The net income elevated to $494 million in the first quarter from $458 million.
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The company said that the reason behind the loss was related to a $165 million increase in its interest expense, which was further driven by the financing of Charter’s pending transactions with Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks.
The company added a net 236,000 customer relationships: 21,000 net adds in video, along with 314,000 high-speed data net adds, and 178,000 voice net adds. The New York company reported revenue of $6.19 billion, beating analyst expectations of $6.14 billion, according to Thomson Reuters (TRI – Get Report). Many of Time Warner Cable’s contracts with media companies include exclusive deals that would no longer be permitted. (TWC) reported a profit for its first quarter that rose from past year.
Charter improved its video product by including more HD channels and video on demand offerings, alongside attractive packages of advanced services, better selling methods, and focus on service quality, which led to the addition in the video subscriber base.
US officials are trying to protect the growing market for online video services and have moved to prevent cable companies from thwarting distribution of content by entertainment companies over the Internet. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler, would require Charter to sell consumers high-speed Internet service without limiting how much data people can download. The Justice Department and California PUC are also close to approving the transactions.
Charter shares on Thursday morning rose $4.28, or 2.07%, to $210.71.
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Critics of the proposed deals, like the satellite-TV company Dish Network, want regulators to block the Charter deals altogether, as the government did past year when it stopped Comcast from acquiring Time Warner Cable. It said it continued work in the first quarter in Hawaii; Wilmington, Del.; and San Diego and began the work in Ohio, Kentucky and other markets.
