Fox reported lower fiscal third-quarter earnings because of a decrease in the value of its investments.
Net income was $283 million, or 50 cents a share, compared to $567 million, or 96 cents a share, a year ago. A big part of the drop was cause by a change in fair value of the company’s investments, Fox said.
Adjusted EBITDA dropped to $811 million from $899 million a year ago because of increased digital investments at Tubi and Fox News Media, higher sports rights programming amortization and production costs and a $30 million write down of some scripted programming.
Revenue rose 7% to $3.46 billion. Affiliate revenue increased 5%, 8% at Fox’s television segment and 3% at its cable network programming group.
Ad revenue went up 9%, with higher ratings at Fox News and growth at the Tubi streaming service.
Fox’s cable network programming segment’s EBITDA rose 2% to $864 million as revenue rose 8% to $1.58 billion.
Fox’s television segment saw EBITDA drop to $35 million from $135 million a year ago despite 7% revenue growth to $1.820 billion .
“Fox’s third quarter results again demonstrate our capacity to deliver sustained and consistently strong revenue growth,” said CEO Lachlan Murdoch.
“Our 7% topline growth in the quarter was propelled by pricing strength in both distribution and advertising revenues across our leadership brands, complemented by the powerful momentum we continue to see at Tubi. In the three years since the formation of Fox we have seen rapid industry change,” Murdoch said. “Our focused portfolio and clear strategy underpin our success today and continue to distinguish Fox from its peers. The power of our brands and the scaled audiences that they serve continue to provide a uniquely strong platform to strategically manage our businesses for long-term growth in a thoughtful and disciplined manner.” ■
