Fox Corp tops revenue targets on political ad boom ahead of US election

12:56 pm Monday, November 04th, 2024

(Reuters) -Fox Corp beat Wall Street expectations for first-quarter revenue on Monday, as the media company benefited from higher political advertising ahead of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5, sending its shares up nearly 5%. 

Americans are watching more traditional news and television programs for updates on the tightly contested race between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, which boosted advertising spend at Fox News.

Fox chief executive Lachlan Murdoch pointed to record political advertising across the company and strong growth at its ad-supported streaming platform, Tubi.

Fox executives said Tubi has become a “material recipient” of political advertising and expects the streaming platform to cross the $1 billion revenue mark in the fiscal year.

News publisher New York Times on Monday also reported an 8.8% jump in digital advertising sales, its strongest growth in more than two years.

Fox’s advertising revenue for the first quarter jumped around 11% to $1.33 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $1.13 billion, per data compiled by LSEG. 

The company also reported a 15% jump in revenue at its Cable Network Programming to $1.60 billion, beating analysts’ estimate of $1.41 billion, at a time when customers are shifting to digital streaming.

Last week, telecom and media giant Comcast said it was weighing a spin-off of its declining cable networks.

But Murdoch does not see any potential cable network spin off at Fox. “I don’t see how we could ever do that. I think breaking apart part of the business would be very difficult.”

The company’s television segment reported revenue of $1.95 billion, ahead of estimates of $1.92 billion.

Fox reported total revenue of $3.56 billion for the quarter, compared with estimates of $3.37 billion. 

On an adjusted basis, it earned $1.45 per share, above estimates of $1.11. 

(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)