Some good news has emerged for premium cable network HBO, a unit of Time Warner, Inc. (NYSE: TWX). During the past few years, the channel's high-profile losses of Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, and finally, The Sopranos raised speculation that HBO could be struggling for new hits and new subscribers.

But according to the latest subscription figures, the number of HBO faithful has actually risen slightly in the first full quarter since Tony Soprano and his families faded to black in June. The new data shows that HBO's subscriber base rose by 80,000 in its third quarter to 28.94 million, an increase of 0.3%. Monthly subscription fees make up the vast majority of HBO's total revenue, which is expected to hit $3.7 billion this year.

SNL Kagan analyst Deana Myers told Reuters: "It seemed like a lot of people said they were going to cancel HBO after Sopranos ended ... it did seem like it was going to go down." Perhaps the amusing Entourage or the darkly comic Curb Your Enthusiasm have expanding fan bases? Or maybe people hold on to their premium channels for the sports and movie offerings? It could be that folks are just too lazy to call their cable providers. Either way, it's a nice nugget of surprising news for HBO and TWX. Now if we can just work on that writers' strike ...

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.