Fox Corporation reported a 5% year-over-year increase in revenue its first quarter earnings for 2026 on Thursday morning before the market opened. Most of the company’s growth was attributed to an increase in advertising revenue driven by both Tubi and the return of the NFL, with Tubi scoring its first profitable quarter ever to the tune of a 27% surge in revenue.
Revenues for Fox increased 6%, while strong news pricing and higher sports pricing partially offset the lower political advertising spends the company saw this quarter. Last year, Q1 was an especially strong quarter for Fox when it came to political advertising thanks to the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Additionally, content and other revenues increased 12% during the quarter.
Here are the key results:
Net Income: $609 million, a 27% decrease compared to the first quarter of 2025.
Earnings Per Share: $1.51 adjusted, a 4% year-over-year increase compared to $1.10 expected by analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance.
Revenue: $3.74 billion, up 5% year-over-year compared to $3.57 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance for the quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA: $1.07 billion, a 1%% year-over-year increase.
On the traditional television side, distribution revenues increased by 3% year-over-year to hit $1.92 billion. This was due to a 3% increase in the cable network programming segment as well as a 2% increase in the television segment. But the biggest source for the quarter’s growth was Fox’s advertising revenue.
On Thursday, Fox also announced a $1.5 billion stock repurchase plan in an effort to boost its share price. The plan will start on Friday.
“The quality of our assets and their consistent capacity to deliver financially gives me great confidence in the positive outlook for Fox,” said Lachlan Murdoch, executive chair and chief executive officer at Fox, wrote in a letter to shareholders. “This morning’s announcement to leverage the strength of our balance sheet with a $1.5 billion accelerated share repurchase transaction clearly underscores this confidence along with our commitment to creating value for our shareholders.”
In the 15 minutes after the stock market opened on Thursday, Fox’s share price increased by 4%.
However, profits were down during the quarter. Net income was $609 million during the quarter, a 27% decrease year over year. During the first quarter of 2025, Fox reported a significant net income increase that was driven by the company’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) growth as well as a change in fair value after the company’s investment in the sports betting company Flutter was recognized in non-operating income.
This quarter was a big one for two reasons. One, it marked the first time Lachlan Murdoch — and Lachlan Murdoch alone — fully took the reins of the company. Fox’s ownership been a long and complicated battle ever since Rupert Murdoch announced he was stepping down in 2023. But in September, Lachlan secured control of both Fox Corporation and News Corp through a trust, and his three siblings received $1.1 billion through sales of their shares in the company.
The first quarter of 2026 also marked the launch of Fox One, the company’s streaming service that became available in August. Though Fox didn’t have much to share about the new offering, Murdoch emphasized that partnerships are going to be a big part of its growth strategy, emphasizing the streamer’s collaborations with ESPN, Verizon and Amazon.
“Amazon’s been a brilliant partner at launch and has done a tremendous job in distributing and the product and acquiring,” Murdoch said during the earnings call.
Murdoch also revealed that sports (unsurprisingly) has been a big driver of people signing up for the streaming service. “It’s early days, but we couldn’t be more pleased with how well Fox One is doing,” he said.
