Cablevision Earnings Rise 13%
BETHPAGE, N.Y. (
) --
Cablevision
(CVC)
saw earnings rise during the third quarter, led by higher revenue and subscriber gains, but fell short of analyst estimates.
For the quarter ended September 30, the company saw earnings rise 13.3% to $112.1 million, or 37 cents per diluted share, compared with earnings of $98.9 million, or 33 cents per diluted share, in the same period a year ago. Earnings from continuing operations were 37 cents a share, slightly below analyst estimates of 41 cents a share.
Revenue rose 5.6% to $1.81 billion from $1.71 billion during the quarter as its telecommunications and cable television revenues saw solid increases.
Revenue from its telecommunications segment, including cable television and its "Optimum Lightpath"-branded commercial services, rose 5.2% to $1.43 billion from $1.36 billion.
Cable television revenue increased 4.8% to $1.37 billion due to growth in digital video, high-speed data and voice customers as well as higher rates. The number of basic video customers was down 23,500 or 0.8% from September 2009 while the number of Optimum Online high-speed data customers was up 125,000 about 5%. The number of Optimum voice customers increased 6.4% and the number of Interactive Optimum (iO) digital video customers rose 1.2%.
Lightpath revenue rose 12.1% attributed to a 33.1% increase in Ethernet services revenue, which was partially offset by higher operating expenses to support the higher number of installations.
"Cablevision continued to perform well in the third quarter as the ongoing strength of our core businesses led to solid increases in both revenue and adjusted operating cash flow (AOCF)," president and CEO James Dolan said.
Revenue from its rainbow segment, which consists of AMC, WE TV, Sundance Channel, News 12, IFC and Rainbow networks, was up 12% to $291.4 million from $260.1.
The rainbow segment saw a 12.9% increase in advertising revenue due to higher pricing at AMC and WE TV. The number of viewing subscribers increased 2.8% at AMC, 2.5% at IFC and 2.8% at WE tv.
"Rainbow achieved double-digit revenue growth for the third quarter thanks to impressive gains in both advertising and affiliate revenue," Dolan said. "Also noteworthy this quarter, Cablevision generated an additional $225 million in free cash flow, bringing our year-to-date number to $656 million."
Its Newsday segment, which includes the
Newsday
daily newspaper,
amNewYork
and Internet properties including
Newsday.com
, saw a 4.3% drop in revenue, primarily driven by a 7.6% decrease in advertising revenue.
For the first nine months of the year, earnings rose 19.3% to $247.1 million, or 82 cents per share, compared with earnings of $207.2 million, or 70 cents, in the same period a year ago. Revenue rose 5.6% to $5.36 billion from $5.08 billion.
On November 3, management declared a quarterly dividend of about 13 cents per share on each outstanding share of both its class A and B stock. It is payable on December 6 to shareholders of record on November 15.
-- Written by Theresa McCabe in Boston.
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