After stumbling in Q4, Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) continued its turnaround, posting $20.1 million ($0.07 per share) in net income in Q1, versus a $31.6 million loss the same time last year. Revenues were also positive, gaining 10 percent to $1.9 billion. Meanwhile, Cablevision’s first Q1 with Newsday in the fold, brought in $83 million in revenue. The Newsday segment, which in addition to the Long Island daily, includes the free metro paper amNewYork and the weekly shopping pubs under Star Community Publishing, had an operating loss of operating loss of $7.2 million. On the cable front, it looks like competition from Verizon (NYSE: VZ) FiOS has started to cut into its business, though not too deeply yet:

—Cable Television net revenue gained a respectable 4.8 percent in Q1
—The cable operator lost 6,300 basic video subs—or 0.2 percent—from December 2008 and down 23,100 (0.7 percent) from March 2008
—The number of iO: Interactive Optimum digital video customers have remained essentially flat at 9,400 since December 2008. The segment did increase 177,500, or 6.7% from March 2008.

—Possible MSG spinoff: At the end of the earnings release, in the “other matters” section, the Bethpage, Long Island cable company said its board has given it the nod to explore whether to spinoff of its Madison Square Garden business. Besides the arena of the same name and several other New York City entertainment venues, that entity includes cable networks MSG and Fuse, the New York Knicks and Rangers, and MSG Entertainment. The segment’s revenues grew 2.3 percent to $271.3 million. “Even taken at face value, a spin off could release huge value,” said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett in a note. “But the dream is perhaps the inverse reading… that spinning off MSG might alternatively be viewed as spinning off everything else.”

Earnings release | Webcast 10 AM (EDT)