News Corp reported record quarterly revenue, up 3% to $US2.58 billion for the three months to September.
Net income was up 148% to $144 million. Total segment EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) surged 14% to $415 million.
“That we have achieved these record first quarter results in macro-conditions which are far from auspicious is compelling evidence of the successful transformation of News Corp over the past decade,” said CEO Robert Thomson.
The revenue lift was mainly driven by higher Australian residential revenue at REA Group, higher digital book sales and Dow Jones (up 3% to $552 million).
The News Media segment reported revenue down 5% to $521 million. Advertising dropped $10 million, or 5%, due to lower print advertising revenues at News Corp Australia and lower digital advertising revenues at News UK mainly driven by a decline in traffic at some mastheads due to algorithm changes at certain platforms.
Digital subscribers at News Corp Australia were 1,127,000 (979,000 for news mastheads), up from 1,049,000 (937,000 for news mastheads).
Foxtel revenue was up 3% to $501 million, driven by Kayo and BINGE from increases in both volume and pricing, and a 2% positive impact from foreign currency fluctuations.
Foxtel Group streaming subscription revenues represented 34% of circulation and subscription revenues in the quarter, up from 30% in the prior year.
As of September 30, Foxtel’s total paid subscribers were more than 4.6 million, a 1% increase, driven by growth in Kayo and BINGE subscribers, partly offset by fewer residential broadcast subscribers.
Broadcast subscriber churn in the quarter was 11% compared to 11.4% in the prior year, while broadcast ARPU (average revenue per user) was up 4% to A$89.
“The just-completed (US) election has highlighted the importance of trusted journalism in a media maelstrom in which some journalists mistake virtue signalling for virtue,” said Thomson.
“Artificial intelligence recycles informational infelicities and it is critical that journalistic inputs have integrity, which is why our partnership with OpenAI is so crucial and why we intend to sue AI companies abusing and misusing our trusted journalism.”
Dow Jones and the New York Post have started proceedings against the Perplexity, which is selling products based on News Corp journalism.
‘We are diligently preparing for further action against other companies that have ingested our archives and are synthesising our intellectual property,” he said.
September quarter segment numbers:
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