News Corp June quarter revenue rides 30% higher on digital wave

Chris Pash
By Chris Pash | 6 August 2021
 
Getty

News Corp revenue surged into the final quarter of the year, lifting 30% to $US2.49 billion, as digital subscriptions rise.

The June quarter pushed 2021 full year revenue up 4% to $US9.36 billion.

CEO Robert Thomson: “Fiscal Year 2021 was the most profitable year since we created the new News Corp in 2013."

The increase, helped by positive impact from foreign currency fluctuations, was also driven by a record number of digital subscriptions, record revenue and profits at Move and record traffic at realtor.com, record profits at book publisher HarperCollins and the largest profit at financial publisher Dow Jones since its acquisition in 2007.

Net income for the full year was $389 million compared to a net loss of $1.55 billion. 

Thomson touched on the benefit from content deals with Google and Facebook but didn't reveal the full value.

"The intrinsic value of our content has been amplified through landmark news payment agreements with major tech platforms," he says.

"These deals, which are confidential, will add revenue annually into nine figures and are a profoundly positive sign of the ongoing transformation of the news landscape."

News also reported record subscriber growth at Foxtel, with more than 2 million total paid subscribers, driving 40% total paid streaming subscriber growth. Revenue was up 33% to 542 million in the June quarter. 

Foxtel’s paid subscribers increased 40% to 3.891 million to the end of June, mainly due to growth in streaming platforms BINGE and Kayo. 

"That sterling performance has clearly given us much optionality as we consider Foxtel’s future, which is certainly bright," says Thomson. 

The growth track was partially offset by lower revenue at the news media segment containing newspapers, where full year revenue fell by $US596 million to $US2.205 billion.

News noted "the recovery of print volume" from COVID-19-related weakness in the prior year.

Circulation and subscription revenues increased 11% to $104 million, reflecting digital subscriber growth and price increases, partially offset by lower single-copy sales revenue.

Advertising revenues fell $677 million, or 43%, reflecting $649 million, or 42%, of lower advertising revenues related to the now divested News America Marketing.

Revenue at News Corp Australia fell 1% and increased 5% at News UK. 

News noted a negative impact of $90 million, or 6%, related to the closure or transition to digital of some regional and community newspapers in Australia and continued weakness in the print advertising market, exacerbated by COVID-19. 

In book publishing, full year revenue increased by $US319 million to $US1.985 billion, on the back of strong backlist sales, including the series of Bridgerton titles by Julia Quinn, The Guest List by Lucy Foley and The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy.

Successful new titles include The Order by Daniel Silva and Code Name Bananas by David Walliams. 

The 2021 numbers:

news corp full year 2021

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