Derek Thompson explains how “cable is still making more and more money every year, despite a structural decline in cable TV subs”:

Cable ≠ video, and nothing says it more clearly than the latest earnings reports from the Big Two: Comcast, the largest provider of pay-TV in the country; and Time Warner Cable, the second largest cable provider (but behind DirecTV and Dish in total video subs). Comcast’s total revenue is almost twice TWC’s, but their businesses are remarkably similar.

Upshot: If you equate “cable” with TV, you are literally getting only half the story. Cable providers are in the business of communications transport. They’re still in business because selling communications access is still a pretty good business, with high barriers to entry and voracious demand.