DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) swung to a first-quarter profit,
helped by strong results at its telecommunications services
business.
Shares jumped 7.2% premarket to $19.65 as the company's
digital-video and broadband offerings are helping to offset a
general slowdown in cable-television subscriber growth.
Cablevision said late last month it will launch a
101-megabits-per-second high-speed Internet service - more than
twice as fast as rival Verizon's much-touted FiOS. The announcement
suggested Internet service providers might be moving away from
bundled packages to focus on bandwidth and speed, rapidly becoming
more important to subscribers using the Internet.
The company, which also owns the New York Knicks and the New
York Rangers, reported a profit of $20.2 million, or 7 cents a
share, reversing a year-earlier loss of $31.6 million, or 11 cents
a share, a year earlier. The loss on derivative contracts narrowed
to $33.7 million from $106.3 million.
Revenue rose 11% to $1.9 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 15 cents
a share on revenue of $1.9 billion.
At Cablevision's telecommunications business, by far the
company's largest, revenue rose 5.3% and earnings jumped 14%,
driven by broadband-subscriber growth and higher rates. In
February, Chief Operating Officer Thomas Rutledge said
cable-subscriber growth in the quarter to that point was ahead of
last year's results.
In its Madison Square Garden business, which includes the sports
teams, revenue rose 2.3%, as its operating loss narrowed sharply
amid a prior-year write-down. The company's Rainbow unit - which
includes cable channels such as AMC and IFC - posted an 11% revenue
rise while operating income rose 40%. Cable networks have been a
rare bright spin in the media industry as they are less
advertising-dependent..
-By Mike Barris, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5658;
mike.barris@dowjones.com