress is not the result of a major new capital program, but rather years of disciplined, capital-efficient investment in our network architecture and technology platforms. While it remains small relative to our core broadband operations today, customer adoption trends and the pace of growth across the platform are encouraging.

What went well
  • Connect activity improved sequentially in each month of the quarter, with door-to-door sales more than doubling as a share of connects year-over-year
  • Residential broadband ARPU increased sequentially, aided by promotional roll-offs, AutoPay Plus program changes and adoption of higher-value products
  • Reduced debt by $63 million (about $60 million via voluntary repurchases at attractive discounts), roughly $130 million year-to-date
  • Maintained strong liquidity with $166.2 million of cash and $700 million of undrawn capacity under the $1.25 billion revolver
  • Launched Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and saw momentum in higher-value enterprise, wholesale and carrier fiber segments
  • Essentially all of the network is gig-capable, with the vast majority of customers to be served by multi-gig infrastructure by year-end from capital-efficient investment
  • Completed the merger of Point Broadband and Clearwave Fiber, with the interest reclassified as a $135 million equity-method investment
What went wrong
  • Residential broadband customers declined by 17,000 as elevated churn continued, particularly in markets with fiber-overbuild activity
  • Total revenue fell to $348.9 million from $381.1 million, with residential data revenue down 7.3% year-over-year
  • Adjusted EBITDA dropped to $173.5 million and margin fell below 50% to 49.7%, from 53.3% a year earlier
  • Adjusted EBITDA less capital expenditures declined to $99.5 million from $134.8 million as capex rose $5.6 million to $74 million
  • Recognized several non-cash impairment charges and fair-value adjustments related to franchise agreements, goodwill and the MBI investment
  • Net leverage ratio rose to 4.2x
  • Business data revenue fell 6.6% year-over-year, partly reflecting the divested fiber-to-the-tower contracts

More on Cable One, Inc.

Reported 2026-08-06 · figures from the Cable One, Inc. Q2 2026 earnings call.

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