Programming costs Subscriber growth, whether in the cable business or on the high-speed data side, doesn't come cheap, though. In addition to healthy cable service gains, TWC hopes to keep expanding a high-speed Internet service that attracted 1 million new customers last year. That success helped power the division's best sales growth rate in years, which is a key reason why consensus estimates peg revenue rising by 6% this quarter to $6.14 billion.

TWC added 54,000 cable subscribers and 281,000 high-speed data users last quarter. After all, TWC in January booked a 54,000 subscriber gain in its cable business last quarter on the way to its first fiscal year of growth by that metric since 2006. Subscriber additions CEO Rob Marcus and his executive team declined to issue any 2016 forecasts last quarter because of the pending merger, but there's every reason to expect solid sales growth in Q1. Here are a few important trends to watch for in the report.

In addition to details on that profitable tie-up, Time Warner Cable shareholders can look forward to (mostly) good news out of the cable giant when it announces operating results this week. Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) is set to post first-quarter earnings results on Thursday, April 28, just as its merger deal with Charter Communications ( CHTR 1.87%) seems to be progressing toward final approval.

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