Time Warner Cable Q3 income falls

Time Warner Cable said Thursday its third quarter net income fell 34% from a year ago to $532 million as its cable TV customers canceled their service following the company's dispute with CBS over fees.

Its adjusted earnings per share of $1.69 beat analysts' estimate of $1.65.

TWC lost 306,000 video customers during the quarter as it turned off the No. 1 prime-time network at several key markets, including New York and Los Angeles, for a month. The nation's second largest cable service provider also was engaged in a similar dispute with Journal Communications, a Wisconsin-based TV station owner, for about two months.

Revenue for the residential TV segment – its largest source of revenue – fell 4.5% to $2.6 billion. "Subscriber activity in the quarter was negatively impacted by programming disputes with CBS and Journal Communications," TWC said.

Still, quarterly revenue grew 2.9% to $5.5 billion as more customers ordered broadband Internet at home and its business services unit reported a sales increase of more than 20%.

Revenue for the high-speed data business rose 14.2% to $1.46 billion. Average monthly revenue per residential customer totaled $105.06, a 1.9% increase.

Time Warner Cable pulled CBS from its lineup on Aug. 2 as the two companies failed to reach an agreement on a new retransmission contract. Cable and satellite TV providers pay station owners retransmission fees for the right to carry their signals.

As a result, more than 3 million TWC customers in eight markets were unable to watch the network until early September, when the two sides finally reached an agreement.

Shares of Time Warner Cable ended Thursday up 2.8% to $120.15.