Fox’s revenue “edged higher” in the fiscal Q1 but “was weighed down by a soft advertising market,” according to Will Feuer of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Fox’s advertising revenue “slipped 2% in the three months” ended Sept. 30, “despite a boost from the broadcast of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.” In Fox’s cable-network programming business, “revenue slipped 3%, dragged down by lower advertising sales.” The segment’s costs “were pushed higher by sports-programming rights and the broadcast of the Women’s World Cup.” The company reported $1.78B in revenue, “up nearly 4%.” Growth was “lifted by the broadcast of the Women’s World Cup on Fox Sports and growth at Tubi” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/2).
DOLLARS AND SENSE: Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch on a morning analyst call said on the advertising front that Fox Corp. was “coming through the soft advertising market, especially in entertainment, better than rivals with a focus on sports and news.” Murdoch said they “hear, and understand, that the advertising market appears to be mixed, or unsettled.” Murdoch: “However, we are not seeing that to the same extent due to our focus on sports and news. With sports, we’re seeing high demand around our NFL and college football schedule.” The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s Szalai & Vlessing noted Murdoch also addressed the company’s decision to pass on renewing the Friday night WWE SmackDown series, “which will leave Fox and jump to USA Network, beginning in October 2024.” Murdoch said they are “not hitting the advertising numbers for the audience of WWE to return on our investment, and we didn’t attribute enough significant retransmission revenue to the WWE. The ROI did not meet our disciplined parameters, so we wished them luck and we’ve moved on from them.” Murdoch added Fox Corp. was “continuing with contract renewal talks with NASCAR, where the return on investment was ‘exceeding our expectations from an ROI point of view’” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 11/2).
MORE STREAMING: The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s Erik Hayden reported Paramount Global “hit 63 million global streaming subscribers” in the latest quarter (up from 61 million as of the end of June) and “kept narrowing losses in its direct-to-consumer segment to $238 million, a possibly encouraging sign for Wall Street.” Paramount reported $621M in operating income profit for the Q3, “up 10 percent from the same frame a year ago” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 11/2).
