21st Century Fox Q1 Profit And Revenues Fall

(RTTNews) - Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. (FOXA, FOX) reported that its net income attributable to stockholders for the first-quarter ended September 30, 2015 fell from last year. Quarterly adjusted revenues was down 6% from the prior year, primarily the result of a 7% revenue increase at the Cable Network Programming segment due to higher affiliate and advertising revenues being more than offset by lower revenues generated at the Filmed Entertainment segment due to lower theatrical revenues and the absence of revenues from Shine in the current quarter.

Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch said, "Our cable networks business generated strong growth in the first fiscal quarter, delivering double-digit earnings gains both domestically and internationally on sustained increases in overall affiliate fees, higher advertising revenues and lower expenses. Our quarterly results also reflect the expected impact of challenging comparisons for our film studio due to the timing of key releases, as well as the poor performance of The Fantastic Four."

Net income attributable to stockholders for the quarter fell to $675 million or $0.34 per share from $1.037 billion or $0.47 per share in the same quarter last year.

Quarterly income from continuing operations attributable to stockholders was $678 million or $0.34 per share, compared with $1.04 billion or $0.48 per share in the prior year.

Excluding the net income effects of Other, net and gains and other adjustments related to Sky and Endemol Shine Group included in Equity earnings from affiliates, adjusted quarterly earnings per share from continuing operations attributable to stockholders was $0.38 compared with the adjusted year-ago result of $0.39. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.38 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues for the quarter dropped to $6.08 billion from $7.89 billion in the prior year. Wall Street expected revenues of $6.35 billion for the quarter.

Quarterly total revenues were $6.08 billion, a decrease of $406 million, or 6%, from the $6.48 billion of adjusted revenues reported in the prior year. This decline in adjusted revenues was primarily the result of a 7% revenue increase at the Cable Network Programming segment due to higher affiliate and advertising revenues being more than offset by lower revenues generated at the Filmed Entertainment segment due to lower theatrical revenues and the absence of revenues from Shine in the current quarter.

The adverse impact of foreign exchange rates and the absence of revenues from Shine in the latest-quarter each impacted adjusted revenue growth by approximately $200 million, or 6% in total.