Growth in cable RGUs, business services and programming revenue led Cablevision Systems to a solid first quarter in which net income shot up by more than a third, from $74 million in the first quarter of 2010 to $104 million in Q1 2011.
Cablevision reported a 9.7 percent increase in net revenue to $1.9 billion, compared with the prior-year period.
Few MSOs are adding basic video subs anymore, and Cablevision continued the trend, with a loss of 8,000 video customers from the end of the immediately preceding fourth quarter. Also in keeping with industry experience, Cablevision compensated with RGU growth in broadband (a net add of 32,000 subscribers) and VoIP (a net add of 40,000 subs).
For the first quarter of 2011, Optimum Lightpath net revenues increased 13.4 percent to $77.3 million, driven by an increase in revenue from Ethernet services, and offset in part by higher operating expenses to support the increase in Ethernet installations, the company said.
Rainbow (AMC, WE tv, IFC, Sundance Channel, etc.) saw increases in affiliate revenue, advertising revenue and total subscribers. The company still intends to spin Rainbow off.
Cablevision President and CEO James Dolan said that the company’s performance “was driven by steady growth in our Rainbow business, as well as our cable business, which this quarter included a solid showing from the recently acquired Bresnan properties.”