Comcast, Cox Get More High-Speed Subscribers

Two of the nation’s leading cable TV providers signed up a record number of new high-speed Internet access customers in the third quarter, defying skeptics who have said that growth in the market for broadband was slowing dramatically.

Comcast Corp., the cable industry leader, added 549,000 Internet access subscribers, strengthening its broadband lead. It now serves 6.5 million Internet access subscribers.

Cox Communications Inc., the nation’s fourth-ranked cable provider, added 184,446 high-speed customers during the quarter, bringing its total to 2.4 million subscribers.

Despite Wednesday’s positive earnings reports, however, some analysts continued to cast a wary eye on the future of cable. “Given the high-speed additions, the stock should be up,” said Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Fulcrum Global Partners. Both cable stocks showed little movement Wednesday.

Greenfield said he feared a backlash from cable’s phone rivals, which made steady gains in broadband last quarter and could try to regain customers by discounting prices.

Any price wars could hurt cable companies by eroding their profit margins. Already in the quarter, Comcast’s margins dropped slightly because of the increased expense of acquiring new customers and the cost of repairing hurricane damage in Florida.

Comcast added 8,500 basic cable subscribers and 341,000 digital customers in the quarter, reversing a loss of 96,000 basic customers in the second quarter, when satellite TV rival DirecTV Group Inc. added a record 455,000 net new subscribers.

Philadelphia-based Comcast posted net income of $220 million, or 10 cents a share, for the third quarter, down from $3.2 billion, or $1.41, a year earlier, when profit included a one-time gain from the sale of QVC, the home shopping network. But excluding that gain, the company had a loss from continuing operations of $153 million, or 7 cents, in last year’s third quarter.

Comcast’s sales for the quarter were $5.1 billion, up 12% from a year earlier.

Atlanta-based Cox swung to a third-quarter profit, though the hurricanes and an unfavorable legal ruling damped net income.

Cox, whose controlling shareholder said in August that it would take the family-run company private, earned $42 million, or 7 cents a share, during the quarter, reversing a loss of $215.1 million, or 35 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue totaled $1.62 billion, up from $1.46 billion.

Comcast shares rose 55 cents to $29.47 on Nasdaq.

Cox shares dropped 1 cent to $34.43 on the New York Stock Exchange.