• by Wayne Friedman , October 30, 2014

The second-largest U.S. cable company -- which is yet to complete a takeover by Comcast Corp., the biggest U.S. cable company -- reported that third-quarter revenue was 3.6% higher to $5.7 billion. Net income was down 33% to $499 million.

Revenue from its video consumer business was down 4% to $2.5 billion, with subscribers down a substantial 184,000 during the period to 10.83 million.

Analysts have expressed concern over mounting programming costs for all pay TV providers. For Time Warner Cable, this was up 9.6% during the period to $1.3 billion, with the average monthly cost per residential video subscriber 11.1% higher to $38.96.

But residential broadband business keeps growing -- up 92,000 subscribers to 11.51 million -- pulling in 10.9% higher revenue to $1.6 billion.

Time Warner’s local cable advertising business also had major growth -- up 9.1% to $276 million, primarily due to political advertising revenue and higher non-political revenue. Political advertising revenue was $26 million compared to $12 million for the third quarter of 2013.

Revenue from phone/voice residential customers was down 4.4% to $476 million, with the number of customers slightly higher at 4.99 million.

Time Warner Cable’s midday stock price was down 1% to $142.39.