Charter cable deal target Time Warner Cable adds customers

Time Warner Cable is adding more customers as it awaits the government’s decision on whether Charter Communications should be allowed to buy it, creating a new cable giant with 24 million subscribers.

The New York company on Thursday said it added 66,000 customers — the first gain in the second quarter in seven years. Time Warner Cable is in the middle of a turnaround.

The company’s revenue rose 3.5 percent to $5.93 billion, just shy of Wall Street forecasts, as it added 172,000 Internet customers and lost 45,000 video customers.

Profit declined 7.2 percent to $463 million, or $1.62 per share, as costs rose. The amount the company pays for the channels it pipes to customers — a big reason customers’ bills rise every year — rose 8.7 per percent to $1.4 billion.

Time Warner Cable said its average monthly cost that it pays for content, per customer, rose 11.6 percent to $42.73.

Costs for sales and marketing, customer service and technical investments also rose, as Time Warner Cable tries to improve its operations.

Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, came to $1.54 per share, short of the average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.82 per share.

Charter Communications has agreed to buy Time Warner Cable Inc. and a smaller cable company called Bright House Networks for $67.1 billion. Comcast Corp. attempted a buyout of Time Warner Cable, but scrapped its proposal after regulators raised antitrust concerns.

On a conference call with investors, the company said that it hopes the deal closes by the end of the year.