Time Warner Cable kicked off the cable operator earnings season with first quarter results that were largely in line with analysts' expectations, with gains in high-speed Internet and phone customers driving growth.
Revenue was up about 5% in the period to $4.8 billion and adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization rose nearly 4% to $1.7 billion. Time Warner Cable added about 189,000 residential high-speed data customers and 84,000 residential phone customers. Although the second largest MSO in the country lost about 65,000 basic video customers, it was less than half the 141,000 lost in the fourth quarter and nearly spot-on with analysts' consensus estimates of about 60,000 losses in the period.
Chief operating officer Rob Marcus said on conference call with analysts that video subscriber trends are improving - the MSO added customers in March - and the losses were mostly skewed toward lower-end analog only subscribers. Marcus also provided some insight into two newer offerings - its high-end Signature Home service and its lower-end TV Essentials package. Marcus said that so far, there are about 10,000 Signature Home customers paying on average of $210 per month. About 70% of Signature Home customers are existing triple play customers that have upgraded, paying Time Warner Cable an additional $20 per month.
Click here to read the full story on Multichannel News.
