Media and entertainment titan 21st Century Fox has reported a mixed earnings picture for Q2 2015.The company earned 0.39 a share versus the 0.37 estimate,but missed on revenue,reporting 6.21 billion dollars versus the 6.46 billion estimate on currency fluctuations.21st Century Fox owns the most-watched Fox News,Fox Broadcasting and 20th Century Fox studios.The studios' revenue was down because they sold their pay-tv businesses in Italy and Germany to British Sky Broadcasting Group.Even minus that transaction,revenue was still down by 635 million.
Fox cable operating income rose 1% to 1.22 billion on higher affiliate and ad revenue,but the film division suffered when 2015's "Spy" and "Poltergeist" didn't do as well as 2014's "X-Men:Days of Future Past" and "Rio 2."The TV business dropped by 32 million down to 113 million on lower ad revenue as "American Idol" and "The Following" lost viewers.So the company lost some battles in the content wars.*
Lachlan Murdoch,son of Fox's Australian founder Rupert Murdoch,and now executive co-chairman of the firm along with his father,summed the situation up in the earnings conference call:
My brother James and I have been immersed in 21st Century Fox in all its iterations for at least the last 25 years,Mr.Murdoch said.This background and context will serve us well as we partner to lead 21st Century Fox through a time of accelerated industry change.Every aspect of our business is being affected by increasingly rapid change from how we develop content,to delivery,to consumer engagement,and of course,to how we monetise it all.The scale and speed of this change will,to some,be overwhelming.But a key underlying trend is important to all of them:More people are now watching more quality story telling than ever.They are just consuming it differently,given the growing array of options available to them.This is a key and positive trend.
Empowered by new technologies,our customers are demanding distinct and better ways to consume our content,personalised to them in a variety of new non-linear environments.One thing is very clear to us.In this environment,it is not enough to simply adapt to change.To succeed in this environment,we must lead change.*
The company,now under Lachlan's brother,CEO James Murdoch,is going ahead with its planned five billion-dollar buyback over 12 months and will pay investors a dividend of 0.15 a share.*
21st Century Fox (FOXA)
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