Time Warner Cable added 20 percent more revenue-generating units in the second quarter than in the second quarter of 2007, leading to a 7 percent rise ($284 million) on revenues over last year, to $4.3 billion. Net income of $277 million (28 cents per share) was just above last year’s Q2 income of $272 million.
President and CEO Glenn Britt said in a conference call the weak economy helped reduce customer churn, but low rates of housing growth affects efforts to bring in new customers.
The company added 351,000 high-definition subs in the quarter, bringing the HDTV total to 44 percent of its 8.5 million digital video subs. DVR subscriber growth slowed, growing to just under 45 percent. But most revenue growth came from TWC’s Internet and phone offerings.
Britt said the company has narrowed the gap between TWC and the satellite operators in the number of linear HD channels carried. He said the company is also planning to greatly expand the advanced program control features, such as its “startover” and “lookback” timeshift functions, around the country in the second half of the year. He also promised higher ad spending and “edgy” ads in key markets.
TWC reiterated its previously announced run to 100 HDTV channels in New York by year’s end, and it repeated its promise of effectively unlimited HDTV once it implements switched digital video technology in the city. It faces fresh competition in New York from Verizon, which launched service there July 28, but TWC claims it’s picking up more phone customers than it’s losing to the telcos in the video marketplace.
In April, TWC and parent company Time Warner Inc. announced they would split.
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