Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC), Comcast Corporation (CMCSA), Cablevision Systems Corporation (CVC): Forget About Cord-Cutting, The Cable Sector is Hot!

Comcast’s bet on content

Malone wants to consolidate the industry as a way to offset rising content costs. Just last year, Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) saw its programming costs jump 7%, and Time Warner Cable is in the midst of a battle with CBS over the cost of the network’s content.

But Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) is hedged against rising content costs to some extent. After buying GE’s stake, Comcast now owns the entirety of NBCUniversal.

That’s been a great purchase. Last quarter, NBC revenue grew 9% and operating cash flow grew 21%. With its ownership of NBC, Comcast owns a number of cable channels, such as USA and Bravo, and these have contributed heavily to NBC’s strong performance.

Investing in paid-TV

Investors should not be frightened by the possibility of cord-cutting.

Comcast has been adding subscribers and growing earnings, boosted by both by its cable operations and its ownership of content through NBC. Time Warner Cable and Cablevision have lost subscribers, but both could conceivably be acquired in the near-future, and Time Warner Cable is enjoying earnings growth.

The paid-TV sector has been great to own, and there could be further upside from here.

Joe Kurtz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

The article Forget About Cord-Cutting, The Cable Sector is Hot! originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Sam Mattera.

Sam is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.

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