Comcast Reports Strong Earnings as Cable TV Subscribers Hold Steady

The NY Times reports that even before the proposed merger with Time Warner Cable is approved, Comcast is growing and becoming more profitable:

For the second consecutive quarter, Comcast added paying television customers, gains that helped the company report strong earnings on Tuesday, including revenue that was up 13.7 percent from the same period a year ago, to $17.4 billion. It also continued to add Internet and telephone subscribers, and showed gains in its entertainment division, NBCUniversal, which was buoyed by the success of the Winter Olympics.

Comcast added 24,000 paying television subscribers, a modest increase but notable because most other providers are losing thousands of subscribers each quarter. More Americans are becoming so-called cord cutters, abandoning their pricey cable subscriptions in favor of cheaper online offerings from services like Aereo, Hulu and Netflix.

By adding video subscribers for the second quarter in a row, Comcast bolstered its argument that it provides a high-quality product that consumers are willing to pay for.