The long retransmission-consent dispute with Sinclair Broadcast Group took its toll on Mediacom Communications for the first quarter of 2007.
The MSO posted revenue of $307.9 million, up 6.4% versus the year-ago period; adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization down 0.1% to $107.4 million; a 0.7% slide in operating income to $52.3 million; and a net loss of $16.9 million compared with $37.2 million in the first quarter of 2006.
Mediacom also announced that average monthly revenue per basic subscriber was $74.85, up 10.4% versus the previous-year period, and it picked up 24,000 revenue-generating units during the quarter for a total of 2.615 million.
“As we disclosed in our last earnings call, it was expected that our results for the first quarter of 2007 would be impacted by the retransmission-consent dispute with Sinclair Broadcasting, severe ice storms that hit our Midwest systems and the delay of annual basic-rate increases until the second quarter," Mediacom chairman and CEO Rocco B. Commisso said in a prepared statement.
"These factors combined to slow year-over-year revenue and cash-flow growth,” he added. “Given the current trajectory of our overall business, we expect to deliver sequential revenue and adjusted-OIBDA growth of at least 5% and 8%, respectively, in the second quarter and remain confident that we will achieve our full-year guidance for 2007.”
