Time Warner Cable Inc., the company awaiting regulatory approval to merge with Comcast Corp., missed profit estimates after losing pay-TV subscribers.

Fourth-quarter earnings, excluding some items, increased 12 percent to $2.03 a share, falling short of the $2.09 average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose 3.8 percent to $5.79 billion, the New York-based company said in a statement. Analysts projected revenue of $5.81 billion.

Time Warner Cable has been improving its broadband network to attract customers demanding faster download speeds in more places. Services such as Netflix Inc. and Hulu have caused younger viewers to increasingly watch shows over the Web, rather than pay $50 or more a month for more traditional cable bundles.

The declining number of Americans paying for TV partly inspired Comcast’s proposed $45.2 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable. The deal could give the combined companies scale to help invest in their network.

The merger is still under regulatory review and it’s unclear whether U.S. officials will allow it to happen. The Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department have been vetting the deal since it was announced almost a year ago and delayed their decisions several times.

In the fourth quarter, Time Warner Cable lost 38,000 residential video customers. It gained 295,000 residential voice customers and 168,000 residential high-speed data clients.