FOX Corp Reports 7.6 Percent Ad Revenue Drop

Fox Corp. Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Lachlan Murdoch said he remained confident that both professional and college football would return next month, which is crucial to the bottom line of the media company.

“We fully expect both college football and the NFL to come back in the fall,” Murdoch told investors on a call Tuesday to discuss its quarterly earnings. Fox relies heavily on sports programming for both its broadcast network and its Fox Sports 1 cable channel.

The Wall Street Journal reports Fox on Tuesday reported lower profit for its latest quarter, hit by a fall in advertising revenue amid a pandemic-related pullback in live sporting events.

The loss of sports this spring was felt at Fox Sports 1 and Fox, Murdoch said. The return of Nascar and baseball has been rewarded with strong advertising, he said.

Lachlan Murdock

The Fox News Channel delivered a very strong quarter. Although some of its prime-time hosts including Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham have experienced advertiser boycotts, the Fox News Media unit—which includes the Fox Business Network—saw overall ad revenue rise, the company said.

“We’re seeing tremendous demand in news,” Murdoch said.

Fox said revenue dropped 3.8% to $2.42 billion from a year earlier, hurt by advertising revenue which fell 7.6%.

Cable-network programming revenue fell 2.2% to $1.27 billion in the quarter, mainly as a result of lower advertising revenues from live sporting events. However, the company recorded higher advertising revenues at Fox News. Television revenue declined 6% from a year ago to $1.11 billion.

Fox posted a profit of $122 million, or 20 cents a share, for the quarter ended June 30, down from $454 million, or 73 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding special items, earnings were 62 cents a share. Analysts projected adjusted earnings of 58 cents a share.

The company, whose businesses include Fox News, the Fox Broadcast Network, Fox Sports and local television stations, was spun off from 21st Century Fox and began trading as a separate public company in March of last year.