Twenty-First Century Fox Profit Down - Update

(RTTNews) - Twenty-First Century Fox Inc., (FOXA, FOX) Wednesday reported a drop in profit for the third quarter, as revenues came in short of Wall Street expectations.

Fox's third-quarter profit dropped to $799 million or $0.43 per share from $841 million or $0.44 per share last year.

On an adjusted basis, earnings were $1.00 billion or $0.54 per share, up from $907 million or $0.47 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.48 per share for the quarter.

Revenues for the quarter rose 5 percent to $7.56 billion from $7.23 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $7.59 billion for the quarter.

Revenue growth reflects higher advertising revenue at the Television segment, led by the broadcast of Super Bowl LI, and higher affiliate revenues at both the Cable Network Programming and Television segments partially offset by lower content revenues at the Filmed Entertainment segment, the company said.

Revenue in the cable-network segment rose 2 percent from last year to $4.02 billion, while television revenue jumped 30 percent to $1.69 billion, reflecting increased advertising revenue and continued growth of retransmission consent revenues. Filmed entertainment segment decreased to $2.26 billion from $2.32 billion last year.

"We delivered a quarter marked by operational momentum and strong domestic affiliate fee growth. We continue to demonstrate our ability to capture opportunities to grow distribution of our domestic portfolio of video brands, whether through established MVPD partners or new digital entrants such as Hulu's recently launched live television service," Executive Chairmen Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch said.

The company has offered to take controlling stake in UK-based pay-TV group Sky (SKYB.L), for $14.5 billion.

"We remain confident the proposed transaction will be approved by the end of the calendar year following a thorough review process," the company said.

FOXA closed Wednesday's trading at $27.68, down $0.28 or 1.00%, on the NYSE.