• by Wayne Friedman , August 1, 2013

In the midst of its very public battle with CBS, Time Warner Cable offered up some mixed second-quarter earnings
results.

Net profits rose 6.4% to $481 million. But revenue only moved up 2.7% to $5.55 billion, which was just under analysts' estimates.

Time Warner lost 191,000 video subscribers -- about 20,000 more than projected -- to total 11.7 million video customers. The cable company also lost 56,000 residential phone customers, more than twice as many as anticipated. Only Internet customers increased -- 21,000. Still analysts were projecting about twice that total. Total residential customer relationships declined 93,000 to 14.6 million.

Time Warner is in a TV station carriage battle with CBS, which is looking for a substantial price increase when it comes to cable operators that carry its stations. Insider estimates are that CBS is seeking a $2.00 subscriber-per-month fee, up from 50 cents. The new deadline for the negotiations is Friday afternoon.

As for rumors that Time Warner Cable will merge with other cable operators, such as Charter Communications, to form a more powerful entity -- an idea pushed by Liberty Media Chief Executive Officer John Malone -- Time Warner Chief Executive Officer Glenn Britt said in an earnings call that talk of such a move is an endorsement of the value of Time Warner Cable.