Rough Quarter for 21st Century Fox

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21st Century FoxThe cable assets of Rupert Murdoch’s outfit managed to grow during the company’s fiscal Q4, but the television side of the business had a tough time.


The cable assets had a good quarter, but broadcast joined filmed entertainment on the negative side.

The company as a whole posted a loss in revenue from $6.84B to $6.21B, excluding revenue from its spun-off DBS assets, a 9% decrease. Cable was said to have contributed a 7% increase to that total, but it was more than wiped out be setbacks in the company’s filmed entertainment segment.

OIBDA, excluding DBS 2014 results, was also down, falling 5% go $1.54M.

Television dropped 4.4% in net revenue to $987M, and OIBDA was down significantly by 28.3% to $113M.

Advertising suffered a 14% hit, which followed poor ratings results, particularly for American Idol and The Following.

Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch said, “We made clear operational strides over the last year that will further position us to benefit from the strong and growing global demand for high quality video content. We delivered a solid financial performance, driven by sustained gains in affiliate fees, while we continued to invest in building our new channels Fox Sports 1, FXX and Star Sports. The appeal of our new sports rights resonated with consumers globally, whether it was STAR Sports in India setting new records with hundreds of millions of viewers for the ICC Cricket World Cup, or the more than 25 million viewers who watched the Women’s World Cup Final on FOX. Our film studio achieved outstanding critical and box-office success with a truly diverse range of films and we are proud of the creative excellence that earned it the most Academy Awards in the industry. Our company is well positioned for this time of opportunity in our industry. We will balance the utilization of our strong balance sheet to drive growth. Today’s announcement of our new $5 billion buyback authorization reflects our ongoing program to provide direct shareholder returns.”