Film Boosts News Corp.’s Q1 Income
The Simpsons Movie Helps to Propel Media Giant
By Jon Hemingway -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/7/2007 4:11:00 PM MT
Film and cable-network segments fueled a 19% rise in News Corp.’s revenue and a 23% jump in its operating income in the fiscal first quarter.
The company reported a 23% rise in consolidated operating income to $1.05 billion on revenues of $7.07 billion, up 19% from a year earlier. News Corp.’s net income was $732 million, or $0.23 per share in the quarter, down from Q1 2006 results of $843 million ($0.27), which included gains from the sale of shares in Sky Brasil and Phoenix.
Riding the success of The Simpsons Movie, which grossed $524 million in worldwide box office, the film segment posted a 30% rise in revenue to $1.58 billion and a 51% rise in operating income to $362 million.
Cable-network programming revenue rose 24% to $1.1 billion while operating income rose 16% to $289 million led by a rise in affiliate and advertising revenue at Fox News Channel. Income was partially offset by launch costs associated with Fox Business Network and Big Ten Network.
The television segment’s operating income declined 4.6% to $183 million as Fox Television Stations income declined 9% on lower political advertising and decreased ad revenue at MyNetworkTV-affiliated stations. The division’s revenue rose 4% in the quarter to $1.145 billion from $1.103 billion.
In other segments, newspaper revenue was up 18.5% to $1.24 billion, satellite-television-division revenue rose 20% to $747 million, magazines dropped 4% to $264 million and book publishing slid 10% to $330 million. The company’s other revenues, which include Fox Interactive Media and MySpace, were up to $653 million from $395 million.
