By Chelsey Dulaney 

Cablevision Systems Corp. lost about 6,000 subscribers during the first three months of the year, though the pay-television company still managed to log better-than-expected profit and revenue growth for the quarter.

The results come as the cable industry is still reeling in the wake of the collapse of Comcast Corp.'s deal to buy Time Warner Cable Inc. Cablevision has been seen by some analysts as a potential acquisition target, now that the deal has fallen apart.

On Monday's conference call, Chief Executive James Dolan said the company was waiting to see "how things shake out."

"The lay of the land at this point seems to be that everybody is just trying to figure out what they are going to do," he said. "We are watching; we are studying it."

Meanwhile, Cablevision is looking to reshape itself from a traditional cable operator to a company focused on "connectivity."

Cablevision has been aggressively targeting viewers who are looking to "cut the cord" or who enjoy online video services. The company has unveiled a variety of efforts targeted at these customers in recent months: from becoming the first pay-TV provider to say it will offer HBO's stand-alone streaming to offering Hulu's catalog of on-demand shows and movies to its customers.

The company also recently became the first major U.S. cable operator to launch a mobile phone service that uses its network of Wi-Fi hot spots.

Despite these efforts, Cablevision's subscriber numbers were tepid in the first quarter of the year.

Cablevision said its total customers--businesses or households that subscribe to at least one service--edged down to 3.11 million as of March 31 from 3.12 million at the end of 2014. The company lost 28,000 video subscribers and 14,000 voice subscribers. It added 7,000 high-speed Internet customers, bringing its total to 2.78 million as of March 31.

Cablevision faces intense competition from rivals like Verizon FiOS, which often offer more discounts.

Cablevision has committed to maintaining its pricing, which helped drive average monthly cable revenue per customer 4.8% higher from a year ago to $155.34 despite fewer customers.

The increase helped to lift overall revenue, which increased 2.5% to $1.62 billion.

In all, for the quarter ended March 31, Cablevision posted a profit of $44.6 million, or 17 cents a share, down from $89.8 million, or 34 cents a share, a year earlier.

Earnings from continuing operations were 20 cents a share. Results were helped by the timing of certain expenses.

Analysts had projected 17 cents a share in profit and $1.6 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.

Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com

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