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Related Party Transactions (Notes)
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2016
Related Party Transactions [Abstract]  
Related Party Transactions
Related Party Transactions

On May 23, 2015, in connection with the execution of the Merger Agreement and the amendment of the Contribution Agreement, Charter entered into the Amended and Restated Stockholders Agreement with Liberty Broadband, A/N and Legacy Charter (the “Stockholders Agreement”). As of the closing of the Merger Agreement and the Contribution Agreement on May 18, 2016, the Stockholders Agreement replaced Legacy Charter’s existing stockholders agreement with Liberty Broadband, dated September 29, 2014, and superseded the amended and restated stockholders agreement among Legacy Charter, Charter, Liberty Broadband and A/N, dated March 31, 2015.

Under the terms of the Stockholders Agreement, the number of Charter's directors is fixed at 13, and includes its chief executive officer. Upon the closing of the Bright House Transaction, two designees selected by A/N became members of the board of directors of the Company and three designees selected by Liberty Broadband continued as members of the board of directors of the Company. The remaining eight directors are not affiliated with either A/N or Liberty Broadband. Each of A/N and Liberty Broadband is entitled to nominate at least one director to each of the committees of the Company’s board of directors, subject to applicable stock exchange listing rules and certain specified voting or equity ownership thresholds for each of A/N and Liberty Broadband, and provided that the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and the Compensation and Benefit Committee each have at least a majority of directors independent from A/N, Liberty Broadband and the Company (referred to as the “unaffiliated directors”). Each of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and the Compensation and Benefits Committee is currently comprised of three unaffiliated directors, including one designee of each of A/N and Liberty Broadband. A/N and Liberty Broadband also have certain other committee designation and other governance rights. Upon the closing of the Bright House Transaction, Mr. Thomas Rutledge, the Company's Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"), became the chairman of the board of the Company.

The Company is aware that Dr. John Malone may be deemed to have a 36.3% voting interest in Liberty Interactive and is Chairman of the board of directors, an executive officer position, of Liberty Interactive. Liberty Interactive owns 38.3% of the common stock of HSN, Inc. (“HSN”) and has the right to elect 20% of the board members of HSN. Liberty Interactive wholly owns QVC, Inc. (“QVC”). The Company has programming relationships with HSN and QVC which pre-date the transaction with Liberty Media. For the three and six months ended June 30, 2016, the Company recorded payments in aggregate of approximately $11 million and $15 million, respectively, and for the three and six months ended June 30, 2015, the Company recorded payments in aggregate of approximately $5 million and $8 million, respectively, from HSN and QVC as part of channel carriage fees and revenue sharing arrangements for home shopping sales made to customers in the Company's footprint.

Dr. Malone and Mr. Steven Miron, each a member of Charter’s board of directors, also serve on the board of directors of Discovery Communications, Inc., (“Discovery”) and the Company is aware that Dr. Malone owns 4.9% in the aggregate of the common stock of Discovery and has a 28.6% voting interest in Discovery for the election of directors. The Company is aware that Advance/Newhouse Programming Partnership ("A/N PP"), an affiliate of A/N and in which Mr. Miron is the CEO, owns 100% of the Series A preferred stock of Discovery and 100% of the Series C preferred stock of Discovery, representing approximately 34.0% of the outstanding equity of Discovery's stock, on an as-converted basis. A/N PP has the right to appoint three directors out of a total of ten directors to Discovery's board to be elected by the holders of Discovery’s Series A preferred stock. In addition, Dr. Malone owns approximately 6.4% in the aggregate of the common stock of Starz and has 48.1% of the voting power, pursuant to certain irrevocable proxies granted by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and his ownership of common stock. Mr. Gregory Maffei, a member of Charter's board of directors, is a non-executive Chairman of the board of Starz. The Company purchases programming from both Discovery and Starz pursuant to agreements entered into prior to Dr. Malone, Mr. Maffei and Mr. Miron joining Charter's board of directors. Based on publicly available information, the Company does not believe that either Discovery or Starz would currently be considered related parties. The amounts paid in aggregate to Discovery and Starz represent less than 3% of total operating costs and expenses for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015.

The Company has agreements with certain equity-method investees (see Note 5) pursuant to which the Company has made or received related party transaction payments. The Company recorded payments to equity-method investees totaling $37 million and $41 million during the three and six months ended June 30, 2016, respectively, and $1 million during the three and six months ended June 30, 2015. The Company recorded advertising revenues from transactions with equity-method investees totaling $1 million during the three and six months ended June 30, 2016. The Company has loans outstanding to investees of $5 million as of June 30, 2016.