The third quarter is usually Cablevision’s weakest, but the company’s numbers actually turned out pretty strong and even beat analysts’ estimates. The Bethpage, Long Island, cable operator, which says it will have spin off its Madison Square Garden operations by year-end, saw net income triple to $98.4 million. The MSG entertainment unit, which houses the arena of the same name and several other NYC-area venues, as well as cable networks MSG and Fuse, the New York Knicks and Rangers, swung to a $12.3 million profit. In its primary New York market, Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) is fending off a strong challenge from Verizon (NYSE: VZ) FiOS.

Earlier, the AP cited Collins Stewart analyst Thomas Eagan’s forecast that Cablevision would lose 20,000 basic subscribers, but add 12,000 digital cable customers and 12,000 high-speed internet clients. Revenues at Cablevision’s daily newspaper Newsday were up a respectable 8.7 percent to $79.9 million. In light of its recent decision to limit most of Newsday.com’s content to print and cable subscribers, it will be interesting to see how advertising holds up in Q4.

Earnings release | Webcast (10:00 AM)

The Newsday segment consists of the newspaper of the same name, as well as free metro daily amNewYork, and weekly shopper Star Community Publishing. Despite the revenue growth, the unit’s AOCF was $5.6 million, down 34 percent, and posted an operating loss of $800,000 in Q3 versus income of $4.2 million in Q308.

Cable TV net revenues were up 4.5 percent to $1.303 billion. AOCF rose 12.5 percent to $550.9 million and operating income gained 24.5 percent to $350.2 million. Still, Cablevision lost more basic video customers than expected, as the segment was down 46,200 or 1.5 percent from last year. That was balanced out by digital video customers’ 73,800 or 2.6 percent, increase from September 2008. The number of high-speed data customers was up by 95,000 (3.9 percent) year-over-year. more to come

• Most Of Cablevision’s Newsday.com Goes Exclusive For Print, Optimum Online Subs