After vaulting its final regulatory hurdle in California, Charter Communications has completed its $34.5 billion acquisition of Cox Communications, combining the US’s second and sixth-largest cable operators across 45 states. Since the merger began, Charter and Cox’s move signaled safeguarding against the decline of cable TV while bolstering broadband prowess in the face of Comcast, the then largest cable operator. Now, the numbers tell a different story. Originally predicting 15.6 million combined cable TV subscribers, Charter and Cox’s cable footprint now spans 14.1 million, an almost 10% erosion, mainly marked by Cox’s estimated 1.1 million cable TV subscriber loss since 2024. For comparison, rival Comcast’s TV base has also fallen by 1.1 million in the last two years to 10.6…