Telecommunications and media company Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) on Thursday reported a loss for the first quarter, reflecting lower revenues at its cable and telecommunications segments in addition to higher corporate costs. The company's shares are down 3 percent in the regular trading session.
Telecommunications services net revenues for the quarter decreased 0.4 percent to $1.43 billion, while operating income declined 41 percent to $191.5 million.
Cable Television net revenues decreased 0.7 percent from last year to $1.36 billion, primarily due to 4 percent lower video revenues and a 16 percent decrease in advertising revenues. These were largely offset by the impact of a high-speed data price increase and continued growth of data and voice customers, compared with last year.
During the latest quarter, the segment recorded customer relationship losses of about 31,200 and video customer losses of about 64,000 compared to the year-ago period. However, the company generated high-speed data customer additions of 53,000 and voice customer additions of 52,000 compared to the same period last year.
Average monthly revenue per basic video customer or RPS was $156.34 in the quarter, an increase of $2.06 or 1.3 percent compared to the prior-year period.
Meanwhile, Lightpath net revenues grew 3.7 percent from the same period last year to $82.5 million and reflect a 13 percent increase in revenue from Ethernet services.
Net revenues at the cable operator's 'Other' segment declined 5.4 percent from the year-ago period to $95.5 million, primarily due to lower advertising revenues at Newsday and higher corporate costs.
James Dolan, president and CEO said, "Cablevision started the year off delivering sequential growth in our customer relationship, high-speed data and voice subscriber metrics, all while continuing to recover from the impact of Superstorm Sandy. In the second quarter, we anticipate the positive impact of our recent pricing moves as well as an improved advertising outlook to lead to sequential improvement in our AOCF."
Bethpage, New York-based Cablevision's first-quarter net loss was $16.14 million or $0.06 per share, compared to net income of $57.25 million or $0.21 per share in the previous-year quarter. On average, nine analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.05 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Net revenues for the quarter edged down 1 percent to $1.52 billion from $1.54 billion in the year-ago period. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.64 billion.
On May 7, 2013, Cablevision's board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share on each outstanding share of both its Cablevision NY Group Class A Stock and its Cablevision NY Group Class B Stock. This quarterly dividend is payable on June 14 to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 24.
In Thursday's regular session, CVC is trading at $15.00, down $0.47 or 3.04 percent on a volume of 3.05 million shares.
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