FILE PHOTO: Lachlan Murdoch, co-chairman and chief executive officer of Fox Corp., attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, U.S., July 11, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
(Reuters) – Media company Fox Corp (FOXA.O) beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit on Wednesday, boosted by higher fees collected from cable and satellite operators and online distributors.
Rupert Murdoch’s newly spun-off Fox Corp debuted on the Nasdaq in March following the $71 billion sale of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s film and television assets to Walt Disney Co (DIS.N).
Affiliate revenue, or the fees collected from cable and satellite operators and online distributors, rose 7.4% to $1.41 billion in the fourth quarter, while revenue from advertising fell 6%.
Fox said sales in its cable network programming business rose 2.2% to $1.3 billion.
Net income attributable to shareholders fell to $454 million, or 73 cents per share, in the three months ended June 30, from $471 million, or 76 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned 62 cents per share, beating analysts’ estimates of 59 cents.
Revenue rose nearly 5% to $2.51 billion. Analysts on average had expected revenue of $2.47 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru and Hilary Russ in New York; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila