Reuters: Global Markets: Time Warner Cable adds fewer Internet users; shares dip

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Time Warner Cable adds fewer Internet users; shares dip Jan 31st 2013, 13:13 The Time Warner Cable office is shown in Carlsbad, California November 5, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Mike Blake By Liana B. Baker and Supantha Mukherjee Thu Jan 31, 2013 8:13am EST (Reuters) - Time Warner Cable Inc, the second-largest U.S. cable operator, reported a fourth-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates but added fewer high-speed Internet users than analysts had forecast. Time Warner Cable and larger rival Comcast Corp have increasingly relied on Internet services for growth as they continue to shed cable TV subscribers. Shares of Time Warner Cable fell nearly 3 percent in premarket trading. On Monday, Time Warner said it would carry the new Los Angeles Dodgers channel, outbidding Fox Sports, which held the rights to show Dodgers games for more than a decade. Analysts said the deal, about which Time Warner Cable hasn't revealed financial details, would be in focus during a conference call Thursday. "People want to know about the cost, the logic behind the regional sports networks and if there are going to be more costs associated with this," said Macquarie analyst Amy Yong said. In 2011, the agreed to a $3 billion, 20-year deal to carry Los Angeles Lakers basketball games on its Time Warner Cable Sports channel. Time Warner Cable lost 129,000 video subscribers, lower than the estimated loss of 134,000 subscribers, according to StreetAccount data. The cable company added 75,000 high-speed data subscribers in its residential services unit, compared with analysts' average expectation of 109,000 subscriber additions, according to StreetAccount. "Net additions across the board for video, Internet and voice were weak. Competition still remains pretty intense and housing still remains inconclusive," Yong said. The company said average monthly video programming costs per video subscriber increased 5.1 percent to $31.28, mainly driven by contractual rate increases and paying to carry new networks. The cable provider has been a vocal critic of rising programming costs and has signed long-term sports contracts and said it would manage costs better. Time Warner said residential high-speed data revenue for the quarter rose 17.2 percent due to price increases and more subscribers opting for higher-priced services. The company raised its regular quarterly dividend by 16 percent to 65 cents per share. Net income attributable to the company for the fourth quarter fell to $513 million, or $1.68 per share, from $564 million, or $1.75 per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, the company earned $1.57 per share on 10 percent higher revenue of $5.49 billion. Analysts expected earnings of $1.55 per share, excluding items, on revenue of $5.5 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. (Reporting by Liana Baker in New York and Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Bernadette Baum) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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