Operating Costs and Expenses (Notes)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2021

Operating Costs and Expenses [Abstract]

Operating Costs and Expenses

Operating Costs and Expenses

Operating costs and expenses, exclusive of items shown separately in the consolidated statements of operations, consist of the following for the periods presented:

	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2021		2020
Programming	$	2,988	$	2,892
Regulatory, connectivity and produced content	600		551
Costs to service customers	1,804		1,848
Marketing	751		766
Mobile	572		374
Other	996		1,001
	$	7,711	$	7,432

Programming costs consist primarily of costs paid to programmers for basic, premium, digital, video on demand and pay-per-view programming. Regulatory, connectivity and produced content costs represent payments to franchise and regulatory authorities, costs directly related to providing video, Internet and voice services as well as payments for sports, local and news content produced by the Company. Included in regulatory, connectivity and produced content costs is content acquisition costs for the Los Angeles Lakers’ basketball games and Los Angeles Dodgers’ baseball games, which are recorded as games are exhibited over the contract period. Costs to service customers include costs related to field operations, network operations and customer care for the Company’s residential and SMB customers, including internal and third-party labor for the non-capitalizable portion of installations, service and repairs, maintenance, bad debt expense, billing and collection, occupancy and vehicle costs. Marketing costs represent the costs of marketing to current and potential commercial and residential customers including labor costs. Mobile costs represent costs associated with the Company's mobile service such as device and service costs, marketing, sales and commissions, retail stores, personnel costs, taxes, among others. Other includes corporate overhead, advertising sales expenses, indirect costs associated with the Company’s enterprise business customers and regional sports and news networks, property tax and insurance expense and stock compensation expense, among others.