Aug 6 (Reuters) – Fox Corp beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter revenue and profit on Thursday, as the FIFA World Cup boosted advertising sales during a busy news cycle, sending its shares up 2% in premarket trading.
The company held the exclusive U.S. English-language broadcast rights for the World Cup and benefited from strong viewership as well as new so-called hydration breaks that created more ad opportunities by splitting matches into four commercial windows.
Nearly 63 million viewers in the U.S. watched Spain defeat Argentina in the World Cup final in July, setting a new U.S. viewership record for the tournament.
Fox said its revenue rose to $4.21 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $3.64 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Adjusted earnings per share of $1.79 exceeded estimates of $1.42.
The company owns brands including Fox News, Fox Sports, the ad-supported streaming service Tubi and the subscription streaming service Fox One.
Fox One recorded 2.8 million sign-ups in June, its strongest month since the service’s launch in August and more than double the 1.1 million sign-ups generated during NFL Playoffs in January, according to industry tracker Antenna.
The company said its advertising revenue surged 78% to $1.92 billion, driven by the broadcast of the World Cup and continued digital growth at Tubi.
In June, Fox said it would buy Roku in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $22 billion, a move to bolster its presence in streaming on internet-connected TVs and reduce its reliance on traditional cable television, whose audience has been shrinking for years.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
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