21st Century Fox Profit Lifted by Cable Business, Box-Office Films

NEW YORK: 21st Century Fox reported healthy quarterly profit, citing double-digit increases at the cable network programming segment from higher affiliate and advertising revenues and at the filmed entertainment segment led by higher theatrical revenues.

Quarterly revenues at 21st Century Fox were $8.06 billion, which included $631 million of net revenues from the Direct Broadcast Satellite Television (DBS) businesses, Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland. Excluding the net revenues from the DBS businesses in the current year and prior-year quarters, adjusted revenues increased to $7.42 billion, a 10 percent gain over the $6.73 billion of adjusted revenue in the prior year quarter. The company reported quarterly income from continuing operations attributable to stockholders of $6.22 billion, compared to the prior year's $982 million. 

Cable network programming quarterly segment OIBDA increased 12 percent to $1.16 billion, led by a 14 percent revenue increase on strong affiliate and advertising revenue growth. The revenue improvement was partially offset by a 16 percent increase in segment expenses, approximately half of which reflected the combined impact of the planned investments in the new sports channels Fox Sports 1 and STAR Sports coupled with the consolidation of the YES Network.

Television generated quarterly segment OIBDA of $290 million, a 33 percent increase over the prior year quarter. The increase in segment OIBDA was driven by lower programming costs at the FOX Broadcast Network from the cancelation of X-Factor, the absence of Glee in the current year quarter and the shift of the MLB Championship Series to Fox Sports 1—all of which were partially offset by higher rights fees related to the new NFL contract. Quarterly segment revenues were relatively flat on the prior year, as strong retransmission consent revenue growth was counterbalanced by a 3 percent decline in advertising revenues.

Filmed entertainment delivered quarterly segment OIBDA of $336 million, which was pretty much consistent with the year-ago period, as increased contributions from the film studio (led by a strong theatrical slate) was offset by lower contributions from the TV production businesses (in the absence of How I Met Your Mother, White Collar and Glee). Total segment revenues increased 11 percent, driven by the performance of several successful worldwide theatrical releases, including The Maze Runner and Gone Girl.

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of 21st Century Fox, commented: "We delivered solid quarterly results despite continuing currency headwinds and ratings challenges at the FOX broadcast network. Our growth was led by sustained affiliate revenue growth in our channels business. I am also very proud of the creative successes that we have achieved at Twentieth Century Fox, which set a global box-office record in 2014 and leads the industry with 24 Academy Award nominations, including best picture nominations for Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel, as well as at our television production studios, which have produced the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning Fargo, the critically acclaimed American Horror Story and the promising new series Empire.