• by Wayne Friedman , April 30, 2015

On the heels of its merger deal ending, Time Warner Cable showed improved revenue -- and somewhat surprisingly, an increase in video subscribers in the first quarter.

Just after Comcast ended its merger of Time Warner Cable -- due to anticipated federal regulators’ decisions to stop it -- the second-biggest U.S. cable operator has now added 30,000 video subscribers, now totaling 10.8 million. This is Time Warner Cable’s first increase in five years.

Why the big gains? Time Warner did not offer many details, but Robert Marcus, chairman/chief executive officer of Time Warner Cable, told analysts: “Our performance is improving against all competitors. When you look at how we're performing in markets where we compete with FiOS and U-verse, connects are up and disconnects are down. And that really reflects the strength we're seeing against all players.”

It wasn’t just video subscribers; other lines of business also witnessed big gains. High-speed data subscribers grew 315,000 now totaling 11.9 million -- the best results in eight years -- and phone subscribers grew 320,000 for the best quarter ever, to 5.6 million.

But all that growth came along with some uneven results in revenue of those business lines -- video revenues were down 1% to $2.47 billion; high-speed data business grew 9% to $1.7 billion; and phone business revenue was down 5% to $473 million.

Time Warner Cable’s local advertising revenue dipped 7% to $230 million.

Overall, Time Warner Cable grew 3.5% to $5.6 billion in revenue, with net income down 4.4% to $458 million -- under estimates. Mid-day stock price was down 1.3% to $155.85.