TV down, but News Corporation still beats expectations

TV revenues were up 42 million in fiscal Q1 (July-September) for News Corporation to 1.145 billion, but TV operating income declined nine million to 183 million. CFO David DeVoe said ad strength at the Fox network was offset by lower ad sales for the company's TV station group in this non-political year and underperformance by its MyNetworkTV operation. However, he said the new network is on track for improvement through the remainder of this fiscal year. For the entire mega-media company, revenues jumped just over a billion bucks to 7.067 billion. Operating income grew 23% to 1.05 billion.

Despite worries about the US ad market, CEO Rupert Murdoch assured analysts that the company is broad based. He noted that only 23% of News Corporation's revenues are dependent on US television ad sales. Even so, he noted, pacing is up, scatter is up strong double digits and the Super Bowl on Fox is already 95% sold out. No worries, mate.

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