Operating Costs and Expenses (Notes)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

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:

	Year Ended December 31,
	2023		2022		2021
Programming	$	10,638	$	11,620	$	11,844
Other costs of revenue	5,587		4,804		4,353
Costs to service customers	8,415		8,087		7,547
Sales and marketing	3,653		3,585		3,256
Other	5,112		4,780		4,482
	$	33,405	$	32,876	$	31,482

Programming costs consist primarily of costs paid to programmers for basic, premium, video on demand and pay-per-view programming. Other costs of revenue include costs directly related to providing Internet, video, voice and mobile services including mobile device costs, payments to franchise and regulatory authorities, payments for sports, local and news content produced by the Company and direct costs associated with selling advertising. Also included in other costs of revenue are 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 operations for the Company’s products, including mobile, sold to non-bulk 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. Sales and marketing costs represent the costs of selling and marketing our Internet, video, voice and mobile services to current and potential non-bulk residential and SMB customers, including labor cost. Other expense includes indirect costs associated with the Company’s Spectrum Enterprise, Spectrum Reach, Spectrum Networks and Spectrum Community Solutions businesses, including sales and marketing and bad debt expenses as well as corporate overhead and stock compensation expense, among others.