Despite losing 155,000 video subscribers, Time Warner Cable reported earning $360 million, or $1 per share, up from $268 million, or 76 cents per share, a year earlier. The nation’s second-largest cable company watched as revenues rose 2 percent from the same period in 2009 to $6.4 billion. Operating income grew 5 percent to $1.4 billion. And advertising revenues grew 9 percent, driven by increases of 10 percent at Turner and 5 percent at Time, Inc.
Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes said in a statement: “Time Warner achieved strong performance yet again in the quarter and, with adjusted EPS up more than 35 percent through the first three quarters, we remain on track for a very strong year. Our strategy of focusing on high-quality branded content continues to pay off. Our networks businesses delivered robust growth in advertising and subscription revenues in the quarter. And Time, Inc., again increased its share in overall domestic print advertising.”
Nevertheless, Time Warner Cable lost 155,000 TV subscribers during the last quarter, including digital, compared to 64,000 losses last year at this time. Recently, Comcast reported losing 275,000 subscribers. That’s prompting industry observers to question whether Internet TV is starting to eat into the cable business’s profits.
In September, Networkworld reported that Dell was giving some serious consideration to developing devices that would stream Internet content to run-of-the-mill television sets. According to the report, the company is evaluating new devices from set-top box makers and original design manufacturers (ODMs) that could seamlessly bring Internet content to TVs.
Earlier this year, Google unveiled its Android-powered Google TV platform. And then there’s the Logitech Revue, a set-top box that’s intended to bring the Google TV experience to an existing home entertainment center by allowing users to search and access content anywhere from the Web, from a satellite or cable provider.
Edited by
Tammy Wolf