NEW YORK (Reuters) – telegraph telecasting companies wooed home Internet users from rivals in the second draw, helping offset a trend that has seen their television customers flee to top satellite histrion DirecTV Group.
Time Warner Cable Inc and Cablevision Systems Corp reported on Thursday, like Comcast Corp last week, that they with success added Internet subscribers in what is now a key focus for companies that were originally built on the back of cable TV programing.
Time Warner Cable boss Executive Glenn Britt said on a conference call that successfully merchandising Internet approach is as important, if not more so, as selling bundles of live internet TV shows.
Time Warner Cable added 85,000 broadband subscribers during the quarter, while Cablevision added 27,000. Comcast, the No.1 U.S. cable company added 118,000.
With rising programing costs in their video businesses, cable companies see broadband, with its relatively fixed costs, as a more profitable business to grow.
Cablevision for illustrate said it plans to offer more video applications to customers who use Internet-enabled devices at home and free Wi-Fi connections to its customers around major spots in its local area.
“Broadband is increasingly important for cable companies,” said Collins Stewart analyst Thomas Eagan. “It has become the strategic focus, with internet TV following.”
DirecTV Group added 100,000 U.S. subscribers, beating the forecasts of most analysts, some of which had worried the company might lose customers due to the slow economy and repugn from cable and newcomers to the pay-TV market like Verizon’s FiOS and AT&T Inc’s U-Verse.
“For get on, questions have swirled about DirecTV’s ability to keep up subscriber ontogeny in the U.S. Not to trouble. Today’s results suggest that subscriber growth is just fine, thank you,” said Bernstein seek analyst Craig Moffett in a client note.
PROFITS
Both Time Warner Cable and Cablevision posted financial results ahead or in line with expectations.
Time Warner Cable’s net income rose to 95 cents a share, beating medium Wall Street forecasts for 93 cents. While its receipts rose 5.8 part to $4.73 billion, ahead of average forecasts of $4.68 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Bernstein’s Moffett said Cablevision’s second quarter had shown “almost no discernible weak points”.
DirecTV, which also added 415,000 subscribers in Latin America, posted an familiarised profit of 60 cents a share, in line with expectations. Its revenue rose 12 percent to $5.85 billion.
Shares in Time Warner Cable and Cablevision have risen more than 40 percent and 30 percent respectively since the start of the year as investors have bet that cable will be a leader in hereafter communications thanks to its broadband strength.
DirecTV shares have risen by 16 percent in that period.
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