21st Century Fox Inc.'s earnings fell 7.4% in the third quarter
following the sale of some satellite businesses, but still topped
expectations on growth from its cable-network business.
Fox's Class A shares, basically flat over the past three months,
rose 0.8% to $33.95 in after-hours trading.
Overall, the company reported a profit of $975 million, down
from $1.05 billion in the year-earlier period. Per-share earnings
fell a penny to 46 cents. Excluding certain items, such as those
related to the sale of Sky Betting & Gaming, the company had
earnings of 42 cents a share.
Revenue declined to $6.84 billion from $8.22 billion a year ago.
The decline was due mostly to the loss of revenue after Fox sold
Sky Italia, Sky Deutschland AG and other businesses.
Analysts had expected earnings of 39 cents a share on revenue of
$6.89 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
Revenue at the company's cable-network segment rose to $3.59
billion from $3.15 billion, which the company credited to strong
growth in affiliate revenue.
Revenue in the filmed entertainment segment grew to $2.39
billion from $2.28 billion, helped in part by "Taken 3" and
"Kingsman: The Secret Service."
Television revenue fell to $1.24 billion from $1.59 billion the
year earlier, hurt by the absence of the Super Bowl this year.
Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@wsj.com
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