Cablevision Systems 3Q profit more than triples

Cablevision Systems Corp. said Tuesday that its third-quarter profit more than tripled as the number of customers using its voice phone service surpassed 2 million.

The cable TV operator earned $98.9 million, or 33 cents per share, for the period ended Sept. 30. That's up from $30.9 million, or 10 cents per share, a year ago.

Revenue grew 5 percent to $1.84 billion from $1.75 billion in Cablevision's seasonally slowest quarter.

The results beat the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who forecast profit of 26 cents per share on revenue of $1.82 billion. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Cablevision reported revenue growth of 4.9 percent for its telecommunications services division, which includes cable television and its "Optimum Lightpath" branded commercial data and voice services. At Rainbow, which includes cable networks such as AMC, WE tv and IFC, and other programming, revenue climbed 3.5 percent.

Madison Square Garden's revenue edged up 0.6 percent, while revenue for Newsday rose 9 percent. The company's Newsday unit includes the daily newspaper as well as free daily amNewYork, some Internet properties and Star Community Publishing.

The company based in Bethpage, N.Y. said it expects to spin off its Madison Square Garden operations, which includes the namesake arena, New York Knicks basketball team and Rangers hockey team, by year's end. The separation is expected to boost the free cash flow of Cablevision's cable TV operations, which had seen a drag from Madison Square Garden.