Fox Corporation (FOXA) Fiscal Q1 2027 Earnings Call: Revenue Up 22%, EBITDA Up 54%

Key Takeaways

• Fox Corporation’s fiscal Q1 2027 revenue increased 22% year over year to $4.6 billion, while quarterly EBITDA rose 54% to a record $1.64 billion.
• Advertising revenue grew 47%, led by the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, higher midterm political advertising and continued growth at Tubi.
• Distribution revenue increased 9%. Cable distribution revenue rose 10% as higher affiliate rates and FOX One offset pressure from traditional pay-TV subscriber declines.
• Tubi revenue grew 35% and engagement increased 23%. Management said revenue growth remained strong entering the second quarter, alongside positive EBITDA momentum.
• Adjusted EPS increased 68% to $2.54 from $1.51. Free cash flow was $503 million, partly reflecting the timing of World Cup rights payments and advertising collections.
• Political advertising across the FOX portfolio exceeded $350 million for the midterm cycle, including more than $250 million at local stations and approximately $50 million each at Tubi and across national sports, news and entertainment.

Key Financial Data

Business and Operating Performance

Sports and advertising

The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup was the main contributor to advertising growth, supported by early midterm political spending and Tubi. The World Cup final became the most-watched soccer telecast in U.S. history, according to management.

FOX’s America’s Game of the Week averaged nearly 25 million viewers and ranked as the most-watched program on television. The company also said World Series per-game revenue was robust.

Higher sports rights and production costs contributed to a 10% increase in total expenses. Management said it will evaluate rights for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups in a disciplined manner.

FOX One and distribution

FOX One continued to exceed management’s expectations for users and engagement. Subscriber acquisitions in September increased more than 30% compared with the start of the prior football season.

Management said roughly 97% of new FOX One subscribers did not have a cable subscription, making them largely incremental to FOX’s existing base. Including FOX One, the company recorded positive subscriber growth over the trailing 12 months.

The rate of subscriber decline across third-party distributors improved to below 6%. Cable distribution revenue increased 10%, while Television distribution revenue rose 4%.

Tubi

Tubi revenue increased 35% year over year, supported by 23% engagement growth. Content drivers included its library, World Cup hub, 10 new originals and content from more than 600 creators.

Tubi also generated approximately $50 million of targeted political advertising during the midterm cycle. Management said the platform increased its EBITDA contribution and continued to show strong revenue momentum in fiscal Q2.

Segment results

Cable segment revenue increased 8% and EBITDA rose 7%. Advertising revenue gained 8%, distribution revenue grew 10%, and content and other revenue increased 1%. Segment expenses rose 10% due to sports rights, production and news programming costs.

Television segment revenue increased 32%, while EBITDA rose 134%. Advertising revenue climbed 60%, driven by the World Cup and political spending. Segment expenses increased 8%, primarily because of World Cup-related sports costs and higher Tubi content spending.

FOX News and political advertising

FOX News remained the most-watched cable news network during the quarter and maintained audience-share levels above its cable news competitors in both prime time and total day. Management acknowledged ratings pressure against a particularly strong prior-year news cycle and cited viewer fatigue rather than audience migration to competing news channels.

Cable digital news advertising declined year over year. Management described the digital advertising market as highly competitive while noting that FOX News Digital remained the leading U.S. digital news site.

Management Guidance

• FOX expects full-year share repurchases to remain within its historical range and plans to resume buybacks during fiscal Q2 2027. Management said this decision is separate from the expected timing of the Roku transaction.
• Management said Tubi’s revenue growth remained strong entering the current quarter, with continued positive EBITDA momentum.
• FOX expects FOX One’s subscriber base to fluctuate with the sports calendar. Management cautioned that the service may not offset traditional subscriber losses in every period.
• FOX has received the required shareholder and foreign regulatory approvals for the Roku acquisition. The company is working with the U.S. Department of Justice to obtain HSR clearance and expects to close the transaction as soon as it can.

Risks and Points to Watch

• FOX One subscriptions may be seasonal as major sports seasons begin and end.
• Political advertising provided a substantial fiscal Q1 benefit, making the timing and strength of the election cycle an important factor in advertising comparisons.
• World Cup and other sports programming drove higher rights, production and content costs.
• FOX News is facing difficult audience comparisons and viewer fatigue following an unusually active prior-year news cycle.
• The Roku acquisition remains subject to U.S. HSR clearance, leaving the closing timeline dependent on the regulatory process.

Analyst Q&A Highlights

Analysts focused on whether FOX One can support long-term distribution growth. Management emphasized that the service is attracting largely incremental, non-cable subscribers but cautioned that sports-driven seasonality could create fluctuations.

On advertising, management highlighted more than $350 million of political revenue and said there remains room to narrow FOX News advertising CPMs toward broadcast-network levels.

Questions about Tubi centered on the sustainability of growth and profitability. Management pointed to continued revenue momentum, rising revenue per thousand viewing hours and year-over-year EBITDA growth.

Regarding capital allocation, CFO Steven Tomsic said the planned restart of share repurchases should not be interpreted as a signal about the timing of the Roku transaction.

Full Earnings Call Transcript

Complete Earnings Call Transcript

Management Remarks

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fox Corporation First Quarter Fiscal Year 2027 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I now turn the conference over to Chief Investor Relations Officer, Ms. Gabrielle Brown. Please go ahead, Ms. Brown.

Gabrielle Brown

Thank you, Pauly. Good morning, and welcome to our Fiscal 2027 First quarter earnings call. Joining me on the call today are Lachlan Murdoch, Executive Chair and Chief Executive Officer; John Nallen, President and Chief Operating Officer; and Steven Tomsic, our Chief Financial Officer. First, Lachlan and Steve will give some prepared remarks on the most recent quarter, and then we'll take questions from the investment community. Please note that this call may include forward-looking statements regarding Fox Corporation's financial performance and operating results.

These statements are based on management's current expectations, and actual results could differ from what is stated as a result of certain factors identified on today's call and in the company's SEC filings. Additionally, this call will include certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EPS and adjusted EBITDA or EBITDA, as we refer to it on this call. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and our SEC filings, which are available on the valuation section of our website. We also refer to free cash flow, which we define as net cash provided by operating activities less capital expenditures.

And with that, I'm pleased to turn the call over Lachlan.

Lachlan Murdoch

Thank you, Gabby, and thank you all for joining us this morning to discuss our fiscal first quarter earnings. Good morning to you all. Our fiscal 2027 is off to an outstanding start. We posted revenue growth of 22% to reach $4.6 and EBITDA growth of 54% to reach $1.6 billion. Both our first quarter records -- both a result of the focused strategy that we are executing on and both reflective of the strength of our content and brands, which are driving consistently exceptional results. Advertising revenue rose 47% in the first quarter, driven by our successful broadcast of the FIFA Men's World Cup and healthy trends across this portfolio, which continue into this current quarter.

Distribution revenue rose 9%, with cable distribution up 10% on increased rates and the strength of FOX One along with a meaningful improvement in industry subscriber trends. In fact, when including the incremental subscribers from FOX One, we saw positive subscriber growth for the trailing 12 months. FOX One launched just over a year ago and has consistently exceeded our expectations for users and engagement. We are encouraged by FOX's One trajectory and are confident in its potential to drive incremental growth in the quarters ahead, notably related to FOX One's momentum in the month of September, subscriber acquisitions increased over 30% versus the start of last year's football season.

And we have seen a very healthy engagement balance by our subscribers between news and sports consumption. Sports as expected, drove a considerable amount of engagement across the entire FOX platform this past quarter. We began the quarter with a historic broadcast of the FIFA Men's World Cup Final, the most watched soccer telecast in U.S. history. This was followed by the start of the Major League Baseball postseason and of course, the opening gins of the National Football League and college football seasons. We just wrapped an exciting World Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Raise, a 5-game series that averaged 12 million viewers and capped an MLB playoff that exceeded our expectations. Per game revenue was robust, which is illustrative of the strength of the sports market.

Looking at the NFL season to date, Fox's Americas game of the week is the #1 show in all of television with an average of nearly 25 million viewers. With plenty of football still to come, we look forward to an NFL triple header on FOX in week 15, a strong Thanksgiving holiday weekend that will feature 1 of College Football's biggest rivalries, Michigan versus Ohio State, and a blockbuster NFL matchup between the Eagles and the Carbores on Thanksgiving Day.

The NFL Thanksgiving day game will also stream live on Tubi, which posted another record quarter. Tubi grew revenue 35% year-on-year, underpinned by a 23% increase in total. Engagement was driven by Tubi's deep content offering including its tremendous library, its World Cup hub, 10 new originals and viral content from more than 600 creators. Fundamental momentum at Tubi continues into the second quarter, supplemented by the recognition of political campaigns of Tubi's large, mostly cordless audience as an ideal destination to invest for this year's midterm cycle on a targeted basis.

More broadly, across our businesses, political advertising has surpassed $350 million, a record for a midterm cycle. This encapsulates the full FOX portfolio working together at scale during one of the biggest news events of the year. As you would expect, audiences have turned the FOX for our comprehensive coverage of this election cycle. With national coverage led by the FOX News team, while our broadcast stations provide essential local perspective, particularly in many battleground states.

Heading into tomorrow's vote more Americans have relied on FOX News than any other news network for coverage of the key issues and news this cycle. While we had difficult ratings comparison to last year, FOX News notably finished the quarter as the most watched cable news network while maintaining audience share levels that are higher than our peers in both prime and total day. These first quarter results underscore the position of financial strength we are approaching the Roku transaction from.

Since the announcement of the Roku acquisition, our confidence in the strategy and our conviction in the opportunity has only grown. Combining Roku's leading streaming platform with our premium sports, news and entertainment content, will build our position in the fastest-growing segments of the media landscape and will deliver both sustained growth for the company and value for our shareholders.

From a process standpoint, we have made significant progress towards closing, including receiving all required FOX and Roku shareholder approvals and foreign regulatory approvals. We are continuing to work cooperatively with the DOJ in order to obtain HSR clearance and expect to close the transaction as soon as we can. After a record fiscal year 2026 and first quarter 2027, fiscal 2027 will once again demonstrate our differentiated strategy the quality of our assets, our ability to deliver both on screen and financially and the strength of our balance sheet, all while creating value for our shareholders in a deliberate and disciplined manner.

I'll now turn you over to Steve to discuss the financials.

Steven Tomsic

Thanks, Lachlan, and good morning, everyone. The strong momentum we saw throughout our fiscal 2026 has continued unabated into the first quarter of fiscal 2027, highlighted by total revenue growth of 22% and record quarterly EBITDA of $1.64 billion. Advertising revenue across the company grew 47%, led by our broadcast of the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup, along with higher political advertising revenue and continued growth of Tubi. Distribution revenue grew 9% over the prior year with growth at both our Cable and Television segments. .

Content and other revenues were broadly in line with prior year, with lower entertainment content revenue, partially offset by higher sports sublicensing revenue. Total expenses increased 10% led by costs associated with the World Cup and higher digital content costs. Net income attributable to stockholders was $943 million or $2.20 per share as compared to the $599 million or $1.32 per share reported in the prior year period. Excluding non-core items, adjusted net income was $1.09 billion and adjusted EPS was $2.54, up 68% compared to the $1.51 recorded in the prior year period.

Now turning to our operating segments. Starting with the Cable segment, which reported an 8% increase in revenue and a 7% increase in EBITDA. Cable advertising revenue was up 8% primarily a result of higher sports advertising revenue, including the broadcast of the World Cup, partially offset by lower digital news advertising revenue. Cable distribution revenue grew 10% driven by pricing growth from our affiliate renewals and a net increase in subscribers.

The subscriber growth reflects the combined benefit of an improving rate of subscriber declines across our third-party distributors, which is now running at below 6%, coupled with a meaningful positive contribution from FOX One. Cable content and other revenue increased 1% driven by higher sports sublicensing revenue. Expenses at the Cable segment increased 10% due to higher sports programming rights and production costs, including the World Cup and high-end news programming costs.

Now turning to our Television segment, which delivered 32% growth in revenue and a 134% increase in EBITDA. Television advertising revenue was up 60%, driven by the World Cup and early midterm political advertising revenue, primarily at our owned and operated television stations. Tubi was once again a highlight, delivering mid-30% revenue growth and growing its year-on-year EBITDA contribution. Television distribution revenue grew 4%, driven by healthy growth in fees across FOX owned and operated stations and a net increase in subscribers.

Television content and other revenue fell 4% as a result of lower content revenues, Qatar entertainment production studios. Expenses at the Television segment increased 8% due to higher sports programming rights amortization and production costs led by our broadcast of the World Cup, along with higher content costs at Tubi. These were partially offset by lower NFL costs associated with the timing of gains. Now turning to cash flow, where free cash flow was positive $503 million in the quarter.

As a reminder, the strong improvement in quarterly free cash flow was in large part due to the timing of working capital related to the World Cup. We are rights payments for the tournament landed in fiscal 2026 while advertising receivables continue to be collected through the first half of fiscal '27. In terms of capital allocation, while we are temporarily inactive with our buyback program in the quarter, we continue to expect full year share repurchases to be in line with our historical range and anticipate returning to share repurchases this quarter. This is all supported by the strength of our balance sheet where we ended the quarter with approximately $4.5 billion in cash and $6.6 billion in debt.

And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Gaby.

Gabrielle Brown

Great. Thanks, Steve. And now we would be happy to take questions from the investment community. Please note that as with our prior earnings call, we do not anticipate taking questions about FOX's pending Roku transaction. We have filed materials with the SEC that provide information about the transaction and for today, we would ask that questions focus on FOX's stand-alone results. .

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, [Operator Instructions] We have a question from Michael Ng of Goldman Sachs.

Question-and-Answer Session

Michael Ng

I wanted to ask about FOX One and the impact on distribution revenues. Very encouraging to hear about the net positive subscriber growth in the trailing 12 months. What does that tell you and inform how you think about long-term distribution revenue growth? And if you could talk a little bit about the biggest opportunities for FOX One gross ads, especially as we head into the NFL season more firmly, that would be helpful.

Lachlan Murdoch

Thanks, Mike. So look, I think in summary, FOX One has hit it out of park. It's executing on the strategy we laid out for extraordinarily well. The most pleasing aspect of this is the fact that the subscribers are almost entirely incremental to our subscriber base, which is why we can offset -- we have been able to offset in this quarter, traditional subscriber declines with FOX One additions. I think it's something like 97% of new subscribers into FOX One subscribers and of 97% do not have a cable subscription. That's a tremendous result.

And frankly, when we did our strategy and our budgets for FOX One, frankly, I didn't believe that we'd be able to achieve that, but it's really the result of being very focused, being very careful in our marketing, understanding that a subscriber from the pay TV system into FOX One doesn't do us any favors. And so we've been, I think, remarkably focus on achieving that result and the team has done a tremendous job.

Having said that, as you move forward, the FOX One subscriber base is going to be somewhat seasonal with sports seasons coming and going. So I would just sort of press sort of modest note of caution that as we move forward, is FOX One always going to be able to plants the subscriber losses in the traditional ecosystem, probably not as seasons sports seasons come and go. So I'll just add that one small note of caution.

Gabrielle Brown

Next question please.

Operator

We have a question from John Hodulik of UBS.

John Hodulik

Maybe just a couple of quick questions on the advertising side. First of all, can you give us an update on your efforts to sort of close the CPMs on the broadcast side or are used with what you're seeing in the broadcast market. And then you guys seem to have booked the trend with Tubi in terms of revenue growth, given what we've seen from YouTube and Netflix Any comments, long on what you're seeing in terms of the health of the CTV ad market. .

Lachlan Murdoch

So overall, advertising trends for us, and I can't talk to the market, but are incredibly healthy really across our portfolio. It's always a point in time, every couple of years, you've got to be careful to understand the strength of the political cycle. This has clearly been a dramatically positive sort of political revenue cycle across the board and where the beneficiary of a lot of that.

I think I mentioned it before, but it's now over $350 million in political revenue throughout the cycle. That breaks down into sort of $250 million plus on the local stations, what tends to happen in locations you run out of availability. So that pushes some of the base market side -- in the -- during that cycle, but it's an incredibly positive number. We then have about $50 million of Tubi revenue throughout the cycle, which is you can allocate that as sort of as effectively local revenue because it is targeted.

And another -- and this is another fanatic number of $50 million plus of national political advertising revenue that sits across sports, news and entertainment. So that's tremendously strong. In terms of CPMs, bridging the gap between FOX News and broadcast, we still have a tremendous amount of upside and room to go. As you know, the strength of FOX News, we do compete more broadcast networks as opposed to our news -- our cable news peer, so you can't really call them peers, but our cable news competitors. And we have tremendous upside in terms of continuing, of course, our CPMs into the broadcast CPM range.

And then on Tubi, our revenue growth, as we've said it before on calls, the Tubi business, really driven by TBT growth continues to be very strong. That's for a number of reasons that you all know. It's based around the fact that such a large percentage of them while they're young, they're diverse, and they are -- the majority of them are cordless. They're very hard market for advertisers to reach and which is one of the reasons why Tubi's been so successful in garnering that advertising revenue. The pleasing thing is that we're seeing this growth continue into the current quarter. And so Tubi continues to go from strength.

Gabrielle Brown

Next question please.

Operator

We have a question from Michael Morris of Guggenheim.

Michael Morris

I wanted to ask, Nielsen has reported some ratings declines at FOX News ahead of the midterm elections. I'm hoping that you can share your thoughts on why this may be the case. What it means for the ad revenue trend. As well as any strategic or content changes you might consider or make going forward, is the FOX One viewing? Is that accurately included in the Nielsen ratings as well? And if I could just ask 1 second 1 on bundling of FOX One, John recently said that bundles had only had a modest impact from Fox for Fox, I'm wondering why these bundles haven't been impactful and what you might need to see to strike a deeper distribution agreement with a large streaming platform.

Lachlan Murdoch

Thanks, Michael. So let me start with the FOX One ratings. So again, we finished the year and congratulate everyone perhaps FOX news, or the sportbook News ratings. We've finished the year incredibly strong. Number one, with more share than our 2 cable competitors combined. So we've -- the business is in incredibly good shape, and we're very proud of the team. What we are seeing though is some viewer fatigue, where our viewers are -- I've gone to some incredible news cycle the last few years.

I think the last year was a record really hard to -- hard comps for us to comp against with the inauguration, the Charlie Kirk and tragedy dose. I think the flooding. It was a tremendous new cycle this time last year, which we're comping against. But having said that, we are seeing some viewer fatigue, which we've seen before. It's this cycle is analogous not entirely, but somewhat analogous to the 2006 midterms when you have a second term present going into their midterm taper through the second term, and you just see this bureau fatigue.

Those viewers are not going to any other news channel. They're not switching to MMS -- now or to CNN. There is fatigue and watching slightly less slightest television overall. So we feel pretty confident where we are, and we've seen this playbook and we know how to move through it. FOXOne bundling FOX One will bundle with all sorts of distributors and platforms and other comproviders. It's in its infancy of FOX One. And so you'll see we'll roll out further bundles as the service develops.

Gabrielle Brown

Next question please.

Operator

We have a question from Jessica Reif Ehrlich of Bank of America.

Jessica Reif Cohen

Two quick questions. First on when I remember, I don't know if it was a year or 2 ago, but to be reps like mid-teens growth, you said something like -- I don't think it's sustainable or don't expect it to be sustainable. Now we're 30% -plus revenue growth, and I think you just said that's continuing in the current quarter. What can you say about like the margin outlook for Tubi anything where it is now, where you think it can go -- and then I think Steve just said that buybacks will resume in the current quarter. Does that -- what does that say about the timing of the -- does that say something about the timing of the Roku close did you say it was on told until it closes?

Lachlan Murdoch

So thank you for proving on Tubi. I don't I don't remember saying that, but I'm sure I did, if you said it. And look, it's been it's been doing tremendously well. Our PPD continues to grow. Obviously, a ton of work has gone into that. And as I said, -- we're seeing that growth continue into this current quarter. So -- but thank you for calling me out on that one. And margins, we think -- I think we mine think it will be sort of range margin business once it reaches our further maturity.

Steven Tomsic

And to reinforce that point, Jessica Tubi had a nice amount of EBITDA growth this quarter versus last. So continuing on that. well and truly positive EBITDA momentum. On the buyback, you shouldn't draw that linkage between us or restarting the buyback and our expected timing for the transaction to close their 2 separate decisions.

Gabrielle Brown

We have time for one more question. .

Operator

We have a final question from David Karnovsky of JPMorgan.

David Karnovsky

Maybe just following up on the advertising question. The release called out lower year-on-year revenue for cable digital news. I just wanted to see if you could unpack that a bit how your platforms are operating amid a kind of difficult web traffic environment generally? And then just separately, given the success of the World Cup on FOX, right, how are you thinking about rights for the 2030 cycle where I think FIFA is looking to sell English and Spanish language on a combined package.

Lachlan Murdoch

Thanks, David, and welcome. On to digital, as you be aware, FOX News Digital is the #1 digital news site in America. The -- from a revenue perspective, I think it's a hypercompetitive market. And we're very pleased with the results there. On the World Cup, I think the question was will we be bidding for World Cup rights. We're obviously happy with the performance of the World Cup this past year. And we'll be looking at the rights for 2030 and 2034 in a disciplined manner as we would with all sports rights.

Gabrielle Brown

Great. At this point, we are out of time. But if you have any further questions, please give me or Charlie a call. Thanks so much for joining us today.

Lachlan Murdoch

Thank you.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the Fox Corporation First Quarter Fiscal Year 2027 Earnings Conference Call. Thank you.