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Time Warner Cable Profit Drops; NFL Net Goes on the Offensive
Basic subscribers down as triple play and digital phone subs increase in TWC's third quarter; NFL urges gridiron fans to drop hold-out MSOs; and more Wednesday news.
By Shirley Brady -- Cable 360 AM, 11/06/2007
Time Warner Cable's third quarter earnings report this morning posted the company's largest quarterly net increases in triple play subscribers (220,000 adds, for 2.1 million total on Sept. 30) and digital phone subscriptions (275,000, for 2.6 million total). The 2nd largest U.S. cable operator also lost a net 83,000 basic video subscribers in the quarter, continuing the third quarter trend of basic cable subscriber losses at Mediacom and Comcast. Time Warner Cable's net quarterly profit declined to $248 million, or 25 cents per share from $1.2 billion ($1.20 a share) a year earlier, while revenue rose to $4 billion from $3.2 billion. Time Warner Cable also reaffirmed its full-year outlook. Also reporting third quarter earnings today: Discovery Holding Company and DirecTV, which reported quarterly growth on HD and DVR sales; more details here. Cablevision reports third quarter earnings tomorrow.
The NFL Network is urging cable customers to cancel their service from Comcast, Time Warner Cable and other operators that refuse to carry the league's channel. The escalation follows the Oct. 23 meeting of NFL team owners that appointed Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones as their emissary to MSOs. "I'm talking to various markets and asking them to cancel out Comcast, cancel out Time Warner and go with the other people," Jones is quoted in USA Today. "I think it will be very effective." The NFL Network begins carrying games Thanksgiving night, when the Indianapolis Colts play the Atlanta Falcons.
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