Insight’s revenues increase amid turbulent industry business conditions

Reflecting what is becoming a cable industry trend, Insight Communications today said its second-quarter revenues increased $18.8 million, or 10.4% over the previous year, and operating cash flow grew to $89.3 million, a 15.8% increase. Insight listed three-month revenue as $200 million and operating cash floor as $89.3 million.

The increased revenues came during a turbulent period for the telecommunications space and reflected Insight’s efforts to upgrade its networks to provide bundled voice, video and data services, said Executive Vice President and COO Kim Kelly. “If you invest in technology and plant, you can very effectively build a terrific business offering not just video, but data and even telephone,” Kelly said.

About 85% of Insight’s plant has been rebuilt to offer bundled services, she said.

“It’s a wonderful ability to go out and pitch, ‘For $110 you can have digital, two [phone] lines and a modem,’” she said. “As we have more homes buying multiple products, you’ll see those margins increase.”

Insight’s value, like other cable companies, is being battered by a market that is worried about capital expenses and return on investment. The company was emphatic that the nearly complete rebuilds will allow it to concentrate on reaping operating revenues going forward and reduce the capital expenditures that went primarily to network construction.

“We believe that we can be free cash-flow positive by the end of 2003, and we’re happy to say we see no capital needs for the foreseeable future, which, in today’s environment, is a pretty good place to be,” said CFO Dinni Jain.

The nation’s ninth-largest multiple systems operator listed average monthly revenue per basic subscriber as $51.42, compared with $47.29 for the same period a year ago. Average monthly revenue per basic customer for high-speed data and interactive digital video increased to $7.87 compared with $5.22 a year ago

The MSO also said that revenue-generating units – the sum of basic, digital, high-speed data and telephone customers – totaled 1.707 million compared with 1.5552 million a year ago. This represented a 9.8% annual growth rate.