Highlights of Cox’s Fourth Quarter and Full-Year Financial Results for News Media
Cox Communications, Inc. Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2003 Earnings Highlights for News Media:
Revenue Generating Units (RGU) Highlights:
- Ended the quarter with over 6.3 million basic video customers, up 0.9% for the full year 2003.
- Ended the quarter with 11.5 million total RGUs, up 12% for the full year 2003, driven by 31% growth in advanced-service RGUs.
- Added 82,967 Cox Digital Cable customers, ending the year with over 2.1 million digital cable customers, representing year-over-year customer growth of 20%. Cox Digital Cable is now available to 98% of the homes in Cox's service areas with 34% penetration of our basic video customer base.
- Added 144,402 Cox High Speed Internet customers, ending 2003 with just under 2.0 million high-speed Internet customers, representing year-over-year customer growth of 41%.
- Added a record 76,691 Cox Digital Telephone customers, ending 2003 with just under 1.0 million telephone customers, representing year-over-year customer growth of 38%. The service, now available in 12 Cox markets, is available to about 48% of homes passed, or over 5 million households.
- Cox ended 2003 with 2.2 million bundled customers - an increase of 47% over the prior year. Today 36% of basic cable customers subscribe to a bundle of services (at least two services) from Cox.
Financial Highlights:
- For the full year, Cox posted industry-leading revenue growth of 14% and operating cash flow growth of 19%. (Operating income before depreciation and amortization and gains or losses on the sale of cable systems.)
- For the quarter, total revenue grew 12% and operating cash flow grew 14%.
- For the full year, commercial revenues from Cox Business Services increased 25%. For the quarter, revenues grew 22%.
- Generated $498.9 million free cash flow in 2004.
- Cox generated operating income margin and cash flow margin improvement of 150 basis points.
2004 Outlook:
- For 2004, Cox expects revenue to increase by 11.5% to 12.5% over 2003.
- Operating cash flow is expected to increase by 14% to 15% over 2003.
- Basic video customer growth over 2003 is expected to be just under 1% and advanced-service RGU net additions are expected to be between 1.0 and 1.1 million.
- Cox expects to be free cash flow positive for the full year 2004.