TW's Impressive 1Q

Time Warner Cable reported a strong 1Q, despite some problems transitioning former Adelphia subs in L.A. and Dallas, markets that represent about 15% of the MSO’s basic subs. "We stumbled initially in L.A. by trying to do change too much too fast, but once we realized this, we moved very quickly to remedy the situation," said TW Cable CEO Glenn Britt, noting that overall OIBDA grew 12% even though Dallas and L.A. didn’t contribute to the growth at all in the Q. The improvements could be seen in basic sub losses for the 2 systems, which dropped to 17K lost from 40K in 4Q. The MSO exceeded several analyst estimates, with net RGU adds totally 910K. Basic adds totaled 46K; digital adds were 278K, HSD totaled 356K. VoIP adds totaled 234K, with Britt noting that commercial phone will be priority in ’07 just as residential phone was a year ago. Acquired systems added 24K phone subs in the Q, with the MSO on track to add 200K phone subs from acquired systems by year-end. TW Cable’s rev climbed 61% to $3.85bln. The MSO reiterated that rev and OIBDA growth will be in the mid-to-high 30s. It expects free cash flow for the year of $800mln-$1bln.