Fox beats estimates for quarterly revenue on sports, Tubi strength

By Harshita Mary Varghese

Feb 4 (Reuters) – Fox Corp topped Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue on Wednesday, buoyed by strong advertising demand at its news and sports networks and growth at its ad-supported streaming service Tubi.

Demand for Fox’s news and sports programming remained resilient, helped by strong audience engagement for live events such as National Football League games and solid viewership at Fox News, which has continued to command premium advertising rates.

The NFL is the most popular professional league in the U.S., with games regularly drawing tens of millions of viewers.

Fox’s networks are considered must-have content and are included in all major pay-TV and virtual bundles, giving the company leverage in distributor negotiations, analysts say.

The cable network programming segment, which houses Fox News and cable sports networks, reported revenue growth of 5% to $2.28 billion in the second quarter. The segment reported advertising revenue growth of 7%.

Fox News added more than 200 new brand advertisers after the U.S. presidential election cycle, with those firms continuing to spend beyond one-off news events, analysts say.

Tubi delivered its most streamed quarter in the last three months of the year, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in a post-earnings call.

Tubi has broadened Fox’s reach in the ad-supported streaming market, helping attract younger cord-cutting viewers that are increasingly hard for traditional television to reach.

“Under Fox’s guidance, Tubi set itself apart from other free streaming services by offering an eclectic collection of programming,” eMarketer Senior Analyst Ross Benes said.

The subscription service, Fox One, gained traction through sign-ups and bundle deals in the period, its first full quarter since its launch in August.

Total revenue for the second quarter came in at $5.18 billion, compared with estimates of $5.06 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)