Associated Press
Cablevision Systems Corp. said Tuesday that its third-quarter profit more than tripled as the number of customers using its voice phone service surpassed 2 million.
The cable TV operator earned $98.9 million, or 33 cents per share, for the period ended Sept. 30. That’s up from $30.9 million, or 10 cents per share, a year ago.
Revenue grew 5 percent to $1.84 billion from $1.75 billion in Cablevision’s seasonally slowest quarter.
The results beat the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who forecast profit of 26 cents per share on revenue of $1.82 billion. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Cablevision reported revenue growth of 4.9 percent for its telecommunications services division, which includes cable television and its “Optimum Lightpath” branded commercial data and voice services. At Rainbow, which includes cable networks such as AMC, WE tv and IFC, and other programming, revenue climbed 3.5 percent. More…