• by Wayne Friedman , April 24, 2014

Nearing its final days as a separately traded public company, Time Warner Cable posted slightly higher revenues in the first quarter -- with virtually all the gain coming from its broadband business.

Revenue inched up 2% to $5.58 billion from $5.48 billion in the period. Net income gained 19% to $503 million. Revenue for high-speed data customers grew 10.8% to $1.6 billion from $1.4 billion.

Two other key businesses lost ground: Video business sank 6.6% to $2.5 billion and voice/phone business dropped 4.4% to $496 million.

Video customers continued to lose ground by 34,000 versus the fourth quarter of 2013, now totaling 11.2 million. But this was down versus the 119,000 loss in the first quarter of 2013 and much lower than the 217,000 loss in the fourth quarter of 2013. The company says it was the smallest quarterly drop in five years.

Broadband customers grew by 269,000 to 11.1 million during the period; voice/phone gained 107,000 to 4.8 million. Local advertising revenue rose over 8% to $247 million -- primarily due to growth from political advertising -- as well as inventory sold by third-party video distributors.

Midday stock trading of Time Warner Cable gained 0.7% to $140.91.

In February, Time Warner Cable agreed to be sold to Comcast Corp,. estimated to be valued at $45.2 billion.