Latest news with #FoxCorp
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Should WisdomTree U.S. MidCap ETF (EZM) Be on Your Investing Radar?
Launched on 02/23/2007, the WisdomTree U.S. MidCap ETF (EZM) is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to provide a broad exposure to the Mid Cap Value segment of the US equity market. The fund is sponsored by Wisdomtree. It has amassed assets over $752.19 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the Mid Cap Value segment of the US equity market. With market capitalization between $2 billion and $10 billion, mid cap companies usually contain higher growth prospects than large cap companies, and are considered less risky than their small cap counterparts. Thus, companies that fall under this category provide a stable and growth-heavy investment. Value stocks are known for their lower than average price-to-earnings and price-to-book ratios, but investors should also note their lower than average sales and earnings growth rates. Considering long-term performance, value stocks have outperformed growth stocks in almost all markets; however, they are more likely to underperform growth stocks in strong bull markets. Since cheaper funds tend to produce better results than more expensive funds, assuming all other factors remain equal, it is important for investors to pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.38%, putting it on par with most peer products in the space. It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.27%. While ETFs offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, a deep look into a fund's holdings is a valuable exercise. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis. This ETF has heaviest allocation to the Financials sector--about 19.20% of the portfolio. Industrials and Consumer Discretionary round out the top three. Looking at individual holdings, Fox Corp - Class A (FOXA) accounts for about 0.99% of total assets, followed by Albertsons Cos Inc - Class A (ACI) and Walgreen Boots Alliance Inc (WBA). The top 10 holdings account for about 7.71% of total assets under management. EZM seeks to match the performance of the WisdomTree U.S. MidCap Earnings Index before fees and expenses. The WisdomTree U.S. MidCap Index is a fundamentally weighted index that measures the performance of earnings-generating companies within the mid-capitalization segment of the U.S. Stock Market. The ETF has lost about -3.71% so far this year and was up about 3.43% in the last one year (as of 06/02/2025). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $51.81 and $68.19. The ETF has a beta of 1.08 and standard deviation of 21.51% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 553 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk. WisdomTree U.S. MidCap ETF carries a Zacks ETF Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Thus, EZM is a good option for those seeking exposure to the Style Box - Mid Cap Value area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space. The iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF (IWS) and the Vanguard Mid-Cap Value ETF (VOE) track a similar index. While iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF has $13.03 billion in assets, Vanguard Mid-Cap Value ETF has $17.52 billion. IWS has an expense ratio of 0.23% and VOE charges 0.07%. Retail and institutional investors increasingly turn to passively managed ETFs because they offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; these kind of funds are also excellent vehicles for long term investors. To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report WisdomTree U.S. MidCap ETF (EZM): ETF Research Reports Albertsons Companies, Inc. (ACI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Fox Corporation (FOXA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Vanguard Mid-Cap Value ETF (VOE): ETF Research Reports iShares Russell Mid-Cap Value ETF (IWS): ETF Research Reports This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Zacks.com featured highlights NetEase, Fox, Qifu Technology and UGI
Chicago, IL – May 30, 2025 – The stocks in this week's article are NetEase Inc. NTES, Fox Corp. FOX, Qifu Technology Inc. QFIN and UGI Corp. UGI. After staging a strong comeback from the lows hit in early April, Wall Street has been experiencing volatile trading again in recent weeks. Growing uncertainty around the new U.S. administration's economic tariffs continues to weigh on investor sentiment. In such a scenario, investors should shift their focus to products that provide stability and safety in a rocky market. And nothing seems better than dividend investing, which offers income and stability. Though dividend stocks do not offer dramatic price appreciation, they are a major source of consistent income for investors to create wealth when returns from the equity market are at risk. In fact, picking stocks with a history of dividend growth leads to a healthy portfolio with a greater scope of capital appreciation as opposed to simple dividend-paying stocks or those with high yields. We have selected four dividend growth stocks — NetEase Inc., Fox Corp., Qifu Technology Inc. and UGI Corp. — that could be compelling picks for investors amid the current market turmoil. Stocks that have a strong history of dividend growth belong to mature companies, which are less susceptible to large swings in the market, and thus act as a hedge against economic or political uncertainty as well as stock market volatility. At the same time, these offer downside protection with their consistent increase in payouts. Additionally, these stocks have superior fundamentals that make dividend growth a quality and promising investment for the long term. These include a sustainable business model, a long track of profitability, rising cash flows, good liquidity, a strong balance sheet and some value characteristics. Further, a history of strong dividend growth indicates that a dividend increase is likely in the future. Although these stocks do not necessarily have the highest yields, they have outperformed for a longer period than the broader stock market or any other dividend-paying stock. Here are four of the five stocks that fit the bill: Beijing-based NetEase is an Internet technology company engaged in the development of applications, services and other technologies for the Internet in China. The stock saw a solid earnings estimate revision of 70 cents for this year over the past 30 days and has an expected earnings growth rate of 10.6%. NetEase has a Zacks Rank #1 and a Growth Score of A. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. New York-based Fox Corp. produces and distributes news, sports and entertainment content. The company's brands include FOX News, FOX Sports, the FOX Network, the FOX Television Stations and sports cable networks FS1, FS2, Fox Deportes and Big Ten Network. The company saw a positive earnings estimate revision of 5 cents for the fiscal year (ending June 2025) over the past 30 days and has an expected earnings growth rate of 32.4%. Fox Corporation has a Zacks Rank #1 and a Growth Score of B. China-based Qifu Technology is a Credit-Tech platform principally in China that provides a comprehensive suite of technology services to assist financial institutions and consumers and SMEs in the loan lifecycle, ranging from borrower acquisition, preliminary credit assessment, fund matching and post-facilitation services. The stock saw a positive earnings estimate revision of a penny for this year over the past 30 days and has an expected earnings growth rate of 22.6%. Qifu has a Zacks Rank #2 and a Growth Score of A. Pennsylvania-based UGI Corp. is a holding company that distributes, stores, transports and markets energy products and related services through its subsidiaries. It is a domestic and international retail distributor of propane and butane liquefied petroleum gases; a provider of natural gas and electric service via regulated local distribution utilities; a generator of electricity and a regional marketer of energy commodities. The stock saw a positive earnings estimate revision of a couple of cents for the fiscal year (ending September 2025) over the past 30 days. UGI Corporation has a Zacks Rank #2 and a Growth Score of B. You can get the remaining stock on this list by signing up now for your 2-week free trial to the Research Wizard and start using this screen in your own trading. Further, you can also create your own strategies and test them first before taking the investment plunge. The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use. Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start your Research Wizard trial today. And the next time you read an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds in, and see what gems come out. Click here to sign up for a free trial to the Research Wizard today. Disclosure: Officers, directors and employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options mentioned in this material. Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks' portfolios and strategies is available at: Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.7% average gain per year. Amazingly, they soared with average gains of +48.4%, +50.2% and +56.7% per year. Today you can access their live picks without cost or obligation. See Stocks Free >> For the rest of this Screen of the Week article please visit at: Follow us on Twitter: Join us on Facebook: Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Contact: Jim Giaquinto Company: Phone: 312-265-9268 Email: pr@ Visit: provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report NetEase, Inc. (NTES) : Free Stock Analysis Report UGI Corporation (UGI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Fox Corporation (FOX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Qifu Technology, Inc. (QFIN) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Time of India
13-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Fox reports upbeat third-quarter revenue on strong advertising push
HighlightsFox Corporation reported a 27 per cent increase in revenue, reaching $4.37 billion in the third quarter, surpassing Wall Street estimates. The company experienced a 65 per cent rise in advertising revenue, totaling $2.04 billion, driven significantly by the viewership of the Super Bowl. An estimated 127.7 million viewers watched the Super Bowl, marking it as the largest audience for a single-network telecast in television history, according to Nielsen ratings. Fox Corp beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue on Monday as the media company benefited from strong advertising driven by the Super Bowl. More advertisers have turned to the company, which owns brands such as FOX News , FOX Sports and the Tubi streaming service , to capture its viewership. An estimated 127.7 million viewers tuned in for the Super Bowl National Football League championship broadcast by Fox, the largest audience in TV history for a single-network telecast, the Nielsen ratings agency said in February. The Super Bowl is the biggest event on U.S. television each year and its audience has increased in recent years, while viewership for much of traditional TV has declined. Revenue rose 27 per cent to $4.37 billion in the third quarter, compared with analysts' average estimate of $4.18 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Advertising revenue increased 65 per cent to $2.04 billion, beating an estimate of $1.67 billion.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Q3 2025 Fox Corp Earnings Call
Gabrielle Brown; Executive Vice President & Chief Investor Relations Officer; Fox Corp Lachlan Murdoch; Executive Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer; Fox Corp Steve Tomsic; Chief Financial Officer; Fox Corp Michael Morris; Analyst; Guggenheim Securities John Hodulik; Analyst; UBS Investment Bank Jessica Reif Ehrlich; Analyst; BofA Securities, Inc. Benjamin Swinburne; Analyst; Morgan Stanley Steven Cahall; Analyst; Wells Fargo Securities Michael Ng; Analyst; Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Operator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fox Corporation third quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I'll now turn the conference over to Chief Investor Relations Officer, Ms. Gabrielle Brown. Please go ahead, Ms. Brown. Gabrielle Brown Thank you, Pauly. Good morning and welcome to our fiscal 2025 third quarter earnings call. Joining me on the call today are Lachlan Murdoch, Executive Chair and Chief Executive Officer; John Nallen, Chief Operating Officer; and Steve Tomsic, our Chief Financial Officer. First, Lachlan and Steve will give some prepared remarks on the most recent quarter, and then we'll take questions from the investment community. Please note that this call may include forward-looking statements regarding Fox Corporation's financial performance and operating results. These statements are based on management's current expectations, and actual results could differ from what is stated as a result of certain factors identified on today's call and in the company's SEC filings. Additionally, this call will include certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA or EBITDA as we refer to it on this call. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and our SEC filings, which are available in the Investor Relations section of our website. And with that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Lachlan. Lachlan Murdoch Thank you, Gabby, and thank you all for joining us this morning. It's a particularly beautiful spring morning in New York this morning. I hope everyone's had a chance to enjoy it. Our fiscal third quarter underscored the central role Fox plays in informing and entertaining America, and our financial performance once again illustrates the strength of the Fox platform. Whether it be our market leading coverage, what has been a sustained active news cycle, or a record-breaking broadcast of the Super Bowl, we delivered across the board milestones during the third quarter. Total company advertising revenue grew 65% in the quarter, including the Super Bowl, which generated over $800 million of gross advertising revenue across our businesses, a record for both our national broadcast network and our local TV stations. This year's matchup between Kansas City and Philadelphia delivered 128 million viewers across Fox platforms, making Super Bowl 59 the most watched telecast in US history. Our affiliate revenues also had a notable quarter, with total revenue growth of 3% on the back of higher rates and improved subscriber declines for the third consecutive quarter. These robust results continue to build upon Fox's noteworthy first half and put us on track to complete a strong fiscal year. Notably, these third quarter results reflected the highest free cash flow in Fox's history. While we recognize the commentary around the macro environment, we have seen no impact to our business. Our ratings and engagement are strong. National advertising scatter pricing is outpacing last year's upfront rates with solid demand, and Tubi continues its top line momentum. We remain confident that our best-in-class assets, disciplined approach, and fortress-like balance sheets will continue to set us apart. In fact, in just a few hours, we will host America's top advertisers at this year's upfront presentation here in New York. We approach this upfront cycle on a uniquely strong footing, knowing that our focus on live sports and news programming combined with Tubi's commanding position in the AVOD Segment and our exceptional entertainment offering will continue to offer rare value to our advertising partners. Nowhere is Fox's leadership more evident than Fox News, where once again the Fox News Channel finished the quarter as the most watched cable network. But even more remarkable is that during the quarter, Fox News was the second most watched network in Monday through Friday prime in all of television, surpassing all but one broadcast network. This combination of an engaged audience and a dynamic news cycle led to record audience share in the quarter. Fox News Channel had one of the highest rated quarters in cable news history, growing total day audience 48% in total viewers and 58% in the demo, and reaching our highest quarterly share of cable news audience ever. In fact, since the election, Fox News has delivered the top 1,013 cable news telecasts. This rating and share momentum has carried into the current quarter with April total ratings up nearly 30%, primetime ratings up over 30%, and primetime cable news audience share in the 60% range. I should also highlight our digital consumption trends which demonstrate our news content is resonating with an expanded audience beyond the linear world. Fox News digital group page views 18% year-on-year to a record 11 billion views and closed the quarter with the highest number of YouTube views in its history. Engagement at Fox Sports is also unmatched in the industry, especially after a solid NFL postseason. For the 2024-2025 television season today, Fox Sports ranks as the industry leader in live sports event viewership, accumulating 3.3 billion hours of sports event viewing, 17% better than our closest competitor. While the sports calendar in our fiscal fourth quarter tend to be quieter, we see strong audience and advertiser demand for our schedule, including NASCAR, the inaugural season of IndyCar and Fox, and the start of the baseball season. Turning to Digital, to be delivered another outstanding quarter with revenue growth of 35% year-on-year. This marks an acceleration compared to the 31% growth we posted in the December quarter, which is even more impressive when considering the last quarter benefited from political revenue. As you know, to be played an essential role in extending the reach of the Super Bowl, bringing in over 24 million unique viewers on game day and 16 million peak concurrent viewers during the game. Of those unique viewers, 40% were in the 18 to 34 demo, and half of those were female. Reciprocally, the Super Bowl provided a unique promotional opportunity for Tubi, which attracted over 8 million new registered viewers. While engagement on the platform was certainly helped by the Super Bowl, retention and consumption trends at Tubi post the Super Bowl are also very encouraging, with total view time up 24% year-over-year in April. Tubi has established itself as a leading player in the streaming world, offering premium on-demand entertainment and original content that is 100% free for consumers. We think this combined with Tubi's large, young and diverse, highly engaged audience of mostly cordless viewers, offers advertisers an unrivaled value proposition. Also well positioned for the upfront is Fox Entertainment, which had a strong broadcast season, levering the Super Bowl lead-in to launch the third season of The Floor. This, along with other top rated shows like Doc and Universal Basic Guys, helped propel Fox to the top spot in primetime season to date among adults 18 to 49. As we wrap up another successful quarter, it is clear that Fox's differentiated and focused strategy continues to outperform. The reach of our brands and our compelling programming led to impressive annual consumption growth of 34% across the entire Fox portfolio during the third quarter. When it comes to live events and news, Fox's leadership has never been clearer. There's a lot to be excited about as we look ahead. The work of our dedicated team of journalists and staff at Fox News and other local stations across which we make substantial investments in news reporting nationally and locally, a compelling spring sports schedule taking viewers from the racetrack to the ballpark and the leverage, the elevated brand awareness of Tubi has to drive increased engagement in homes across America. We're also excited about our direct-to-consumer plans. Since the formation of Fox, we have created a unique platform of America's best known media brands across the key verticals of news, sports, and entertainment. These are the brands that resonate with our audiences and that advertisers value so highly. Whether it's the Super Bowl, the election cycle, or the upfront, our company is at its best when we work together as one. That key attribute is the basis of our upcoming D2C offering named Fox One, where targeted consumers, the cordless market outside of pay TV can find all the Fox brands they love. Fox One is on track to launch before the football season this fall, and we look forward to sharing further details about the service in the coming months. With the brisk tailwinds from both our strong operating momentum and financial results, we will continue to focus on execution and remain committed to delivering long-term value for our shareholders in a thoughtful and disciplined manner. And with that I will turn the call over to the thoughtful and disciplined, Steve Tomsic to take you through the details of the quarter. Steve Tomsic Thank you, Lachlan. Good morning, everyone. As Lachlan said, Fox delivered another quarter of impressive results highlighted by a 27% increase in total revenues and record free cash flow. Our advertising revenues increased 65%, led by the combination of a record-breaking Super Bowl, accelerating growth at Tubi, and strong engagement and pricing at News. Total company affiliate fee revenues grew 3% over the prior year quarter, once again, demonstrating the strength of our brands and focused portfolio of channels. Other revenues grew 20% year-over-year, driven by high sports sub-licensing revenues at our cable segment. Similar to prior quarters, this growth in revenue was largely offset by a corresponding increase in rights costs, with no material impact on year-over-year overall EBITDA growth. Quarterly adjusted EBITDA was $856 million as compared to the $891 million reported in the prior year quarter, as these revenue increases were offset by higher expenses. This was primarily due to higher sports rights amortization and production costs associated with our broadcast to the Super Bowl. Net income attributable to Fox stockholders was $346 million or $0.75 per share as compared to the $666 million or $1.40 per share reported in the prior year period. Excluding non-core items, adjusted net income was $507 million and adjusted EPS was $1.10, up slightly compared to $1.09 per share recorded in the prior year. Now turning to our operating segments, starting with the cable network programming segment, which delivered 11% revenue growth and 7% EBITDA growth. Cable advertising revenues grew 26% over the prior year, driven by the strength in Fox News linear ratings and digital engagement and supported by healthy national and direct response pricing. Cable affiliate fee revenues grew 3% over the prior year quarter as pricing gains from our affiliate renewals outpaced the impact from net subscriber declines, which continued to improve to under 7%. Cable other revenues grew 79% due to the high sports up licensing revenues I mentioned earlier. Revenue growth at the cable segment was partially offset by a 16% increase in expenses, primarily attributable to an increase in sports rights amortization and production costs, including amortization corresponding to the incremental sports sub-licensing revenues. Turning to our television segment which delivered 40% revenue growth. Advertising revenues at our television segment grew 77% over the prior year, led by Super Bowl 59, which generated over $800 million in gross revenues. If we exclude the tremendous revenue contribution from the Super Bowl, we still saw solid underlying growth in our TV segment advertising revenues, led by accelerating growth at Tubi. Television affiliate fee revenues increased 4% in the quarter, as healthy growth in fees across both Fox-owned and affiliated stations more than offset the impact from industry subscriber declines. Television and other revenues were up 3% year-over-year, primarily due to high content revenues tied to our entertainment production studios. Expenses at the television segment increased 47%, driven by our broadcaster Super Bowl 59, as well as continued investment at Tubi. All in, EBITDA at our television segment was $60 million as compared to the $145 million reported in the prior year quarter. Turning to cash flow, where we generated a record quarterly free cash flow of over $1.9 billion. This strong quarterly free cash flow delivery is consistent with the seasonality of our working capital cycle, where the first half of our fiscal year reflects the concentration of payments for sports rights and build-up of advertising-related receivables, both of which reverse in the second half of our fiscal year. In terms of capital allocation, fiscal year-to-date, we have repurchased an additional $800 million through our share buyback program. This brings the total cumulative amount repurchased to $6.4 billion or approximately 30% of our total shares outstanding since the launch of the buyback program in 2019. We remain committed to utilizing our full buyback authorization of $7 billion. This is supported by the strength of our balance sheet, where we ended the quarter with approximately $4.8 billion in cash and $7.2 billion in debt. And since quarter end, we repaid our $600 million debt maturity, which came due in April. And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Gabby. Gabrielle Brown Thanks, Steve. And now we would be happy to take questions from the investment community. Operator (Operator Instructions) Michael Morris, Guggenheim. Michael Morris Thank you. Good morning. I wanted to ask about Fox One. I know you said details will follow, but love to try to get some details on your view of pricing of the product, the addressable market, and whether you expect to take on any partnerships or bundle or things like that. And if I could squeeze in one more, I know it's a little early, but Steve, could you give us any thoughts on looking into fiscal '26 and how we should think about any of the puts and takes after the strong fiscal '25 to date? Thank you. Lachlan Murdoch Thanks, Mike. So, I'll answer the Fox One questions, and I can't give you a great amount of detail, but we'll be rolling these things out obviously as we get closer to the fall and to the start of the football season, which we will be launching beforehand. The pricing will be in line with our wholesale, well our wholesale pricing. So, we think that's the appropriate level at the most fair to our distributors. So the pricing will be healthy. It will not be discounted price, and very much just targeted to the -- which goes to your addressable market question, we're targeting the service entirely to the cordless community, the cordless market out there. It would be a failure of us if we attract more connected subscribers or we do not want to lose a traditional cable subscriber to Fox One, and we're doing everything we can to make sure as much as is humanly possible that's the way we market and that's the way we plan the business. But yes, we will be entering partnerships with other distributors and services to offer Fox One as you see other streaming services do. So we will be working with partners to gain the broader possible distribution within the focus of that cordless viewer. Steve? Steve Tomsic Yeah, thanks, Lachaln. Hi, Mike. So if I look at fiscal '26 versus fiscal 25, obviously -- you look at sort of the big seasonal cyclical drivers of our business. So the big one from a net margin perspective for us this year is political, which obviously is not there in an off year next year. But then Super Bowl from a purely advertising revenue versus rights cost perspective was a deficit for us this year. That's not there in fiscal '26. But then we have FIFA coming through in the very, very back end, which crossovers fiscal '26 versus fiscal '27. Against all of that, we've got really nice tailwinds with our advertising business, both particularly both at Fox News and Tubi. And then we're also continuing to see solid tailwinds with our affiliate revenue growth. And so I think some of the swing factor with fiscal '26, which is probably a little bit too early to call is the extent to which we moderate the investment into the versus the B2C investment, particularly that launch cost investment going into the early part of next fiscal year. So hopefully that gives you a few breadcrumbs. Gabrielle Brown Operator, can we go to the next question, please? Operator John Hodulik, UBS. John Hodulik Great, thank you. In the past, you guys have talked about increasing demand from brand advertisers on Fox News. Could you update us on that? Are you seeing any quantifiable shift from DVR to brand advertising? And I know it's sold differently, but can you comment on the sort of difference in sort of price between what you're getting from DVR and what you're getting from brand advertising. Thanks. Lachlan Murdoch Thanks, John. So I think we're now up to over 200 new advertisers since the election. I think when Steve let the cat out of the bag, it was over 100 or something, but that's grown to over 200 new advertisers. And I think the really positive and important data point to know here is that they are continuing to advertise. So this is not a knee jerk or one-off reaction to the election, but these advertisers have found our audience, the creative work and the position is working for them, and they're sticking on our air and continue to advertise. So we see that as a as a very positive of a recognition of the power of Fox News, the power of our ratings and our programming, and that it's working for these new 200 advertisers and they're sticking with us. In terms of direct response, so I don't think this directly answers your question, I don't want to give specific pricing out, but just so direct response during the quarter on Fox News was up over 30% direct response and our scatter pricing was up over 50% up-front pricing. So the momentum that we're seeing within Fox News obviously driven first by really record setting audience and share that's flung through nicely to the revenue line and that momentum seems to be continuing. Gabrielle Brown Okay. Next question please. Operator Jessica Reif Erlich, Bank of America. Jessica Reif Ehrlich Thank you. Like, well, a couple of things. One, all parts of your business are pretty much surprised on the upside over, I don't know, a while, but maybe nothing more surprising than to be. Can you talk about the path to profitability and the drivers, whether it's programmatic and fill rates or content like what you're doing or what your plans are. And then the balance sheet is just so strong, so clearly you have lots of options. Can you give us some color on how you're thinking about that? Lachlan Murdoch Sure. Hi Jessica. I'll start and then hand over to Steve for the second part of the question. So, thank you for acknowledging the strength of Tubi and the continued growth in Tubi. It's certainly not a surprise to us. We've had a great faith in this business and in its management over the long term, and we believe not only has it had a great track record to date, but we'll continue to have a great prospects and has huge opportunity going into the future. The growth in this quarter was fundamentally and Tubi, like any free media service, it comes back to engagement. And Tubi grew 18% in total viewing time during the quarter, but this flowed through to a 35% revenue improvement in the quarter. So directly from TBT, then your, obviously, your pricing and on your fill rates, but this translate in a 35% revenue improvement in the quarter. I think it's important to know, and without Gabby kicking me on the table, in April, that rate has accelerated in April. And so we are really pleased as we see the progress of our Tubi. But there's a solid advertising base where people continue to advertise on the platform, and it's a very healthy both direct response and partner revenue streams. Tubi really is becoming a mainstream service across America. That's what we've seen the difference over the last year or two, is Tubi becoming something that's a very, very good business that serves 65% of its audience. It's hard to reach the cord-less audience, but it's more and more becoming something that mainstream everyday Americans are using as their free entertainment service. And the only frustrating part about the business is that we don't get the appropriate evaluation within our stock. We think it's a tremendously valuable business, and we're looking forward to outperforming with Tubi for years to come. Steve? Steve Tomsic Yeah. Thank you, Jessica. And thanks for noticing the balance sheet. So yeah, we're at $4.8 billion of cash. The debt position is comfortable. And listen, that's only going to improve through the back half of the year because Q4 is typically a strong free cash flow quarter for us. So obviously, as we think about the usage of that capital, obviously, we look at that on a balanced basis across buybacks and kind of running out of what our authorization. So you should expect that to be topped up as part of the normal cost board business over the course of the remainder of the year. And then if we look at it sort of the other options with respect to that capital, we've obviously invested organically in the business and Tubi, which Lachlan just described, who's been a key beneficiary of that investment over the last couple of years, and that has paid dividends for us. We'll continue to do that, and I guess the next cap off the rank there will be our Fox One venture. And then we look at everything from a non-organic basis, but the bar is incredibly high. So ultimately, we'll deploy capital where it's best for the shareholders. Gabrielle Brown Next question, please. Operator Ben Swinburne, Morgan Stanley. Benjamin Swinburne Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Everyone's doing well. I want to ask about your strategy around direct-to-consumer and sort of the broader affiliate revenue growth at the company. You guys are growing nicely even with cord cutting, which is not true for your competitors, and a lot of them have gone down this path that you talked about Lachlan of sort of bundling the streaming service in with their linear networks. And well, it's hard to tell from outside. In some cases, it looks like 1+1 is less than 2 for those competitors, and I'm just wondering how you're thinking about what you can get out of launching D2C versus any risk you see in your MVPD relationships because you're now going to be essentially competing with your networks through those bundles. And just to finish up the risk conversation, there's been some FCC noise around capping reverse retrans, and I would love to hear your thoughts on that if you see that as a real risk. Thanks so much. Lachlan Murdoch Thanks, Ben. So first, on D2C and how we view that with, and how the balances with our affiliate relationships and the obviously ongoing growth in the affiliate revenue line for us. So, I should start with saying we remain incredibly supportive of and positive about our, the traditional cable bundle and the traditional cable distribution. And as that applies to both our cable channels and also our broadcast affiliate stations. So we will continue to support in every way possible, the traditional model. It's served really the whole industry very well and it served us very well, and we will not be engaging in sort of activities or strategies that undermine or the purpose that undermine the traditional distribution models. Having said that, we think that D2C, it's time for us to launch a D2C service. It's time for us to target that service specifically to cord-nevers. Now, going back to Jessica's question before, when I mentioned that 65% of the Tubi audience is cord-nevers. That's remarkably high, and I failed to mention that that is actually higher for Tubi than anyone in our competitive set. So 65% of our audience is cord and users being cord-nevers. That's higher than Roku. It's higher than Pluto, it's higher than Freebie, Max, Paramount+, or Peacock, and that shows us two things. It shows us why Tubi is so valuable to advertisers who need to reach, who can't get to that audience without us, but it also shows a growing expertise in the company about how we focus on this cordless segment. And so we're going to really take a lot of the learnings we have from Tubi to focus our D2C strategy away from people who might be churning out of the cable universe. We do see the part of the ecosystem that we're talking about. Obviously the emergence of the skinny bundles we think are positive for Fox. The fact that our broadcast, our news, and our sport are in all of these skinny core bundles, we think is very positive. It's too early yet to see the impact of the skinny bundles, but we are very optimistic about them. And even though we've had a few quarters now of declining sub erosion in the market, it's too early to see how much of that is working -- the market getting towards a base level of subscribers or whether it's the impact of skinny bundles. But I'd remind you that in the fourth quarter of '24, the sub declines are about 8.7%. They then went in the first quarter of 25% to 7.8%. In the second quarter, 7.2%, and now minus 6.5%. So continuing decline in sub erosion, which we see is a very healthy trend. And in terms of the FCC, we can't speculate on what the FCC is going to do, but we certainly see the affiliate network relationship as a healthy one. It's always a negotiation that's left to the market. And when we think, it's best left to the market. We also do know that our affiliate agreements are unique and our network is unique in one very important way because we broadcast the fewest amount of network hours of any of the national networks, that leaves our stations to really be able to invest in their own programming, particularly in local news, which we think is critically important to the health of both the local broadcast industry and also to the local communities that they serve. Gabrielle Brown Next question please, operator. Operator Steven Cahill, Wells Fargo. Steven Cahall Thanks. So, on Fox One, I think that's a pull forward in timing, if I recall it was going to be year end and now it's before the football season. So I think, is that right? And congrats on that. And how are you thinking about bundling opportunities with Fox One? I just think about cord-cutters and cord-nevers are probably looking for some integrated subscription options, some integrated viewing experiences that go across sports and across the NFL. So just curious how you're thinking about partnering opportunities on Fox One. And then, Steve, maybe just following up on Jessica's question, could you talk about the timeline for the FanDuel licensing that you need to go through? And is it correct for us to assume that as soon as you're able to exercise that, it's in your interest because the option only gets higher over time, or are you still balancing the exercise of that option with other capital allocation opportunities and priorities? Thanks. Lachlan Murdoch Thanks, Steve. So first with Fox One, I think we might have originally, you might be right, or you might be half right in that. I think we might have originally said that in the year, but I think we did say, after that, that it would be available for the football season. So I think we have said that before. So once again we're not breaking any news on this call. I'll check with the name and the names are breaking news. So, it's not -- it's an aggressive timeline you're correct to launch a service, but we've been planning this for a long time. We've had the technology in place for a long time. Obviously we benefit from a lot of the work done around the venue service, which didn't go forward. So we feel confident in reaching that time frame. Of course, being up before the football season is a critical day for us, but we are very confident moving forward that we're going to make that date and we'll announce a specific day in the weeks or months ahead. We will be bundling with a number of other services. Again, I wouldn't want to announce that prematurely on this call, but obviously with our services as valuable as Fox, a lot of other streaming services have approached us about bundling, and we'll be moving forward with a number of those relationships. Fox One will also be available to every traditional subscriber of our services. We don't want to compete with our distributors. That's not our intent. So if you're already paying for the Fox services through your cable subscription, you'll be able to download and receive a Fox One as well. Steve Tomsic Steve, Just to pick up on the FanDuel option, just the level set there. So we've got until the end of 2030 to exercise our option over 18.6% of that business. So it's a state-by -state licensing regime and so we're actively in discussions with each of the 26 states that we need to get licensed with. As you would know, there's an incredible amount of value locked in that option. So if I just look at where the streets are in terms of the -- in the money, that sort of, the value of the 18.6% versus the strike price is worth about $2.8 billion to us in intrinsic value. And so it's absolutely in our interest to get licensed and we will get license over the coming years. But I think when you look at the accretion in the strike price of about 5% a year, that's not a driving factor in terms of our decision on when to deploy capital towards that. It's really about getting through the licensing regime and then we go. Gabrielle Brown Operator, we have time for one more question. Operator Michael Ng, Goldman Sachs. Michael Ng Hey, good morning. Thank you very much for the question. I was just wondering if you could give us an update on the digital investments. I think last quarter it was a high 200 millions. Obviously with the, outperformance of Tubi to date as well as the greater clarity into the timing and launch of on Fox One, I was wondering if you could just talk about that for this year and perhaps into next again. And then secondly, there have been reports of plans for Disney to vacate the Fox Lot in Century City. I was just wondering if you had any future plans there that you could discuss or options that you may have. Thank you. Lachlan Murdoch Thanks, Mike. So on the digital investment and Steven can give more detail, but Tubi continues to improve financially. We are continuing to invest in Tubi, however, and we'll continue to do that really as we see fit that sort of suits the business. We think we're built on an incredibly valuable business in Tubi, and so we don't want to create kind of a false hurdle for us in terms of profitability, but it's sooner rather than later. And Tubi as you know has now reached beyond a $1 billion in revenue for the trailing 12 months, so that the business is on absolutely the right trajectory. But we'll continue to invest in it for the near to medium term future. Obviously though, that business reaches profitability. We continue to invest organically in the future of our businesses. And so the overall investment in digital properties remains broadly in line. Steve, can give you more detail on that? But just let me quickly answer the Disney, Fox Lot, question. So, obviously the sound stages are in very high demand, and we'll continue to work with Disney and others is to see them effectively booked out. What Disney has announced, they will -- or indicate to us that they will vacate, is their office space on the Lot that is not connected to production, and that represents like less than a third of the office space on the Fox Lot. It's highly valuable real estate, probably valuable real estate in the center cities of the Santa Monica region of Los Angeles, and we think we'll have no problem in filling it. Steve, do you want to add anything? Yes. Steve Tomsic Yeah. So Mike, just on digital investment, I think in fiscal '24, we're in the mid 3s. We'd expect that to come down for fiscal '25. Tubi included in our numbers this quarter was a bit of a surge into the investment spend. It obviously had the Super Bowl and marketed heavily around that and really went -- really use that as a sort of marketing piece as well as a user acquisition piece. But you should expect to see that come back a bit in the final quarter and see our overall digital growth investment envelope shrink over when you look at full year versus full year, and it's probably a bit premature to talk about where we land in fiscal '26. I definitely expect Tubi, as Lachlan mentioned, to continue improve and answer the question of how we start to see Fox Lot investment. Gabrielle Brown Great. At this point, we're out of time, but if you have any further questions, please give me or Charlie Costanzo a call. Thanks once again for joining us today. Steve Tomsic Thank you. Lachlan Murdoch Thank you. Operator Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the Fox Corporation third quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call. Thank you. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
National Post
12-05-2025
- Business
- National Post
Fox to launch new streaming service ‘Fox One' before NFL season
Article content Fox Corp. is planning to launch a new streaming service combining its news, sports and entertainment content before the NFL and college football seasons this fall. Article content Article content Pricing for the new platform, to be called Fox One, will be 'healthy,' and not a 'discounted price,' Chief Executive Officer Lachlan Murdoch said on a call with analysts to discuss quarterly earnings. Fox will also seek partnerships with other distributors and streaming services to 'gain as broad a possible distribution.' Article content The shares jumped as much as 6.9% as trading got underway in New York on Monday, lifted also by fiscal third-quarter earnings that beat expectations. Article content Fox already has a strong presence on cable TV with Fox News, Fox Sports and Fox Business. The streaming offering is designed to house all of its content under one roof, without cannibalizing its traditional audience. Article content Fox One is aimed at the 'cordless community,' Murdoch said. 'We do not want to lose a traditional cable subscriber.' Article content The new service is also partly a result of the collapse of Venu, a sports streaming joint venture with Fox, Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., that fell apart earlier this year due to legal challenges. Now some of the companies are going it alone. Disney will launch its long-planned ESPN streaming option later this year. Article content Fox One will feature personalized technology that adapts to viewing preferences and integrate live and video on-demand content, Fox said in a statement.. Article content 'We have built this platform from the ground up to allow consumers to enjoy and engage with our programming in new and exciting ways, leveraging cutting edge technology to enhance the user experience across the platform,' said Pete Distad, CEO of Fox One. Article content Fox also announced better-than-expected financial results in the first three months of the year, buoyed by broadcasting the Super Bowl. In the fiscal third quarter, Fox reported revenue jumped 27% to $4.37 billion, beating analysts estimates. Earnings per share were 75 cents, compared with $1.40 a year earlier, due to higher costs primarily for sports programming rights and production costs for the Super Bowl broadcast. Article content
