Time Warner Cable profit up 8 per cent in second quarter, cable-TV subscribers leave faster

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Time Warner Cable Inc. reported an 8 per cent increase in second-quarter net income Thursday, as acquisitions and new broadband customers boosted revenue, but cable-TV subscribers left at a faster rate.

The New York-based company’s stock fell 10 cents to $85.50 in premarket trading. On Wednesday, the shares hit $86.69, the highest level since the split from parent company Time Warner Inc. was finalized in 2009.

The company said net income was $452 million, or $1.43 a share, in the April to June period, up from $420 million, or $1.24 cents per share, a year earlier.

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Time Warner Cable earned $1.48 per share after adjusting for one-time items. That was 10 cents more than the average estimate of analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Revenue rose 9 per cent to $5.4 billion from $4.94 billion. That was slightly above expectations of $5.39 billion.

Excluding the acquisitions of a series of smaller cable companies in the last year, revenue would have risen 3.1 per cent, chiefly because of increasing revenue from broadband. Time Warner Cable has both recruited new broadband subscribers and seen existing ones trade up to plans with faster speeds.

Time Warner Cable lost a net 169,000 cable TV customers in the quarter, a record for the company. Cable TV subscriptions have been declining across the industry for years, as viewers shift to satellite and phone-company TV services, and the second quarter is usually the ones that shows the biggest losses, because college students cancel cable ahead of summer break.

But Time Warner Cable’s results are a contrast to larger peer Comcast Corp., which reported Wednesday that it lost fewer subscribers in the second quarter than it has in the last three years.