Time Warner Cable Inc posted a higher-than-expected second-quarter profit on Thursday after adding more Internet and phone subscribers.

The No. 2 U.S. cable television operator added 85,000 residential Internet subscribers as it focused more on ramping up its broadband offering and winning customers from phone companies.

Broadband is increasingly important for cable companies, said Collins Stewart analyst Thomas Eagan. It has become the strategic focus, with TV following. Eagan had forecast Internet additions of 90,000.

Time Warner Cable also added 63,000 home phone customers.

But the New York-based company lost 111,000 video subscribers during the quarter as its competition continues to ramp up in the pay-TV market with video services from satellite and phone companies. Barclays Capital had forecast losses of 115,000.

Net income rose to $342 million, or 95 cents a share, from $316 million, or 89 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 5.8 percent to $4.73 billion.

Analysts on average had been expecting a profit of 93 cents a share on revenue of $4.68 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Overall they struck a good balance between customer and financial growth, said Eagan.

Time Warner Cable shares have risen more than 40 percent since the start of the year as Wall Street has recommended the stock as the premier investment opportunity for tapping into cable's operational strengths in broadband growth.

Shares of Comcast Corp , the No. 1 U.S. cable company, are up around 14 percent year to date, which some analysts say is due to investor concern about its ongoing merger process to take control of NBC Universal from current owner General Electric .

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Derek Caney and Lisa Von Ahn)