Fox Sees Ad Dip But Profit Soars From Year Earlier Quarter Hit By Fox News-Dominion Settlement

Fox Corp. saw revenue dip for its fiscal third quarter as advertising slid on tough comps with the Super Bowl broadcast the year earlier.

Sales of $3.45B, in line with Wall Street expectations, compared with $4.1 billion. Net income for the March quarter soared to $704 million vs a $50 million loss that primarily reflecting the absence of a big charge associated with legal settlement costs at Fox News. Fox paid close to $800 million to settle the suit brought by Dominion Voting Services.

Affiliate fee rose 4% on pricing benefits from recent renewals. Advertising of $1.24 billion compared with $1.88 billion reported in the prior year quarter mostly due to the absence of the prior year broadcast of Super Bowl LVII and fewer NFL games at Fox Sports. Total ad revenue would have increased a few points without those comps.

“FOX’s fiscal third quarter results once again demonstrate how our unique strategy continues to distinguish FOX from our peers,” said CEO Lachlan Murdoch.

“The strength and leadership of our core brands, coupled with our focus on live content and must have event programming, is clearly valued by our audiences, advertisers and distribution partners. The consistent financial delivery from this strategy supports our investments in innovation which are driving momentum in our digital portfolio, led by Tubi. Our balanced capital allocation approach, fortified by our strong balance sheet, underpins our ability to drive long-term value creation for our shareholders.”

Execs are holding a call at 8:30 to go over the number and outlook.