TV Ad Growth Powers Fox Corp.

Fox Corp.’s TV segment (Fox Network, O&O stations and Tubi streaming) led the company’s growth in the fiscal fourth quarter, ended June 30. Revenues were up 30% to $1.45 billion, with ad revenues shooting up 51% from the pandemic-impacted previous year to $668 million.

“Television affiliate revenues increased 16%, reflecting double-digit increases for both our programming fees from non-owned station affiliates and for our direct retransmission revenues at our owned and operated stations. This once again reaffirms that we are on track to achieve the television affiliate revenue growth we outlined at our investor day,” CFO Steve Tomsic told Wall Street analysts in the company’s quarterly conference call Wednesday afternoon.

“Television advertising revenues increased by over 50%, as we benefitted from a rebound in the base market at the local Fox Television Stations, achieved strong pricing gains at Fox Entertainment, and saw the return of Major League Baseball at Fox Sports this spring. Meanwhile, Tubi continues to exceed expectations, comfortably surpassing $100 million in revenues for the quarter — typically its seasonally slowest quarter,” the CFO said.

Executive Chairman-CEO Lachlan Murdoch hailed an “absolutely historic” upfront for the Fox Network and its cable and digital siblings, and then focused on the ad rebound already underway. “All of our categories are up very strongly, with the exception of two, which are auto and telecom,” he noted, referring to the local station business.

“For our local TV stations, retail is up like 10%. Entertainment, which includes that really growing and exploding wagering category, is up 300% year-on-year. Media is up 43%. Pharmaceutical up 25%. Even travel, which is a much smaller category for us locally, up 76%. So, a lot of growth from the majority of categories, with the exceptions of auto and telco,” Murdoch said.

“If you exclude political advertising, our sales are pacing up about 8% locally,” he added.