Thursday, 27 Octorber 2011

While Time Warner Cable lost 128,000 basic cable subscribers during the third quarter, the MSO managed to post a 3.7 percent increase in revenue thanks to growth in its high-speed data and voice businesses.

The nation's second largest cable MSO said Thursday that it generated $4.9 billion in Q3 revenue. Revenue from commercial services increased 2 percent compared to this time last year, while business services revenue jumped 34.8 percent to $387 million.

Its basic-video subscriber losses--coupled with decreased revenue from premium channels such as HBO and a drop in transactional video-on-demand revenue--saw Time Warner Cable's video revenue decrease by 0.5 percent to $2.62 billion. But that was offset by high-speed data revenue, which jumped 7.8 percent to 1.12 billion, and voice revenue, which increased by 3.1 percent to $494 million.

One usual stat from Time Warner Cable's earnings is that it saw residential voice customers decline by 8,000 subscribers, ending the quarter with 4.481 million residential voice subscribers. But its business services unit picked up 13,000 voice subscribers, ending the quarter with 149,000 voice customers.

Also worth noting from Time Warner Cable's Q3 earnings report:

• Providing cellular backhaul and other transport services to businesses is one of Time Warner Cable's smallest businesses, but is also proving to be one of its biggest areas of growth. Revenue from wholesale transport jumping 80.3 percent to $61,000.
• Time Warner Cable saw advertising revenue decrease by 3.1 percent to $216 million, which attributed to a decline in political advertising revenue and weakness in the overall advertising market.
• Increased expenses saw Time Warner Cable's net income decrease by about 1 percent to $354 million, or $1.09 per share.