Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOXA) did not have a good quarter at the box office, resulting in a quarterly revenue disappointment investors. FOXA shares are flat this morning following the entertainment company’s release of results.
Fox earned 54 cents per share for the March quarter. Analysts expected 48 cents per share. Total revenue rose 4.6% to $7.56 billion, falling short of analysts’ average estimate of $7.63 billion. Sales at FOXA’s film division dropped almost 3% to $2.26 billion. Spending on this year’s Super Bowl helped push advertising sales up 16% percent.
Movie releases, including Logan, grossed less than hit Deadpool did in the same quarter last year, the company said.
CEO James Murdoch said on a post-earnings conference call that all of its networks except National Geographic showed advertising growth. Reuters quoted comments by Telsey Advisory Group analyst Thomas Eagan “people were expecting higher domestic affiliate growth and higher ad growth.”
The number of U.S. subscribers increased 0.5 percent. Murdoch said Fox’s most-widely distributed networks, including Fox News, lost about 1.5 percent of viewers year over year.
Fox News has been the scene of sexual harassment claims and lawsuits that have led to the departures of its former chief Roger Ailes, network co-president Bill Shine and star anchor Bill O’Reilly. Settlements of lawsuits following Ailes’s July 2016 resignation cost the company incurred some $10 million in the quarter, bringing such costs to a total of $45 million in the nine months to March 31, according to a regulatory filing by FOXA.
