WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) Thursday said its profit for the first quarter nearly halved from last year, hurt mainly by loss of income from the spin-off of its cable networks division, AMC Networks. Meanwhile, the company was able to add subscribers to its three core divisions - video, broadband and phone.
Shares of Cablevision dropped over eight percent following the news on the New York Stock Exchange.
Cablevision had spun off AMC Networks last summer and linked to it first quarter 2011 results include of income from discontinued operations of $35.0 million from the cable network business.
Following the spin off of AMC, Cablevision's results were mainly driven by its telecommunications operations, which include Cable Television, offering video, high-speed data, and voice residential and commercial services, and Optimum Lightpath branded commercial data and voice services.
The company added 7000 more video customers from the fourth quarter. Average monthly revenue per basic video customer was $152.53, an increase of $2.78 from the prior year period. The company also added 42,000 high speed data customers and 42,000 voice customers.
Total subscribers numbers improved by 17,000 to 3.63 million at the quarter end.
Chief Executive James Dolan said, 'Our customers are responding positively to our ongoing efforts to expand and improve the products we offer, such as the recent introduction of our Optimum app for laptops as well as our continued investment in WiFi. Finally, we are making changes in the level of service and communication we provide to our customers to strengthen our relationships with them.'
Net revenues for the quarter inched up to $1.659 billion from $1.655 billion last year. Twenty analysts on a consensus estimated revenues of $1.67 billion for the quarter.
Bethpage, New York-based Cablevision's first-quarter profit plunged to $57.25 million or $0.21 per share from $104.07 million or $0.36 per share in the same quarter last year.
Income from continuing operations dropped to $0.21 per share from $0.24 last year. On average, 24 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.19 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
CVC is currently trading at $13.44, down $1.26 or 8.61%, on a volume of 8.6 million shares, above the three-month average volume of 3.6 million.
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