April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Comcast Corp., the world's largest cable-television company, said first-quarter profit rose almost fivefold as customers signed up for more-expensive digital TV and high-speed Web access.

Net income increased to $313 million, or 14 cents a share, from $65 million, or 3 cents, a year earlier, Philadelphia-based Comcast said today in a statement distributed by PR Newswire. Revenue rose 9.2 percent to $5.36 billion. Profit beat the 10-cent average estimate of 23 analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Profit this year will be higher than previously expected as Comcast's 21.5 million customers switch to more expensive services at a faster rate, Comcast said. Digital-TV, high-speed Web access and high-definition TV can cost as much as $120 a month more than basic cable. Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts will have more customers to tap once he completes the planned purchase of Adelphia Communications Corp. with Time Warner Inc., announced last week.

``They have a proven strategy,'' said Tim Gilbert of Des Moines, Iowa-based Principal Global Investors, which manages $125 billion in assets, and owns 4.8 million Comcast shares. ``You're continuing to see high-speed Internet drive growth.''

Comcast, the largest provider of high-speed Internet access in the U.S., added 414,000 customers for the service, taking subscribers to 7.4 million. Gilbert expected the company to add 350,000. Comcast added 200,000 digital-cable subscribers, more than Gilbert's 170,000 estimate. Subscribers to Comcast's basic service dropped 29,000, compared with Gilbert's forecast for an increase of 15,000.

Operating cash flow, or profit excluding costs related to interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, will rise 14 percent to 15 percent this year, Comcast said, higher than the 12 percent it had expected. Profit on that basis rose 17 percent to $2.03 billion in the quarter, the company said.

Adelphia Purchase

Shares of Comcast, down 4.1 percent this year, rose 31 cents to $31.92 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.

Comcast and Time Warner agreed to pay $17.6 billion for Adelphia's assets. Under the agreement, Comcast will trade a 21 percent stake in Time Warner cable and pay $3.5 billion to receive 1.8 million Adelphia customers, 750,000 Time Warner customers and $2 billion in cash.

The transaction will be the biggest in the industry since Comcast paid $52 billion for AT&T Corp.'s cable assets in 2002.

``What Comcast does well is integrate,'' Gilbert said.

Comcast increased its expected capital spending to $3.2 billion to $3.3 billion from a previously expected $3 billion.

System Upgrades

Roberts, 45, has spent $39 billion upgrading the company's cable systems on a bet that the new services will make subscribers less likely to defect to satellite TV, which offers digital pictures at lower prices.

The company plans to develop ``low-cost'' digital set-top boxes to customers who subscribe only to its basic service, Comcast Chief Operating Officer Steve Burke said in February. This allows Comcast to offer services such as video on demand. The company deployed 428,000 boxes with high-definition TV and digital-video recording capabilities in the quarter.

Comcast, which has started offering digital phone service, is expanding the service to markets including Boston and Chicago. Digital-phone subscribers rose 4,000 to 1.2 million in the quarter ended March 31.

Comcast expects to add 200,000 to 250,000 subscribers for the digital phone service in 2005, Burke told investors in February.

Revenue from Comcast's content business, which includes the E! Entertainment Television channel, Style Network and the Golf Channel, rose 21 percent to $213 million in the quarter.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anthony Massucci in New York at amassucc@Bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 28, 2005 07:09 EDT