21st Century Fox Tuesday on Tuesday reported a revenue gain for its fiscal fourth quarter and a narrowing of its loss from the similar period a year ago.
21st Century Fox reported quarterly revenues of $7.21 billion, which is a $977 million, or 16 percent increase over the prior year's fourth quarter revenue ($6.24 billion).
Net loss narrowed to $308 million for the quarter, compared to a $1.52 billion loss for the comparable fourth quarter in 2012.
The company, formerly known as News Corp., split into two independent entities near the end of the quarter, with 21st Century Fox retaining the media and entertainment businesses. The company's publishing assets remained in News Corp.
Its income from continuing operations reached $1.04 billion for the period, compared to $629 million in the year ago period.
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Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said, "The company not only delivered strong earnings and revenue growth led by our channels businesses, we also positioned ourselves for future success with strategic investments in our global channels businesses, including the acquisitions of Sports Time Ohio and an ownership stake in the YES Network, as well as the announcement of the impending launches of Fox Sports 1 and FXX."
Approximately half of the increase reflects growth at the Cable Network Programming and Filmed Entertainment segments, with the balance primarily relating to this year’s inclusion of Sky Deutschland revenues.
The numbers were bolstered by the successes of DreamWorks Animation’s "The Croods," the home entertainment performance of "Life of Pi," the pay TV performance of "Ice Age: Continental Drift" and "Prometheus."
Theatrical pre-release costs for "The Wolverine" and DreamWorks Animation’s "Turbo" were reflected in the results as well.
For the year, the company reported annual revenues of $27.68 billion, which is a $2.62 billion, or 10 percent increase over prior year revenues of $25.05 billion. Nearly three-quarters of this increase reflects growth at the Cable Network Programming, Filmed Entertainment and Television segments. The balance of the growth primarily relates to the inclusion of Sky Deutschland AG (“Sky Deutschland”) revenues beginning in January 2013.
Looking forward, 21st Century Fox expects its TV segment to experience a strong growth in 2014 as retrans consent revenues increase. Any less revenue on the political side it expects will be made up by carrying Super Bowl 48. Sports will be a major priority for the company as it will invest $200 million to build those networks in 2014 and slightly more in 2015 to turn a profit in 2016.