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NEW YORK (AFX) - News Corp. the global media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, swung to a profit in its first fiscal quarter on better results from cable and broadcast TV compared with a year ago, when it recorded a $1 billion accounting charge.
News Corp., which owns the Twentieth Century Fox studio, Fox News Channel, the New York Post and MySpace, earned $843 million in the three months ended in September, versus a net loss of $433 million a year ago.
The results in the prior-year period were dragged down by a $1 billion charge to write down the value of its TV stations' broadcasting licenses. Excluding the charge, the year-ago earnings were $580 million.
The results were equivalent to 28 cents per Class A share, the most widely held class of News Corp. stock, versus a loss of 14 cents per share a year ago. Analysts had been expecting 20 cents per share.
Revenue rose 4.1 percent to $5.91 billion from $5.68 billion in the same period a year ago.
Operating income fell 6.4 percent to $851 million as a steep decline in the often volatile earnings from News Corp.'s hit-driven film and TV business offset significant gains in broadcast and cable television networks.
New Corp.'s magazine and newspaper divisions turned in relatively flat earnings, while its HarperCollins book publishing unit had a 21 percent decline in earnings from a year ago. Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
Copyright 2006 AFX News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
