Copyright The Hollywood Reporter
Fox topped Wall Street’s expectations for its fiscal first quarter of 2026, despite a profit decline. News, Tubi and the NFL were the usual bright spots for this time of year, carrying advertising revenue to a six percent increase. Content (“and other”) revenues doubled that growth on a percentage basis. Media analysts expected Fox would post quarterly earnings of $1.10 per share on $3.57 billion in revenue. Fox actually reported adjusted earnings of $1.51 per share on revenue of $3.74 billion. Net income was $609 million, down from $832 million a year ago. It’s costly to have high costs: increased expenses due to larger digital marketing and content costs, as well as higher entertainment-programming rights amortization, were the culprit. Fox unveiled on Thursday that it will enter an “accelerated share repurchase transaction” to the tune of $1.5 billion beginning tomorrow, Oct. 31, 2025. Happy Halloween, FOXA shareholders. Shares of Fox stock, trading under ticker symbol FOXA on the Nasdaq, closed Wednesday at $60.81 apiece. They’re on the rise in pre-market trading. “Coming off a record Fiscal 2025, our strong operating momentum has carried through the first quarter of Fiscal 2026. We are delivering for audiences with continued engagement growth across the portfolio, which underpins the robust advertising demand we are seeing across sports, news, entertainment and Tubi,” Fox’s executive chair and CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement. “The quality of our assets and their consistent capacity to deliver financially gives me great confidence in the positive outlook for Fox. This morning’s announcement to leverage the strength of our balance sheet with a $1.5 billion accelerated share repurchase transaction clearly underscores this confidence along with our commitment to creating value for our shareholders.” The fiscal start to Fox’s 2026 was the quarter when Murdoch really, really, officially became the sole steward of the company — and of News Corp. — last month, he and his family settled their very rich family trust. Murdoch’s siblings, James Murdoch, Elisabeth Murdoch and Prudence MacLeod, all (also) the children of Rupert Murdoch, will each receive about $1.1 billion funded in part by the sale of the companies’ stock. Fox debuted new streamer Fox One midway into the quarter, which spanned July-September 2025. Combining the programming of Fox News and Fox Sports, Fox One costs $19.99 per month or can be combined with the new ESPN app ($29.99/month) for $39.99/month. Lachlan Murdoch and other senior Fox executives will host a conference call with media analysts to discuss the quarter in detail at 8 a.m. ET/5 a.m. PT.
