New York - Comcast, the largest cable company in the U.S. that's in the midst of acquiring Time Warner Cable Inc., reported second-quarter profit that topped estimates on higher revenue from its Internet customers.

Earnings, excluding some items, were 75 cents a share for the three months that ended in June, beating the 72 cents that analysts projected on average, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Net income rose 15 percent to $1.99 billion, the Philadelphia-based company said Tuesday in a statement.

Comcast added 203,000 broadband customers in the quarter, exceeding the estimates of 135,000 from Wunderlich Securities Inc. analyst Matthew Harrigan and 165,000 from Todd Mitchell at Brean Capital. The average bill for video, Internet and phone customers rose 4.5 percent to $137.24 a month, and investors are looking for further gains if regulators approve its merger with Time Warner Cable.

As pay-TV operators see fewer new video customers, the industry is looking to acquisitions to create growth. After Comcast announced it plans to purchase Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion, AT&T said it would buy satellite-TV service DirecTV for $48.5 billion. Both transactions are undergoing regulatory review.

"The acquisition of Time Warner Cable will create far greater synergies than what has been publicly discussed by either company," Mitchell wrote in a research note before the report. He said Comcast is managed "far better" than Time Warner Cable.

Comcast's second-quarter revenue increased 3.5 percent to $16.8 billion, while analysts estimated almost $17 billion.

The company lost 144,000 TV subscribers in a seasonally weak period when college students typically disconnect their service for the summer. Mitchell estimated a loss of 120,000 video customers.

The urge to merge is becoming more apparent as the number of Americans paying for TV fell for the first time last year. With the traditional pay-TV market in decline, that's left the phone, satellite and cable companies to focus on retaining customers instead of chasing new ones.

In the case of Comcast, Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts has focused on updating technology to better compete against popular, and cheaper, streaming services. The operator has marketed its X1 set-top box that takes elements of online interfaces that appeal to young viewers.