NEW YORK, Feb 2 (AFP) - Media-entertainment giant News Corp. said Wednesday its quarterly profit surged 80 percent from a year ago to 386 million dollars on strong growth in film, cable television and some of its print operations.
Revenue for the three months ended December 31, the fiscal second quarter, advanced to 6.56 billion dollars from 5.55 billion a year ago.
The results were the first since the company headed by Australian-born magnate Rupert Murdoch reincorporated in the United States.
"While our country of incorporation changed in the second quarter, the growth we continue to deliver remains the same," Murdoch said in a statement.
"Operating income was up 24 percent on revenue gains of 18 percent, led by record results at our filmed entertainment and cable network programming segments."
Murdoch said the company also saw strong performance in some of its publishing operations and the Star satellite television system in Asia.
"While film and cable were the most significant contributors to our growth this past quarter, we also delivered record results at Star and converted strong readership into higher contributions across our various print segments," he said.
By segment, the movie business recorded a 57 percent leap in operating income to 407 million dollars, driven by strong sales of DVDs and home videos, as well as theatrical releases such as the Day After Tomorrow and Garfield, the company said.
The television business, meanwhile, saw operating income fall five percent to 153 million dollars as Fox Broadcasting's operating loss widened.
The cable TV business, for its part, posted 46 percent growth in operating income to 227 million dollars as Fox News Channel and FX contributed segment profit gains of 45 percent and 35 percent, respectively.
The magazine and inserts business saw operating income increase 16 percent to 73 million dollars, while newspapers grew 8.2 percent to 184 million.
Book publishing recorded a nine-percent gain in operating income to 62 million dollars.
Elsewhere, the satellite TV division, which includes a controlling stake in US-based DirecTV, saw it operating loss widen to 105 million dollars.
02/02/2005 15:52 GMT - AFP