TWC loses cable subscribers amid cord-cutting

Time Warner Cable continued to lose cable subscribers in the three months ended in December as Americans experiment with cutting the cord to their cable.

The New York company said overall subscribers, including high-speed Internet data customers, grew by 67,000 new customers in the fourth quarter. But residential video subscribers, which have been softening for a while, fell by 38,000 in the quarter.

Time Warner Cable is scheduled to merge with cable giant Comcast in a $45 billion deal that would combine the nation's two largest cable providers.

"We continue to expect the Comcast merger to close soon," Time Warner Cable Chairman and CEO Rob Marcus said Thursday.

The nation's second largest U.S. cable operator posted earnings of $1.95 a share on revenue of $5.79 billion.

That's up from earnings posted last year of $1.89 a share on earnings of $5.57 billion. But it's below Wall Street's expectations for earnings of $2.08 a share and sales of $5.81 billion, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Time Warner Cable shares were down slightly on the miss by 0.8% to $139.99 a share in early trading on Thursday.

It's deal to merger with Comcast this year has come under increased regulatory scrutiny amid concerns over the cable giant's Internet broadband business.

Netflix's Reed Hastings, for example, has asked that the merger be denied by regulators amid growing fears that a union will give the newly combined company too much power over broadband services that control the flow of video from online providers like Netflix.