Tele-Communications Inc. reports a 38 percent drop in first-quarter earnings, blaming the decline partly on cable television rate rollbacks required by federal law.
For the three months that ended March 31, TCI earned $32 million, or 7 cents a share, on revenues of $1.06 billion. In the first quarter of 1993, TCI earned $52 million, or 11 cents a share, on revenues of $1.01 billion. The 1993 earnings reflected a non-recurring gain of $40 million.Operating income before depreciation, amortization and stock appreciation rights totaled $450 million, which was down $17 million, or 3.6 percent, from the first quarter of 1993, said Brendan Clouston, TCI chief operating officer.
"Operating cash flow lost due to regulatory rate rollbacks represents a significant impact to the company's core business segment," Clouston said.
"The onslaught of additional rate regulations, still being clarified, will certainly challenge our resourcefulness," he said.
"TCI expects to weather this adversity and move forward to continue to provide superior customer service and product quality as exhibited by strong subscriber growth."
TCI is the nation's largest cable systems operator with about 11 million customers.
The company's stock rose 25 cents a share to $19.50 on the Nasdaq stock market.