TCI Reports Quarterly Revenue Up 17%, Cash Flow Up 41%

Tele-Communications Inc. said Tuesday that revenue rose 17% in the first quarter and operating cash flow jumped 41%, according to preliminary results.

The nation’s largest cable operator said its cash flow--or income before depreciation, amortization and stock appreciation rights--was $701 million, compared with $498 million in the same period in 1996. Revenue rose to $1.56 billion from $1.33 billion a year earlier.

The company didn’t release net income or earnings per share.

The performance exceeded estimates of analysts, who had forecast the cable television company would generate between $668 million and $680 million in cash flow, a key factor in determining cable profit.

The results were released after the close of trading. TCI’s shares rose $1.375 to $13.625 in trading of 7.84 million shares on Nasdaq.

Tele-Communications, which has been undergoing a reorganization, said its number of basic cable subscribers rose 3% to 14.4 million since the end of the year.

The company lost 70,000 cable customers in the third quarter as competition heated up against satellite services and held steady in the fourth quarter. The number of pay-per-view customers continued to decline in the first quarter, however, falling 5.3% to 14.3 million from 15.1 million at year-end.

Tele-Communications executives are meeting with analysts today to update them on the company’s reorganization.

In an unrelated development, Primestar Partners Chairman and Chief Executive Jim Gray said the company will fold the satellite-television venture into TCI Satellite Entertainment Inc., which was recently spun off TCI.

At a Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Assn. conference in New York, Gray said TCI Satellite will own 36% to 38% of the new company, while Time Warner Inc. will have between 31% and 33%. The other partners--US West Media Group, Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications Inc.--will have about 8% or less each, he said. GE Americom will have about 5%.

“Nobody is selling out; TSAT is not taking over,” Gray said in an interview. “This is everybody throwing their keys in the pot and coming out with a new company.”

The new structure will allow Primestar to develop a uniform marketing and pricing strategy for customers across the U.S. Currently, each of the partners markets and sells the satellite service separately.

Primestar is the nation’s second-largest satellite TV company, with about 1.8 million subscribers, compared with about 2.8 million for leading General Motors Corp.’s DirecTV.

Class A Shares of TCI Satellite rose 62.5 cents to $7.50.