News Corp Reports Third Quarter Results for Fiscal 2019

News Corp Reports Third Quarter Results for Fiscal 2019

Fiscal 2019 Third Quarter Key Financial Highlights

Revenues were $2.46 billion, a 17% increase compared to $2.09 billion in the prior year, reflecting the consolidation of Foxtel and continued strength at the Book Publishing segment

Net income was $23 million compared to a net loss of ($1.1) billion, which included non-cash impairment charges and write-downs of $1.2 billion in the prior year

Total Segment EBITDA was $247 million compared to $181 million in the prior year

Reported EPS were $0.02 compared to ($1.94) in the prior year - Adjusted EPS were $0.04 compared to $0.06 in the prior year

Digital-only subscribers for The Wall Street Journal grew 19% in the quarter to a new record of approximately 1.8 million

HarperCollins demonstrated another robust financial performance with 29% Segment EBITDA growth, driven by impressive new releases and strong backlist sales

New Foxtel expanded its over-the-top services with 714,000 total paying OTT subscribers, which includes Kayo Sports and Foxtel Now, growing over 80% since the beginning of the calendar year

Digital Real Estate Services segment posted healthy growth in its Real estate revenues despite the volatility in the U.S. and Australian property markets and foreign currency headwinds

New York, NY - May 9, 2019 - News Corporation ( News Corp or the Company ) (Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) today reported financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2019.

Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Robert Thomson said:

News Corp reaped rewards from our digital strategy this quarter, underscored by a robust rise in digital subscriptions across our media properties, a sharp increase in digital audio book sales and continued expansion at our digital real estate businesses despite volatile conditions in property markets.

For the third quarter, the Company saw 17% revenue growth and a 36% increase in profitability, reflecting the consolidation of Foxtel and the sterling performance overall at HarperCollins. And for the nine months, our revenues were 20% higher and profitability was 29% higher compared to the prior year.

At the News and Information Services segment, digital paid subscriptions continued their ebullient expansion, with growth of over 19% to nearly 1.8 million at The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones has also been bolstered by its Professional Information Business, particularly in Risk and Compliance, where we have had nine straight quarters of revenue growth above 20%.

At Move, revenues increased in a challenging housing market earlier this year, and we are confident that there are signs of improvement in U.S. economic activity that should surely bode well for the market. Encouragingly, realtor.com achieved record audience in April of 69.4 million uniques, and 209 million visits, and audience numbers have accelerated recently.

HarperCollins delivered a particularly strong result, with profitability increasing 29%, highlighted by 30% revenue growth in digital audio books and increased revenue from its comprehensive backlist and a strong suite of new releases, which are generating much momentum.

Within our Subscription Video Services segment, the recently launched over-the-top subscription service, Kayo Sports, showed much promise, gathering 239,000 subscribers since its launch late last year, 209,000 of which were paying, as of May 8. Since the beginning of this calendar year, the number of our total paying OTT subscribers has increased more than 80% to 714,000.

Third Quarter Results

The Company reported fiscal 2019 third quarter total revenues of $2.46 billion, a 17% increase compared to $2.09 billion in the prior year period. The growth reflects the impact from the consolidation of Foxtel's results following the combination of Foxtel and FOX SPORTS Australia (the Transaction ) into a new company ( new Foxtel ) and continued strong performance at the Book Publishing segment, partially offset by a $90 million negative impact from foreign currency fluctuations and lower print advertising revenues at the News and Information Services segment. The results also include $17 million of lower revenues as a result of the adoption of the new revenue recognition standard. Adjusted Revenues (which exclude the foreign currency impact, acquisitions and divestitures as defined in Note 1) increased 2%.

Net income for the quarter was $23 million compared to a net loss of ($1.1) billion in the prior year, reflecting the absence of the non-cash impairment charges and write-downs of $1.2 billion recognized in the third quarter of fiscal 2018, and higher Total Segment EBITDA, as discussed below, partially offset by higher depreciation and amortization expense.

The Company reported third quarter Total Segment EBITDA of $247 million, a 36% increase compared to $181 million in the prior year, also reflecting the Transaction and continued strength in the Book Publishing segment. The growth was partially offset by lower contribution from the News and Information Services segment and higher costs associated with the Opcity acquisition in the Digital Real Estate Services segment. Adjusted Total Segment EBITDA (as defined in Note 1) decreased 4%.

Net income per share available to News Corporation stockholders was $0.02 as compared to a net loss per share of ($1.94) in the prior year.

Adjusted EPS (as defined in Note 3) were $0.04 compared to $0.06 in the prior year.

Please click here for the full Earnings Release information.

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About News Corp

News Corp (Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content. The company comprises businesses across a range of media, including: news and information services, book publishing, digital real estate

LINK:	https://newscorp.com/2019/05/09/news-corp-reports-third-quarter-result...
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