Cable Technology Feature Article
February 25, 2010
Competition, Sour Investments Lower Cablevision's Profit
By Amy Tierney, TMCnet Web Editor
Thanks to consumers’ migration to competitive services and some unproductive investments, Cablevision today posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit.
According to Reuters, the New York-area cable company reported its fourth-quarter profit as $78.4 million, or 27 cents a share, versus a loss of $323.2 million, or $1.11 a share, a year earlier. Revenue grew 5 percent to $2.15 billion and was on mark with analysts expectation, who forecast $2.10 billion, Reuters (News - Alert) said.
While Cablevision lost 2,800 video customers during the quarter amid stronger competition from Verizon (News - Alert) Communications Inc. and satellite companies, it added 45,700 Internet customers and 51,400 phone customers, the report said.
The company has high hopes of turning things around with a new service called PC to TV Media Relay. As TMCnet reported yesterday, the service will let Cablevision customers transfer anything available for display on their PC to view on a dedicated TV channel. The company plans to start a trial service in June for customers who buy video and Internet services.
Amy Tierney is a Web editor for TMCnet, covering business communications Her areas of focus include conferencing, SIP, Fax over IP, unified communications and telepresence. Amy also writes about education and healthcare technology, overseeing production of e-Newsletters on those topics as well as communications solutions and UC. To read more of Amy's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Amy Tierney