Time Warner Cable hit by CBS blackout
TIME Warner Cable cut its full-year revenue growth forecast yesterday after losing more video customers than analysts had expected from a month-long blackout of CBS.
Time Warner Cable, which also posted an unexpected decline in internet customers in the third quarter, said it expected full-year revenue to grow three per cent to 3.5 per cent, down from its previous forecast of four to five per cent.
The second-largest US cable operator posted third-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ estimates after losing 304,000 video customers on a net basis, more than the 182,100 expected by Wall Street, according to research firm StreetAccount.
CBS went dark on Time Warner Cable systems on 2 August in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and other cities as the two companies bickered over content carriage fees. The network returned when the two sides settled their differences on 2 September.
Net income attributable to Time Warner Cable dropped to $532m (£331.8m), or $1.84 per share, in the third quarter ended 30 September from $808m, or $2.60 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose about three per cent to $5.52bn.