Time Warner's profit for the first quarter of 2006 rose 59 percent to $1.46 billion and revenue rose 1 percent to $10.5 billion over last year on the strength of its cable unit. Time Warner Cable outweighed declines at its online and publishing units by recording a 25 percent jump in first-quarter operating profit to $501 million over the same period last year. Revenue rose 15 percent to $2.6 billion. Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons responded to investors' concerns on the cable industry's prospects in the face of telco IPTV that his company's results "are showing just the opposite... This is the one business where I see top-line and bottom-line growth rates."
Time Warner Cable added 82,000 basic video cable subscribers during the quarter to reach a total of 11 million, representing the largest quarterly net subscriber gain in six years. Digital video subscribers rose 241,000 over the previous quarter for a total of 5.6 million, the largest first-quarter increase since 2001. Digital penetration of basic video cable subscribers reached 51 percent at the end of the quarter. DVR subscribers climbed 212,000 in the quarter to 1.7 million subscribers, representing 30 percent of digital video customers.
To learn more about Time Warner Cable's quarterly results:
- go to the company's press release (pdf)
- see Time Warner's webcast and presentation
- read this article from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)
PLUS: Satellite radio company Sirius' loss more than doubled on expenses for Howard Stern. Article (The Wall Street Journal sub. req.)