Cable giant Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) posted Q3 numbers earlier today. It seems like the company is doing well with earnings growth and cash flow, even if revenues moved up a meager 3%.

Adjusted earnings per share grew over 20% to 28 cents per share. According to our earnings preview, the market was looking for 25 cents per share. Operating cash flow increased a little under 3%, but free cash flow went up almost 20%, aided by a smaller amount of capital expenditures compared to the previous year's similar quarter. I'm sure shareholders are more than satisfied with the growth rate of the green stuff over the past three months. Comcast saw excellent expansion of free cash over the last nine months, too.

It looks like Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC) is starting to get-it-in-gear. Hence, I'm reiterating my Buy rating for CVC, first recommended on May 29, 2009 at a price of $19.03. If you purchased CVC then, you're up about 30%.

Even ignoring the potential spin-off of sports arena Madison Square Garden, Cablevision's positives have always been compelling: fifth-largest cable t.v. operator (about 10.4 million revenue generating units), with a strong presence in a lucrative market (New York City area, 3.1 cable t.v. subscribers); included in that are about 2.8 million premium cable t.v. subscribers, called iO Digital; nearly 2.5 million high-speed internet subscribers; and 1.9 million internet voice (telephone) subscribers.

There's some exciting news in the world of World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE: WWE). Looks like Vince McMahon wants to expand his media empire via entering the world of basic cable. Yes, he's already on basic cable, of course, but now he's intent on literally creating his very own wrestling channel.

According to a blog at the Los Angeles Times website, McMahon would be interested in launching a dedicated WWE channel within two years. This makes complete sense on several levels. First, WWE has a lot of content in its library that needs to be monetized; WWE's existing video-on-demand product already leverages the company's portfolio, but exposure to ad-supported cable would be helpful. Second, it could boost the profile of the WWE brand. Third, it might help long-term growth; without question, WWE needs to do something to compensate for the falloff it is seen in pay-per-view buys.

It's a close call, but I'm Reiterating my Buy rating for Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA), first recommended on April 22, 2009 at a price of $14.05.

Comcast's stock has moved sideways, basically, for the last six months, so a caution flag nevertheless has been raised. The stock has straddled the 50-day moving average during that period, suggesting that institutional investors are concerned about Comcast.

Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), the high-profile cable and Internet provider, produced some good second-quarter stats on Thursday. Reuters says that the 33 cents per share earned in the period beat estimates by 7 cents. According to the company press release, sales increased over 4% and operating cash flow expanded by over 5%. Free cash flow, however, was flat in Q2.

That wasn't a big deal, though. The free cash covered both the dividend and the monies used to repurchase shares. In fact, Reuters reported that the buyback activity in the quarter represented a resumption of the program. We can take that as a positive sign of confidence from management.

Right now, over at Hulu.com -- a joint project of News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) and General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal, viewers can check out recent editions of, for example, The Daily Show or Man Caves, among many other programs normally viewed on cable networks such as Comedy Central or the DIY Network. Viewers need a computer and a high-speed Internet connection to catch these programs, but they don't need a cable subscription (or even a television!).

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA), a cable/broadband entity that competes with Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH), reported earnings for the fourth quarter on Wednesday. Adjusted revenues increased 7%, and earnings per share jumped 35% to $0.27. Not a bad performance, and in fact, earnings beat estimates by four pennies according to this source.

Perhaps the biggest piece of news in the release is the increase in free cash flow for the full fiscal year. That jumped 56% to $3.7 billion, driven in part by a decrease in capital spending. I liked reading that management intends on focusing on free cash flow. It better, because it's going to be a challenging environment for the cable business, and the company committed itself to raising its dividend by 8%. On the flip side, though, as has been noted in a couple news reports, Comcast stated in the release that it doesn't feel like buying back stock at the moment. That won't be comforting to shareholders who have seen their shares hovering closer to a 52-week low than a 52-week high.

Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) has filed a shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission and has commenced an underwritten public offering of debt securities with maturities ranging from 5 to 30 years. Unfortunately, the size was not listed in the S-3 filing this morning.

The net proceeds from the issuance of the debt securities are expected to be used to finance a one-time dividend to stockholders of Time Warner Cable to be paid just prior to the previously announced spin-off of Time Warner Cable from its parent company Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX).

What is interesting is that this leaves an out in case market conditions or other conditions would keep that spin-off from happening. If the separation is not consummated and the special dividend is not paid, Time Warner Cable says it will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes. Those general purposes are the traditional terminology that is cookie cutter vernacular: additions to working capital, capital expenditures, repayment of debt, the financing of possible acquisitions and investments or stock repurchases.

Time Warner Cable Inc. is the issuer and these debt instruments that are to be guaranteed by its subsidiaries TW NY Cable Holding Inc. and Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P.

While the size was not listed, this is likely going to be a very large underwriting if you see how many underwriters there are for a mere debt offering. Banc of America Securities, BNP Paribas Securities, Greenwich Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley, and Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC are the listed underwriters for this debt offering.

For every person who had to wait forever for Time Warner Cable, Inc. (NYSE: TWC) to pick up the phone, for every customer who had to slog through an automated voice menu, then stew waiting to talk to a person, for every family that went days without TV or internet, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo struck a blow Friday. On behalf of the city of Los Angeles, Delgadillo sued the top cable provider for southern California, saying its service was so bad it constituted fraud and deceptive advertising.

The city wants $2,500 for each instance, double if the victim was old or disabled. Part of the problem in Los Angeles stemmed from the company's complicated task of absorbing Comcast and Adelphia customers, not everyday business. Consumers had filed their own civil suit a while back.

Time Warner Cable stock dropped $1.23, or about 4%, Friday on somewhat heavy trading. The damages could add up to potentially millions of dollars. Or it could be one of those lame settlements that give customers useless coupons.

The direct impact of the civil suit isn't as much of a big deal -- yet -- as the broader implications. What if other cities or customers sue? How is this suit going to influence the opinion of someone who's deciding between Time Warner and Dish Network or DirecTV? Between Roadrunner and wireless broadband? For a long time, cable providers could offer lousy service because there was basically no competition. Now, they have to behave better or lose customers. Now that could be real money.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) has reported earnings and gave guidance this morning. The company earned 29 cents per share from continuing operations, which was in-line with First Call estimates. Revenue was also in-line at $12.6 billion.

As far as guidance, the media giant gave 2008 earnings targets of $1.07 to $1.11, while estimates from First Call are $1.11. Free cash flow for the year was put "at or above'" $3.6 billion. It also put adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization growth of 7% to 9% off of a $12.9 billion base.

CNBC reported earlier this morning that Jeff Bewkes will announce restructuring efforts that will lead to a sale or divestiture of cable assets and a break-up of certain AOL properties later in the year that may include a sale of the ISP operations and keeping the ad businesses.

It is still too early to see trading indications this morning, so this is still a work in progress.

Cable stocks have fallen sharply and most trade near 52-week lows, but that is not keeping short sellers from continuing to believe that they could go lower. The short interest in Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Charter (NASDAQ: CHTR) went up on December 14 compared to November 30 according to data from Nasdaq.

The slide in cable shares began around mid-year, when comments from Comcast indicated that the new TV-over-fiber products from telecom companies like Verizon (NYSE: VZ) were starting to take cable customers. Up until recently, cable was able to market voice, TV,and broadband as one package into the home. The telephone companies could not match that. But fiber installations have changed the picture, and competition is fierce.

Cable companies are starting to see slowing growth in their subscriber bases. That could push them to drop rates, and it is forcing them into capital expenditures to improve the speed of their own networks. Both moves put pressure on earnings.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says this major player's lowered guidance shows why its whole sector is uninvestible.

Is it EchoStar (NASDAQ: DISH) (Cramer's Take)? Or is it foreclosures? Is it DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) (Cramer's Take) or is it bills that are too high? Is it Verizon (NYSE: VZ) (Cramer's Take) or is it house poor fears?

We will debate the Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) (Cramer's Take) blowup -- it just cut its forecasts for 2007 sales, new subscribers and cash -- for a long time. Trying to figure out how a monopoly utility that we used to regard as a utility that could no more be shut off than Con Ed, has become a totally discretionary competitive item that needs to be sold and can't be pulled.

The implications either way show you the limits of this former wonder industry. For all of the years I have been in the business, investing in cable stocks worked. The companies always grew with consistent cash flow and that was enough. They were utilities that always talked about how dividends weren't tax-advantaged and instead focused on the broad expansion and cash flow growth.

I've written about BigBand Networks (NASDAQ: BBND) before on BloggingStocks here. While I don't own the company, it remains on my watchlist because I do think that the technology provider for the cable industry has the makings of influencing the future of content and advertising delivery for the cable industry. As I wrote previously, the company has some operational issues to sort out as it matures as a publicly-traded firm.

Yesterday, BigBand announced it has sold its multi-media router technology to five more Chinese cable operators. The company said that it landed new customers Tibet Cable, Tiacang Cable, Jiayuguan Cable, Nanchang Cable and Luan Cable. BigBand says that with these customers it serves more than 40 service providers in China.

Recently, the company announced that Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) has chosen BigBand as its switched digital video vendor. This is another feather in the hat for a company that is the arms dealer in the arms race between telcos and cable companies to offer video services and applications. With the most widely deployed switched video solution (SDV), BigBand has seven of the top ten largest service providers in the U.S., selling to companies like Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ). The company is also positioned to benefit from what analysts call TelcoTV (video delivered over DSL).

BigBand is down over 65% this year. It's possible that the stock is bottoming out,here but it's worth losing some points to the upside and waiting to see if management regains credibility by smoothing out its earnings performance.

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Miller holds no position in stocks mentioned above.

Technology insider blog, TechCrunch, ran a thought-provoking post yesterday about Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) entitled, The Google Set-Top Box. The article speculates that the search-engine giant may leverage its new open-source operating system, Android, to address TV advertising in a revolutionary way. Google is already testing a new ad platform for TV with Echostar (NASDAQ: DISH), being propped up with data provided by a recent deal with Nielsen. But this just addresses the way ads are bought and sold. According to TechCrunch, almighty Google's ambitions for television go way beyond just ad delivery.

In short, the article posits that Google's aspirations for the mobile phone can be applied to the set-top box, itself essentially a computer. Android's open-source application platform can be used to help promote and support new developments that would turn TV watching more like Internet browsing. "In many ways," says Google's head of TV development, Vincent Dureau, "we think that television is becoming like the Internet in that there is a multiplication of channels. This creates challenges for viewers, advertisers and creators."

So, what does this mean in practice?

If you want to understand the future of Cable TV from a technology perspective, you need to check under the hood at recent Israeli IPO, BigBand Networks (NASDAQ: BBND). Really interesting stuff, as I've written on previously.

In short, this company, complete with its stable of technologies and Tier 1 cable customers, is really a late stage venture company that went public a bit prematurely. After a recent IPO, management needs to run the company according to a certain operational maturity that the Street requires. Earnings have been really lumpy and the stock price has paid the piper.

Well, as I speculated in the aforementioned article, BigBand announced today that it will be shuttering a small division in Boston that works on its CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System) technology. This is part of a larger restructuring plan that will ultimately end in layoffs for about 15% of its staff. It's a move that a Morgan Stanley analyst thinks is "the first step in the road to recovery."