Benefiting from one-time gains and the continued strength of cable channels like Fox News, News Corp posted earnings that generally exceeded analysts’ expectations.
The company said that net income in the third quarter of the year jumped to $2.23 billion from $738 million, or 28 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.

The exceptional gain was mostly the sale of the company’s stake in the technology firm NDS Group to Cisco Systems. The company’s revenue rose to $8.14 billion, up from $7.96 billion.

Chairman Ruperet Murdoch said that the company was led by “double-digit growth in our channels business and the global success of our film and television content.”

The company’s cable channels segment made almost a billion dollars in profit in the quarter, because of an 8 percent jump in advertising revenue and a 16 percent increase in revenue from subscriber fees. Its film division made $400 million in profit and its television division (the Fox network and local stations) made $156 million.

The cable division benefited from what the company called “a more than doubling of retransmission consent revenues,” the fees paid by cable and satellite companies to show local stations.

Publishing, on the other hand, showed a profit of just $57 million, down from $110 million in the same quarter last year. The company cited lower advertising revenue across all segments, led by declines in the publishing business in both Australia and the United States.

Ongoing charges relating to the phone hacking investigation in Britain cost the company $67 million in the quarter.

Categories: Articles, Business, Cable, Results