Time Warner Cable on Thursday reported Q1 earnings, which "continue to be pinched by the Dodger channel debacle" to the tune of $100M annually on its contract with the club, and those losses "prompted the company to reduce its full-year earnings estimates," according to Meg James of the L.A. TIMES. Q1 profit was down 4.4% to $458M; revenue grew 3.5% to $5.8B. TWC has said that it "will not take a write-down to adjust for the value" of the TWC SportsNet LA deal. Execs acknowledged that work related to SportsNet LA and SEC Network "helped drive up programming costs 12.2% compared to last year" (L.A. TIMES, 5/1). Meanwhile, the WALL STREET JOURNAL's Shalini Ramachandran cites sources as saying that in the week since Comcast’s merger deal with TWC fell apart, TWC and Charter Communications "have separately been in touch" with Bright House Networks "at the highest levels to discuss an acquisition of the company." Sources said that for Charter, an acquisition of Bright House "could be a steppingstone to go after the much larger" TWC. Charter had announced a $10.4B acquisition of Bright House in March, but it "was contingent on the Comcast deal closing, so the two sides must renegotiate" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 5/1).
SKINNY DIPPING: CABLEFAX DAILY reports TWC is "sticking with the triple play" of bundling TV/phone/internet. Verizon "may be making headlines with its Custom TV packages," but TWC COO Dini Jain "made it quite clear: 'In terms of skinny packages, we don't want to be pioneers on that.'" However, Jain said TWC would be "fast followers" if the new skinny packages work (CABLEFAX DAILY, 5/1).
