Jim Trippon, CPA

We've blogged about Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), the second-largest U.S. cable provider, a couple of times recently, noting that company executives and at least one sell-side analyst had a bullish outlook for the company's future dividend payments.

Time Warner Cable previously has not paid a regular quarterly dividend, but that is set to change with the company's announcement that it will begin paying a 40-cent per share quarterly dividend.

The new dividend will be paid on March 15 to shareholders of record on February 26.

The annual payout of $1.60 a share is above the $1.50 some observers were expecting and puts the company's yield around 3.7% based on where the shares closed on Friday.

Rival Cablevision Systems (NYSE: CVC) pays a dividend of just 40 cents per year and Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), the largest U.S. cable provider, pays just 38 cents annually, so Time Warner Cable's new dividend is clearly the cream of the cable dividend crop.

Time Warner Cable has worked diligently to reduce its debt load and the company said that when its debt scenario improved that it would reward shareholders with some of the excess cash.

It would appear the company made good on that promise and after boosting free cash flow by 10% to $1.9 billion at the end of last year, Time Warner Cable's balance sheet looks strong enough to at the very least sustain the new dividend policy.