21st Century Fox TV Rev Up 5% To $1.3B

21st Century Fox on Wednesday reported first quarter (its fiscal third quarter) Television segment revenues totaled $1.3 billion, 5% higher than the corresponding period in the prior year due to strong retransmission consent revenue growth and higher advertising revenues led by higher political spending at the TV stations.

Television generated quarterly segment OIBDA (operating income before depreciation and amortization) of $125 million, a $16 million decrease from the $141 million reported in the prior year quarter. The decrease in segment OIBDA was driven by higher contractual sports programming costs at the Fox Broadcast Network that more than offset the higher revenues.

Cable Network Programming quarterly segment OIBDA increased 12% to $1.38 billion driven by a 10% revenue increase on higher affiliate revenues and low double digit advertising revenue growth, partially offset by a 9% increase in expenses. The increase in expenses was primarily due to higher entertainment programming and marketing costs at FX Networks and higher political coverage costs at Fox News partially offset by lower sports rights costs at STAR India due to the absence of the prior year broadcast of the ICC Cricket World Cup.

The company as a whole reported total quarterly revenues of $7.23 billion, an increase of $388 million, or 6%, from the $6.84 billion of revenues reported in the prior year. This revenue growth reflects higher affiliate and advertising revenues at both the Cable Network Programming and Television segments partially offset by lower television production revenues at the Filmed Entertainment segment. The adverse impact of foreign exchange rates in the current quarter impacted revenue growth by $204 million, or 3% in total.

Quarterly total segment operating income before depreciation and amortization of $1.88 billion increased $204 million, or 12%, from the $1.68 billion of quarterly OIBDA reported in the prior year. The increase principally reflects double-digit OIBDA growth at each of the Company’s Filmed Entertainment and Cable Network Programming segments partially offset by lower contributions from the Television segment.

Read the company’s report here.