Avatar was a News Corporation film, and its worldwide success is just one indicator of how well the company did year-over-year in its fiscal 2010 Q3 results. It even managed to improve results at its newspaper results. Television revenue skyrocketed from $9M to $40M. And cable, along with film, was considered a standout division. It’s expecting high-20% growth for the fiscal year.
Television station revenues were up 18%, and all of that was realized on the bottom line thanks to lower operating expenses from earlier belt-tightening moves. The Fox Broadcasting Network was down due to decreased ratings, but over all the division went from $9M to $40M.
Cable soared from $426M to $588M, riding higher carriage fees and advertising at Fox News Channel. Newspaper went from $29M to $131M, with 25% gains at Wall Street Journal, and film went from $282M to $497M. Only DBS suffered, going down from $63M to $35M.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch said, “Today’s earnings confirm that no content company is stronger than News Corporation at building both fiscal and operational momentum. Our global portfolio of sought-after content is ideally situated to benefit from the increase in consumer spending, advertising and access to new platforms we are seeing across our regions. The unique strengths of our cable channels — young, vibrant franchises with phenomenal growth and potential — now generate almost half of our operating profit, ensuring that our stakeholders will continue to benefit from News Corporation’s sustained revenue, profit and cash flow strength for years to come.”
Looking toward the future, Murdoch said the company was getting set to introduce a new digital platform that will be able to deliver content whenever and wherever a consumer wants it.
News Corp. execs noted that the advertising market has really opened up across the board – businesses are realizing that if they want to stay in the game they need to have a marketing presence, and increased spending is coming in nearly every sector.
Murdoch underlined the importance of television production, noting that profits from the rare winners easily made up for losses and write-offs from failures, citing the recent successes of “Glee” and “Modern Family.”
