FOX Q2 2025 Earnings Report $45.65 -0.36 (-0.78%) As of 04/11/2025 04:00 PM Eastern Earnings HistoryForecast FOX EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.96Consensus EPS $0.61Beat/MissBeat by +$0.35One Year Ago EPS$0.34FOX Revenue ResultsActual RevenueN/AExpected RevenueN/ABeat/MissN/AYoY Revenue GrowthN/AFOX Announcement DetailsQuarterQ2 2025Date2/4/2025TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateTuesday, February 4, 2025Conference Call Time8:30AM ETUpcoming EarningsFOX's Q3 2025 earnings is scheduled for Tuesday, May 6, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at 8:30 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryFOX ProfilePowered by FOX Q2 2025 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrFebruary 4, 2025 ShareLink copied to clipboard.PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fox Corporation Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Operator00:00:30I'll now turn the conference over to Chief Investor Relations Officer, Ms. Gabrielle Brown. Please go ahead, Ms. Brown. Gabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at Fox00:00:37Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to our fiscal 2025 Q2 earnings call. Joining me on the call today are Lachlan Murdoch, Executive Chair and Chief Executive Officer John Mallon, Chief Operating Officer and Steve Tomczyk, 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. Gabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at Fox00:01:12These 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 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 in the Investor Relations section of our website. And with that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Lachlan. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:01:49Thank you, Gabby, and thank you all for joining us this morning. Just to start, I want to comment on the devastating impact of the Los Angeles wildfires over the past few weeks. At Fox, our top priority has been to support our staff who have been profoundly affected in many ways, including losing their homes and much, if not all, of their belongings. We are one family and we are truly with you. And to aid the broader community, Fox has donated and raised over $5,000,000 across our platforms. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:02:27Thanks to the generosity of our audiences and employees. But sadly, as we have learned from past fires, the impact on the community is measured not in days or weeks, but in years. Our focus has now shifted to the longer term recovery for those most affected and to the rebuilding of the community around them. I want to thank our colleagues at KTTV and Fox News who kept viewers comprehensively informed with their coverage of the tragedy as it unfolded. We are deeply grateful for their work and also for the efforts of firefighters and many other first responders. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:03:10Thank you. Now on to our earnings. As you will have seen in the release this morning, our fiscal 2nd quarter results again demonstrates the continued operating momentum and strong financial performance of Fox. Financially, Fox EBITDA more than doubled year over year to a 2nd quarter record of $781,000,000 driven by revenue growth of 20% to just over 5,000,000,000 dollars These results are underpinned by industry leading affiliate and advertising revenue growth and reflects strong on screen delivery through our coverage of the presidential election, both at Fox News and across our local stations, strong NFL, college football and Major League Baseball post season viewership and continued audience expansion at Tubi. We are firing on all cylinders. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:04:11Total affiliate revenue grew by 6% on the back of higher rates with subscriber declines improving for the 2nd consecutive quarter. Notably, we have now successfully completed all affiliate renewals that will impact fiscal 2025. Total company advertising growth of 21% in the quarter was driven in part by record political revenue led by our local stations. Looked at more holistically across this year's presidential cycle, our first half fiscal twenty twenty five political revenue of over $400,000,000 was also a record. Tubi was a strong contributor to advertising revenue growth in the quarter, achieving a 31% increase in ad revenues, showing acceleration even when excluding political revenue. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:05:02And that advertising strength has continued into our fiscal Q3, where we are seeing very healthy trends across our portfolio. Sports remains remarkably robust. Our NFL postseason broadcast of the Wild Card Divisional and NFC Championship saw our highest ever unit pricing and demand for these matches. We are sold out with a record pricing for this Sunday's Super Bowl 59. We can't wait for the big game. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:05:33Advertising trends at Fox News are also strong across the direct response and national advertising categories, where there is increased demand from existing blue chip advertisers as well as new clients coming to the network due to its record share of audience. At Entertainment, scatter pricing is currently tracking at high single digits above upfront levels and cancellation options are at historical lows with Fox delivering its best series debut in 5 years with the launch of the medical drama, Doc. And Tubi continues to monetize its hard to reach differentiated audience. Now everyone on this call will know that Tubi's audience is diverse and it's young. And it is over 65% cordless made up of cord nevers and cord cutters not currently in the traditional cable universe. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:06:32While in past years, we have always unlocked the Super Bowl for viewers across our digital platform, this year, we will focus these cordless viewers on Tubi with Tubi's first ever Super Bowl live stream and related shoulder programming. This will provide viewers a great service, broaden the reach of the game and deliver Tubi an opportunity to engage a large cohort of new users. After the game, Tubi's viewers will have access to our library of over 275,000 movies and TV episodes, including the recently premiered the Z Suite, the hit original Sidelined, the QB and Me and much more. The game, the content and the experience on Tubi will further support its stellar growth. The mission for all of our platforms is delivering unique content to large audiences. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:07:33Nowhere is that more evident than at Fox News, where 4.5 1,000,000,000 hours of content was consumed across its platform during the Q2. On election night, more viewers turned to Fox News Media than any other network with over 13,500,000 viewers tuning in to Pure and Primetime. Fox News Channel once again ended the quarter as the most watched cable network in total day in primetime, growing total day audience by nearly 40% and primetime audience by 45% year over year. Fox News meaningfully outperformed its peers, more than doubling the viewing of its closest competitor and posting its highest quarterly share of prime time cable news audience in its history at over 60%, which includes a 70% share in December. Momentum in share and ratings has continued through and after the inauguration. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:08:34On the day, Fox News Media's coverage of the inauguration grew close to 12,000,000 viewers, making it the most watched coverage in all of television. This viewership has contributed to Fox News 3rd quarter to date ratings up over 50%, primetime ratings up over 40%, delivering Fox News a commanding share of the primetime cable news audience at 69%. And Fox News share of the audience was not limited to the cable network. For example, on YouTube, Fox News generated nearly 410,000,000 views in the month of January, beating our closest competitor, NBC, by nearly 2.5 times. The continued growth of Fox News Digital underscores that audiences are consuming their news in different ways. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:09:26We clearly saw this during the past election cycle where there was an uptick in consumers who either supplemented or solely access their news and information from nontraditional media sources. We view these new media markets opportunistically and essential to our growth strategy. Fox News outstanding achievements underscore our unwavering commitment to outstanding journalism, to our insightful coverage of politics and breaking news and to our strong prime time lineup. Of course, our content leadership also extends to sport. Autumn is traditionally the strongest time of year for FOX Sports and 2024 was no exception. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:10:13With the thrilling Major League Baseball World Series, college football expanding to Friday nights and the NFL remaining the most watched content in all of television, Fox was the leader in consumption of live sports events in the Q2. Our only disappointment in sports is that we will not be moving forward with Venue, our sports streaming joint venture with Warner Brothers Discovery and Disney. While the Venue team has done a tremendous amount of truly genius work preparing the digital platform for launch, in the end, the legal distractions around the business became increasingly difficult to bear. Venue was to be another distribution outlet for our brands to access consumers in the market wherever they are. And that is what we continue to be focused on, maximum distribution of our content, whether that be traditional, digital streaming or our own D2C offering in the near future. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:11:11Encouragingly, the distribution market has made some major strides recently. In the 12 months since we announced Venue, we have seen key distributors announce the launch of smaller, lower cost bundles of sports, news and broadcast networks. 3 distributors have announced new skinny packages in recent months, and we expect this trend to continue. We see this as a positive initiative by both our distribution partners and other content owners. The inclusion of our suite of channels, sports and news in each of these offerings is a real economic benefit to us, even more so than the sports specific venue and so gives us greater confidence for Fox over the long term. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:12:00We have had a very solid first half of our fiscal year and we are excited for what is to come. Consistent with our track record, we remain committed to delivering value for our shareholders in a thoughtful and disciplined manner, and we will continue to explore every opportunity to maximize that value over the long term. Let me now turn it over to Steve for his comments on the quarter's financial results. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:12:24Thanks, Lachlan, and good morning, everyone. Underscoring the strong momentum we've seen since the start of the year, Fox delivered standout results in the Q2, highlighted by a 20% increase in revenues and a 123 percent increase in EBITDA to $781,000,000 a record fiscal second quarter for Fox. Our overall revenue growth was led by a 21% increase in advertising revenues with broad based strength across our portfolio including significant political ad spend collected at our local stations, strong MLB ratings and robust pricing across our key sports properties, continued growth at Tubi and strong engagement at news. Total company affiliate fee revenues grew a healthy 6% over the prior year quarter, once again demonstrating the strength of our brands and focused portfolio of channels. As Lachlan mentioned, we've now successfully completed all affiliate renewals that impact our fiscal 2025. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:13:27Other revenues grew 70% year over year driven by higher sports sublicensing revenues at our cable segment. Similar to last quarter, this growth in revenue was largely offset by a corresponding increase in rights cost with no material impact on year over year overall EBITDA growth. Net income attributable to stockholders of $373,000,000 or $0.81 per share was up versus the $109,000,000 or $0.23 per share reported in the prior year period. Excluding non core items, adjusted net income was $442,000,000 and adjusted EPS was $0.96 This represents a more than 180% increase over the $0.34 per share recorded in the prior year. Now let's turn to our operating segments starting with the cable network programming segment, which delivered 31% revenue growth and 16% EBITDA growth. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:14:26Cable advertising revenues grew 32% over the prior year, driven by the strength in Fox News linear ratings and digital engagement and supported by healthy pricing in both national and direct response. Additionally, our sports advertising revenues benefited from higher MLB postseason ratings. Cable affiliate fee revenues grew 4% over the prior year quarter as pricing gains from our affiliate renewals outpaced the impact from net subscriber declines of approximately 7%, improving from just under 8% last quarter. Cable other revenues grew $350,000,000 due to the high sports sublicensing revenues I mentioned earlier. Revenue growth at the cable segment was partially offset by 38% increase in expenses, primarily attributable to the increase in sports amortization that correspond to the incremental sports sublicensing revenues along with modest increases in news and sports production costs. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:15:27Now turning to our television segment which delivered 16% revenue growth. Advertising revenues at our television segment grew 19% over the prior year boosted by political advertising revenues, strong MLB ratings and pricing strength across our sports schedule and continued growth at Tubi. Television affiliate fee revenues increased 9% in the quarter as healthy growth in fees across Fox owned and affiliated stations more than offset the impact from industry subscriber declines. Television other revenues were up 33% year over year primarily due to higher content revenues tied to our entertainment production studios. Partially offsetting the revenue growth at our television segment was a modest 3% increase in expenses, which were driven by our continued investment at Tubi. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:16:17All in, EBITDA at our television segment grew by $343,000,000 year over year to reach $205,000,000 Turning to free cash flow where we recorded a deficit of $436,000,000 this quarter. This is entirely consistent with the seasonality of our working capital cycle where the first half of our fiscal year reflects the concentration of payments for sports rights and buildup of advertising related receivables both of which reverse in the second half of our fiscal year. In terms of capital allocation, fiscal year to date we have repurchased an additional $550,000,000 through our share buyback program bringing the total cumulative amount repurchased to $6,150,000,000 or approximately 29% of our total shares outstanding since the launch of the buyback program in 2019. We remain committed to utilizing our full buyback authorization of $7,000,000,000 In addition, today we announced a 27% per share semiannual dividend. With this dividend payout of approximately $120,000,000 our total cumulative cash return to shareholders in the form of both dividends and share buybacks will have reached approximately $7,900,000,000 since the establishment of Foxcorp. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:17:41These capital return measures are supported by the strength of our balance sheet where we ended the quarter with approximately $3,300,000,000 in cash and $7,200,000,000 in debt. And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Gabby. Gabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at Fox00:17:54Thank you, Steve. And now we will be happy to take questions from the investment community. Operator00:18:01Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to emphasize the new functionality for the question and answer We have a question from John Hodulik from UBS. Please go ahead. John HodulikTelecom and Cable Analyst at UBS Group00:18:44Okay, great. Thanks guys. Lachlan, I got a follow-up on the B2C comment that you talked about launching in the near future. John HodulikTelecom and Cable Analyst at UBS Group00:18:51Any additional details you could provide in terms of timing, what's included and whether you need additional rights or any costs associated with launching the D2C service? And then on affiliate, you saw some nice acceleration there and it sounds like you guys got all the renewals done. Any color in terms of pricing or what you're seeing in terms of volumes that have been driving that acceleration? Thanks. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:19:18Thanks, John, and good morning. So on B2C, I should just start by sort of explaining the strategy and going back to making it very clear that we see the traditional cable bundle as still the most value for our consumers, and frankly, the most value for the company. So we're huge supporters of the traditional cable bundle, and we will always be. But having said that, we do want to reach consumers wherever they are. And there's a large population, obviously, that are now outside of the traditional cable bundle, either cord cutters or cord nevers. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:20:00And we are designing and we'll be able to say more about it shortly. But we are designing an offering to really target those cord cutters and cord narrows that are not traditionally in the cable bundle. We don't want and we have no intention of churning a traditional distribution customer into our D2C customer. And so our subscriber expectations will be modest, and we're going to price the service accordingly. And it's also important to note with those modest expectations, we do not expect any exclusive rights costs or additional incremental rights costs. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:20:44This service will be a package of our existing content on our existing brands targeted to consumers that are not currently in the bundle. So the incremental cost will be relatively low, certainly relative to what our peers have spent in this space. And we're excited to be able to talk about it more in the coming weeks months. In terms of timing and launch, we're certainly targeting a launch by the end of this calendar year. On affiliates, Steve, do you want to talk to affiliate? Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:21:18Hey, John, it's Steve here. So in terms of affiliate, I think we've seen obviously from a volume perspective the rate of attrition ease off a little bit over the last couple quarters, which is encouraging for us. And hopefully, these skinny bundles continue to see that trend continue. In terms of pricing, listen, I think it's reflective of strategy. It's reflective of the fact that we've got a very focused portfolio of channels that distributors really want. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:21:45You're seeing them because of their inclusion in those skinny bundles. And it's also a reflection of the fact that our distribution strategy prioritizes the bundle. And so we obviously these are tough negotiations. But as we've said for the last 5 years, we think that strategy of both content and distribution should lead us to take share of wallet. And I think we're starting to see that. Gabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at Fox00:22:10Operator, next question please. Operator00:22:12We have a question from Michael Morris at Guggenheim. Please go ahead. Michael MorrisSenior Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners00:22:18Thank you. Good morning. I wanted to ask about the strength that you're seeing at Fox News Advertising. Maybe you can expand on that a bit. It sounds like you're seeing incremental and arguably sustainable demand from some of from advertising buyers. Michael MorrisSenior Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners00:22:34And I'm curious if you think I'm interpreting that right. And just sort of what the dynamic and what the sustainability is of the changes that you're seeing there. I also want to ask about the 2B Super Bowl live stream. It seems like a big deal. Can you talk a little bit about what you hope to achieve by doing that? Michael MorrisSenior Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners00:22:52And then are there any incremental costs related with that? Are there concerns about service quality? Because I know that streaming big live events can be complicated. Appreciate it. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:23:02Thank you very much, Mike, and good morning as well. So on Fox News advertising, there's 2 elements here. You're 1,000 percent right. We are seeing, really a tremendous amount of new advertisers, clients coming on to the platform. And that's due to two reasons. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:23:24I think the first reason is the strength in our ratings, which are really tremendous. And as I mentioned in my prepared comments, it's very pleasing to see that, that strength and momentum continue post the election and post the inauguration. With that strength, we've seen over 100 new clients who have not been Fox News advertisers, major national clients come onto the platform. And so that's driving demand and driving pricing as well. And we see that continuing. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:24:07In fact, we see in the Q3 ratings and revenue accelerating off the Q2. So the on to Tubi Super Bowl, it's a different question. We're excited to have Tubi on Super Bowl. As we mentioned, it's not a change in strategy. We have always unlocked our digital platform for the Super Bowl. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:24:37But this year, with obviously, it's a unique opportunity, and we're going to focus that audience on Tubi. Obviously, one of the break there's some technology streaming costs, obviously, but it's tiny compared to the opportunity in front of us. So very low incremental costs. The benefit for Tubi, obviously, you get a tremendous exposure and sort of marketing platform. But also critically, we hope to capture a lot of first party data. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:25:10We'll be driving people to register on Tubi, many of them for the first time. And that first party data obviously is really critically important to our programmatic and other advertisers and partners and will help us drive our CPMs as we go into the future. So we're excited by the opportunity. It's not a necessarily a big change in strategy, but it's a huge opportunity for Tubi and it's something we're very keen to focus very intensely on. And what was the 3rd question? Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:25:51It was I think I was it. Yes. Right. Okay. Thank you, Mike. Gabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at Fox00:25:55Operator, next question please. Operator00:25:58We have a question from Ben Swinburne of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Thomas YehAnalyst at Morgan Stanley00:26:03Hi, this is Thomas Yea on for Ben. I just wanted to double tap on the 2B growth. Can you dimensionalize the investment needs that you see ahead? Should we think about the incremental investment is largely content related? And when do we think the business kind of begins to benefit on an EBITDA front for Fox? Thomas YehAnalyst at Morgan Stanley00:26:23And then as a follow-up, any update on the progress you've made on the various states requiring sports betting licensing? Just a time line coming into shape and how you might get approval over time would be helpful. Thank you so much. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:26:37Great. Thank you very much, Thomas, and say good day to Ben for us all. The on Tubi profitability, our investment in Tubi has reduced this year as the business continues to scale and really generate very positive advertising growth. We see that we'll continue to invest in Tubi throughout this year and next before it reaches profitability, but it's on track and on schedule to meet breakeven profitability as per our kind of business plans and expectations for the business. So we are really excited about Tubi's future and its positive impact for our overall revenue base and EBITDA going into the future. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:27:41On sports betting, we are talking to, I think, 27 26, sorry, 26 states for licensing. That process is obviously a relatively complicated one, but it's moving forward. And we expect there to be, sort of no significant hurdles with that process, but it will take time. Of course, we've given ourselves plenty of time because our option is not due for another 2,030. 2,030. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:28:162,030 end of 2,030. So we've given ourselves another sort of 5 years to get through the process, but we would expect to be licensed very significantly before that. And we're happy the option today, the 18.6% of FanDuel is in the money on current consensus valuations by over $2,800,000,000 and our 2.5% holding in Flutter, the parent company, is worth over $1,100,000,000 So our sports betting strategy has really been very positive for the company for our register. Thomas YehAnalyst at Morgan Stanley00:28:59Operator, next question please. Operator00:29:02Have a question from Michael Lin from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Michael LinInvestment Banking Associate at Goldman Sachs00:29:06Hey, good morning. Thank you for the question. I wanted to ask about the subscriber trends, declines of 7% improving. Are you seeing any impact from the benefits of skinny bundle inclusion yet? Do you expect to outperform the market on sub declines over time because of inclusion there? Michael LinInvestment Banking Associate at Goldman Sachs00:29:29And then just a quick follow-up to Steve. You had said that you expect digital losses to go from, I think, mid-three 100,000,000 last year to high-two 100,000,000. Any updates there just given the comments around investing as well as the to be outperformance today? Thank you. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:29:51Thanks, Mike. So I'll let Steve talk to the losses. I'll talk to the gains. Steve can talk to losses. But we see them as good investments. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:30:02But on sub trends, Lucky, you're right. Look, 7% subscriber declines in this quarter is the 2nd consecutive quarter, where sub trends have sub declines have reduced. We see that as a very positive trend. I think it's too early really for these sort of skinny bundles, if you want to call them skinny bundles, I'll call them something a little bit different. But it's too early really to say that that's having a major impact. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:30:40Although I think there probably is some seasonality in subscriber trends with obviously being in the middle of an energized and exciting sports season. So there probably is some seasonality in that, but we are very heartened by the trends moving in the right direction. With these skinny bundles, if you look at the bundles from a Fox perspective on DIRECTV with My Sports or on Comcast with Xfinity Sports and News TV, Pretty much the entirety of our portfolio, our bouquet of channels, with a couple of small exceptions are in those bundles. So in both those I mentioned, the Fox Network, Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2 and the Big 10 Network. And so from a Fox perspective, this is not a skinny bundle, this is a lean and mean bundle. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:31:45So it's like it's Jack, this bundle. And from us, we from a financial perspective, we do as well in the Jacked Bundle as we do in our normal traditional bundle. So we're very pleased with this trend of the bundle. It's financially, economically positive for us. We would hope that this bundle will be attractive to the cordless customers, the cord cutters and cordnevers. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:32:17But to the extent that it does churn a traditional cable subscriber, I hope it doesn't. But if it does, we are certainly whole and if not, in some instances, better off. So we're pleased with the emergence of the bundle. We think it bodes well for our for the business going forward. Steve, do you want to Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:32:38talk to the Yes, sure. I'll let you know. So in terms of digital, Mike, we're bang on track in terms of the improvement in digital investment that you alluded to for the full fiscal year. In fact, just this quarter, we are probably close to $40,000,000 to the good in terms of lower digital investment. Half of that comes from better EBITDA at Tubi. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:33:03I would say just with Tubi, as you look to the outlook for the sort of balance of the year, obviously, with the Super Bowl, Tubi is going to take max advantage of the marketing and user acquisition that comes with that. So you should expect them to step on the gas a little bit in terms of investing around that next in Q3. But no we're spot on track in terms of bringing that digital investment down. But to the extent that we see more opportunities and we'll remain opportunistic, but at the moment we're bang on track. Gabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at Fox00:33:33Great. Operator, we have time for one more question. Operator00:33:37Your final question is from Robert Fishman at MoffettNathanson. Please go ahead. Robert FishmanSenior Research Analyst at Moffettnathanson LLC00:33:43Hi. Good morning, everyone. Just following up on the sports strategy. After Netflix won the rights for Women's World Cup, can you just talk about how you feel Fox is positioned to continue to compete with Netflix and the other digital bidders for future sports rights? And then just to clarify on the DTC offering coming back to that, Will that plan include Fox News or Fox Nation content? Robert FishmanSenior Research Analyst at Moffettnathanson LLC00:34:06Or is that just the sports only offering? Thanks so much. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:34:11Thank you very much, Robert. So on the sports strategy, overall, we continue to believe that reach is the number 1, 2 and 3 priority for leagues and certainly for our business. And what we will continue through and it actually ties into the direct to consumer strategy because to put our content in front of every consumer that wants it on any platform and every platform. And so by really driving our engagement with consumer viewers across traditional linear platforms, across cable distribution, across the digital MVPDs and across our own D2C services targeting these cord cutters and cord nevers, that will put us in absolutely the best position with the broadest reach to continue to serve both our viewers but also sports Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:35:10fans. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:35:14That package, the D2C package, we'll announce more as we in the coming future, but we would see that package as a package that's holistic of all of our content of sports and news. Gabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at Fox00:35:30Great. At this point, we are out of time. But if you have any further questions, please give me or Charlie Costanzo a call. Thanks so much for joining our call today. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:35:40Thank you. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:35:40Thanks, everyone. Thank you. Operator00:35:43Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the Fox Corporation's 2nd quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call. Thank you.Read moreRemove AdsParticipantsExecutivesLachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEOAnalystsGabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at FoxSteve TomsicChief Financial Officer at FoxJohn HodulikTelecom and Cable Analyst at UBS GroupMichael MorrisSenior Managing Director at Guggenheim PartnersThomas YehAnalyst at Morgan StanleyMichael LinInvestment Banking Associate at Goldman SachsRobert FishmanSenior Research Analyst at Moffettnathanson LLCPowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallFOX Q2 202500:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipantsRemove Ads Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) FOX Earnings HeadlinesCEO calls Democratic Party 'abysmal' as Kamala Harris book is reportedly in the worksApril 12 at 3:46 PM | foxnews.comGazans speak out against Hamas for the first time in 18 yearsApril 12 at 3:46 PM | foxnews.comBITCOINDid you miss out on the 1000%+ gains of Bitcoin over the past 5 years? If so, you don't want to miss this...April 12, 2025 | Awesomely, LLC (Ad)Aaron Rodgers could have a new NFL team on his radar: reportApril 12 at 3:46 PM | foxnews.comKamala Harris mocked on social media for reported interest in creating an institute for policy and ideasApril 12 at 3:46 PM | foxnews.comTrans 'Zizian' cult suspect dragged from court after shouting allegations of de-transition, murder: reportApril 12 at 3:46 PM | foxnews.comSee More FOX Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like FOX? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on FOX and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About FOXFOX (NASDAQ:FOX) operates as a news, sports, and entertainment company in the United States (U.S.). The company operates through four segments: Cable Network Programming, Television, Credible, and The FOX Studio Lot. The Cable Network Programming segment produces and licenses news and sports content for distribution through traditional cable television systems, direct broadcast satellite operators and telecommunication companies, virtual multi-channel video programming distributors, and other digital platforms primarily in the U.S. Television segment produces, acquires, markets, and distributes programming through the FOX broadcast network, advertising supported video-on-demand service Tubi, and operates power broadcast television stations including duopolies and other digital platform; and produces content for third parties. The Credible segment engages in the consumer finance marketplace. The FOX Studio Lot segment provides television and film production services along with office space, studio operation services and includes all operations of the facility. 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PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fox Corporation Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Operator00:00:30I'll now turn the conference over to Chief Investor Relations Officer, Ms. Gabrielle Brown. Please go ahead, Ms. Brown. Gabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at Fox00:00:37Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to our fiscal 2025 Q2 earnings call. Joining me on the call today are Lachlan Murdoch, Executive Chair and Chief Executive Officer John Mallon, Chief Operating Officer and Steve Tomczyk, 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. Gabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at Fox00:01:12These 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 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 in the Investor Relations section of our website. And with that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Lachlan. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:01:49Thank you, Gabby, and thank you all for joining us this morning. Just to start, I want to comment on the devastating impact of the Los Angeles wildfires over the past few weeks. At Fox, our top priority has been to support our staff who have been profoundly affected in many ways, including losing their homes and much, if not all, of their belongings. We are one family and we are truly with you. And to aid the broader community, Fox has donated and raised over $5,000,000 across our platforms. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:02:27Thanks to the generosity of our audiences and employees. But sadly, as we have learned from past fires, the impact on the community is measured not in days or weeks, but in years. Our focus has now shifted to the longer term recovery for those most affected and to the rebuilding of the community around them. I want to thank our colleagues at KTTV and Fox News who kept viewers comprehensively informed with their coverage of the tragedy as it unfolded. We are deeply grateful for their work and also for the efforts of firefighters and many other first responders. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:03:10Thank you. Now on to our earnings. As you will have seen in the release this morning, our fiscal 2nd quarter results again demonstrates the continued operating momentum and strong financial performance of Fox. Financially, Fox EBITDA more than doubled year over year to a 2nd quarter record of $781,000,000 driven by revenue growth of 20% to just over 5,000,000,000 dollars These results are underpinned by industry leading affiliate and advertising revenue growth and reflects strong on screen delivery through our coverage of the presidential election, both at Fox News and across our local stations, strong NFL, college football and Major League Baseball post season viewership and continued audience expansion at Tubi. We are firing on all cylinders. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:04:11Total affiliate revenue grew by 6% on the back of higher rates with subscriber declines improving for the 2nd consecutive quarter. Notably, we have now successfully completed all affiliate renewals that will impact fiscal 2025. Total company advertising growth of 21% in the quarter was driven in part by record political revenue led by our local stations. Looked at more holistically across this year's presidential cycle, our first half fiscal twenty twenty five political revenue of over $400,000,000 was also a record. Tubi was a strong contributor to advertising revenue growth in the quarter, achieving a 31% increase in ad revenues, showing acceleration even when excluding political revenue. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:05:02And that advertising strength has continued into our fiscal Q3, where we are seeing very healthy trends across our portfolio. Sports remains remarkably robust. Our NFL postseason broadcast of the Wild Card Divisional and NFC Championship saw our highest ever unit pricing and demand for these matches. We are sold out with a record pricing for this Sunday's Super Bowl 59. We can't wait for the big game. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:05:33Advertising trends at Fox News are also strong across the direct response and national advertising categories, where there is increased demand from existing blue chip advertisers as well as new clients coming to the network due to its record share of audience. At Entertainment, scatter pricing is currently tracking at high single digits above upfront levels and cancellation options are at historical lows with Fox delivering its best series debut in 5 years with the launch of the medical drama, Doc. And Tubi continues to monetize its hard to reach differentiated audience. Now everyone on this call will know that Tubi's audience is diverse and it's young. And it is over 65% cordless made up of cord nevers and cord cutters not currently in the traditional cable universe. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:06:32While in past years, we have always unlocked the Super Bowl for viewers across our digital platform, this year, we will focus these cordless viewers on Tubi with Tubi's first ever Super Bowl live stream and related shoulder programming. This will provide viewers a great service, broaden the reach of the game and deliver Tubi an opportunity to engage a large cohort of new users. After the game, Tubi's viewers will have access to our library of over 275,000 movies and TV episodes, including the recently premiered the Z Suite, the hit original Sidelined, the QB and Me and much more. The game, the content and the experience on Tubi will further support its stellar growth. The mission for all of our platforms is delivering unique content to large audiences. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:07:33Nowhere is that more evident than at Fox News, where 4.5 1,000,000,000 hours of content was consumed across its platform during the Q2. On election night, more viewers turned to Fox News Media than any other network with over 13,500,000 viewers tuning in to Pure and Primetime. Fox News Channel once again ended the quarter as the most watched cable network in total day in primetime, growing total day audience by nearly 40% and primetime audience by 45% year over year. Fox News meaningfully outperformed its peers, more than doubling the viewing of its closest competitor and posting its highest quarterly share of prime time cable news audience in its history at over 60%, which includes a 70% share in December. Momentum in share and ratings has continued through and after the inauguration. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:08:34On the day, Fox News Media's coverage of the inauguration grew close to 12,000,000 viewers, making it the most watched coverage in all of television. This viewership has contributed to Fox News 3rd quarter to date ratings up over 50%, primetime ratings up over 40%, delivering Fox News a commanding share of the primetime cable news audience at 69%. And Fox News share of the audience was not limited to the cable network. For example, on YouTube, Fox News generated nearly 410,000,000 views in the month of January, beating our closest competitor, NBC, by nearly 2.5 times. The continued growth of Fox News Digital underscores that audiences are consuming their news in different ways. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:09:26We clearly saw this during the past election cycle where there was an uptick in consumers who either supplemented or solely access their news and information from nontraditional media sources. We view these new media markets opportunistically and essential to our growth strategy. Fox News outstanding achievements underscore our unwavering commitment to outstanding journalism, to our insightful coverage of politics and breaking news and to our strong prime time lineup. Of course, our content leadership also extends to sport. Autumn is traditionally the strongest time of year for FOX Sports and 2024 was no exception. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:10:13With the thrilling Major League Baseball World Series, college football expanding to Friday nights and the NFL remaining the most watched content in all of television, Fox was the leader in consumption of live sports events in the Q2. Our only disappointment in sports is that we will not be moving forward with Venue, our sports streaming joint venture with Warner Brothers Discovery and Disney. While the Venue team has done a tremendous amount of truly genius work preparing the digital platform for launch, in the end, the legal distractions around the business became increasingly difficult to bear. Venue was to be another distribution outlet for our brands to access consumers in the market wherever they are. And that is what we continue to be focused on, maximum distribution of our content, whether that be traditional, digital streaming or our own D2C offering in the near future. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:11:11Encouragingly, the distribution market has made some major strides recently. In the 12 months since we announced Venue, we have seen key distributors announce the launch of smaller, lower cost bundles of sports, news and broadcast networks. 3 distributors have announced new skinny packages in recent months, and we expect this trend to continue. We see this as a positive initiative by both our distribution partners and other content owners. The inclusion of our suite of channels, sports and news in each of these offerings is a real economic benefit to us, even more so than the sports specific venue and so gives us greater confidence for Fox over the long term. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:12:00We have had a very solid first half of our fiscal year and we are excited for what is to come. Consistent with our track record, we remain committed to delivering value for our shareholders in a thoughtful and disciplined manner, and we will continue to explore every opportunity to maximize that value over the long term. Let me now turn it over to Steve for his comments on the quarter's financial results. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:12:24Thanks, Lachlan, and good morning, everyone. Underscoring the strong momentum we've seen since the start of the year, Fox delivered standout results in the Q2, highlighted by a 20% increase in revenues and a 123 percent increase in EBITDA to $781,000,000 a record fiscal second quarter for Fox. Our overall revenue growth was led by a 21% increase in advertising revenues with broad based strength across our portfolio including significant political ad spend collected at our local stations, strong MLB ratings and robust pricing across our key sports properties, continued growth at Tubi and strong engagement at news. Total company affiliate fee revenues grew a healthy 6% over the prior year quarter, once again demonstrating the strength of our brands and focused portfolio of channels. As Lachlan mentioned, we've now successfully completed all affiliate renewals that impact our fiscal 2025. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:13:27Other revenues grew 70% year over year driven by higher sports sublicensing revenues at our cable segment. Similar to last quarter, this growth in revenue was largely offset by a corresponding increase in rights cost with no material impact on year over year overall EBITDA growth. Net income attributable to stockholders of $373,000,000 or $0.81 per share was up versus the $109,000,000 or $0.23 per share reported in the prior year period. Excluding non core items, adjusted net income was $442,000,000 and adjusted EPS was $0.96 This represents a more than 180% increase over the $0.34 per share recorded in the prior year. Now let's turn to our operating segments starting with the cable network programming segment, which delivered 31% revenue growth and 16% EBITDA growth. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:14:26Cable advertising revenues grew 32% over the prior year, driven by the strength in Fox News linear ratings and digital engagement and supported by healthy pricing in both national and direct response. Additionally, our sports advertising revenues benefited from higher MLB postseason ratings. Cable affiliate fee revenues grew 4% over the prior year quarter as pricing gains from our affiliate renewals outpaced the impact from net subscriber declines of approximately 7%, improving from just under 8% last quarter. Cable other revenues grew $350,000,000 due to the high sports sublicensing revenues I mentioned earlier. Revenue growth at the cable segment was partially offset by 38% increase in expenses, primarily attributable to the increase in sports amortization that correspond to the incremental sports sublicensing revenues along with modest increases in news and sports production costs. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:15:27Now turning to our television segment which delivered 16% revenue growth. Advertising revenues at our television segment grew 19% over the prior year boosted by political advertising revenues, strong MLB ratings and pricing strength across our sports schedule and continued growth at Tubi. Television affiliate fee revenues increased 9% in the quarter as healthy growth in fees across Fox owned and affiliated stations more than offset the impact from industry subscriber declines. Television other revenues were up 33% year over year primarily due to higher content revenues tied to our entertainment production studios. Partially offsetting the revenue growth at our television segment was a modest 3% increase in expenses, which were driven by our continued investment at Tubi. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:16:17All in, EBITDA at our television segment grew by $343,000,000 year over year to reach $205,000,000 Turning to free cash flow where we recorded a deficit of $436,000,000 this quarter. This is entirely consistent with the seasonality of our working capital cycle where the first half of our fiscal year reflects the concentration of payments for sports rights and buildup of advertising related receivables both of which reverse in the second half of our fiscal year. In terms of capital allocation, fiscal year to date we have repurchased an additional $550,000,000 through our share buyback program bringing the total cumulative amount repurchased to $6,150,000,000 or approximately 29% of our total shares outstanding since the launch of the buyback program in 2019. We remain committed to utilizing our full buyback authorization of $7,000,000,000 In addition, today we announced a 27% per share semiannual dividend. With this dividend payout of approximately $120,000,000 our total cumulative cash return to shareholders in the form of both dividends and share buybacks will have reached approximately $7,900,000,000 since the establishment of Foxcorp. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:17:41These capital return measures are supported by the strength of our balance sheet where we ended the quarter with approximately $3,300,000,000 in cash and $7,200,000,000 in debt. And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Gabby. Gabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at Fox00:17:54Thank you, Steve. And now we will be happy to take questions from the investment community. Operator00:18:01Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to emphasize the new functionality for the question and answer We have a question from John Hodulik from UBS. Please go ahead. John HodulikTelecom and Cable Analyst at UBS Group00:18:44Okay, great. Thanks guys. Lachlan, I got a follow-up on the B2C comment that you talked about launching in the near future. John HodulikTelecom and Cable Analyst at UBS Group00:18:51Any additional details you could provide in terms of timing, what's included and whether you need additional rights or any costs associated with launching the D2C service? And then on affiliate, you saw some nice acceleration there and it sounds like you guys got all the renewals done. Any color in terms of pricing or what you're seeing in terms of volumes that have been driving that acceleration? Thanks. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:19:18Thanks, John, and good morning. So on B2C, I should just start by sort of explaining the strategy and going back to making it very clear that we see the traditional cable bundle as still the most value for our consumers, and frankly, the most value for the company. So we're huge supporters of the traditional cable bundle, and we will always be. But having said that, we do want to reach consumers wherever they are. And there's a large population, obviously, that are now outside of the traditional cable bundle, either cord cutters or cord nevers. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:20:00And we are designing and we'll be able to say more about it shortly. But we are designing an offering to really target those cord cutters and cord narrows that are not traditionally in the cable bundle. We don't want and we have no intention of churning a traditional distribution customer into our D2C customer. And so our subscriber expectations will be modest, and we're going to price the service accordingly. And it's also important to note with those modest expectations, we do not expect any exclusive rights costs or additional incremental rights costs. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:20:44This service will be a package of our existing content on our existing brands targeted to consumers that are not currently in the bundle. So the incremental cost will be relatively low, certainly relative to what our peers have spent in this space. And we're excited to be able to talk about it more in the coming weeks months. In terms of timing and launch, we're certainly targeting a launch by the end of this calendar year. On affiliates, Steve, do you want to talk to affiliate? Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:21:18Hey, John, it's Steve here. So in terms of affiliate, I think we've seen obviously from a volume perspective the rate of attrition ease off a little bit over the last couple quarters, which is encouraging for us. And hopefully, these skinny bundles continue to see that trend continue. In terms of pricing, listen, I think it's reflective of strategy. It's reflective of the fact that we've got a very focused portfolio of channels that distributors really want. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:21:45You're seeing them because of their inclusion in those skinny bundles. And it's also a reflection of the fact that our distribution strategy prioritizes the bundle. And so we obviously these are tough negotiations. But as we've said for the last 5 years, we think that strategy of both content and distribution should lead us to take share of wallet. And I think we're starting to see that. Gabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at Fox00:22:10Operator, next question please. Operator00:22:12We have a question from Michael Morris at Guggenheim. Please go ahead. Michael MorrisSenior Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners00:22:18Thank you. Good morning. I wanted to ask about the strength that you're seeing at Fox News Advertising. Maybe you can expand on that a bit. It sounds like you're seeing incremental and arguably sustainable demand from some of from advertising buyers. Michael MorrisSenior Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners00:22:34And I'm curious if you think I'm interpreting that right. And just sort of what the dynamic and what the sustainability is of the changes that you're seeing there. I also want to ask about the 2B Super Bowl live stream. It seems like a big deal. Can you talk a little bit about what you hope to achieve by doing that? Michael MorrisSenior Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners00:22:52And then are there any incremental costs related with that? Are there concerns about service quality? Because I know that streaming big live events can be complicated. Appreciate it. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:23:02Thank you very much, Mike, and good morning as well. So on Fox News advertising, there's 2 elements here. You're 1,000 percent right. We are seeing, really a tremendous amount of new advertisers, clients coming on to the platform. And that's due to two reasons. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:23:24I think the first reason is the strength in our ratings, which are really tremendous. And as I mentioned in my prepared comments, it's very pleasing to see that, that strength and momentum continue post the election and post the inauguration. With that strength, we've seen over 100 new clients who have not been Fox News advertisers, major national clients come onto the platform. And so that's driving demand and driving pricing as well. And we see that continuing. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:24:07In fact, we see in the Q3 ratings and revenue accelerating off the Q2. So the on to Tubi Super Bowl, it's a different question. We're excited to have Tubi on Super Bowl. As we mentioned, it's not a change in strategy. We have always unlocked our digital platform for the Super Bowl. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:24:37But this year, with obviously, it's a unique opportunity, and we're going to focus that audience on Tubi. Obviously, one of the break there's some technology streaming costs, obviously, but it's tiny compared to the opportunity in front of us. So very low incremental costs. The benefit for Tubi, obviously, you get a tremendous exposure and sort of marketing platform. But also critically, we hope to capture a lot of first party data. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:25:10We'll be driving people to register on Tubi, many of them for the first time. And that first party data obviously is really critically important to our programmatic and other advertisers and partners and will help us drive our CPMs as we go into the future. So we're excited by the opportunity. It's not a necessarily a big change in strategy, but it's a huge opportunity for Tubi and it's something we're very keen to focus very intensely on. And what was the 3rd question? Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:25:51It was I think I was it. Yes. Right. Okay. Thank you, Mike. Gabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at Fox00:25:55Operator, next question please. Operator00:25:58We have a question from Ben Swinburne of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Thomas YehAnalyst at Morgan Stanley00:26:03Hi, this is Thomas Yea on for Ben. I just wanted to double tap on the 2B growth. Can you dimensionalize the investment needs that you see ahead? Should we think about the incremental investment is largely content related? And when do we think the business kind of begins to benefit on an EBITDA front for Fox? Thomas YehAnalyst at Morgan Stanley00:26:23And then as a follow-up, any update on the progress you've made on the various states requiring sports betting licensing? Just a time line coming into shape and how you might get approval over time would be helpful. Thank you so much. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:26:37Great. Thank you very much, Thomas, and say good day to Ben for us all. The on Tubi profitability, our investment in Tubi has reduced this year as the business continues to scale and really generate very positive advertising growth. We see that we'll continue to invest in Tubi throughout this year and next before it reaches profitability, but it's on track and on schedule to meet breakeven profitability as per our kind of business plans and expectations for the business. So we are really excited about Tubi's future and its positive impact for our overall revenue base and EBITDA going into the future. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:27:41On sports betting, we are talking to, I think, 27 26, sorry, 26 states for licensing. That process is obviously a relatively complicated one, but it's moving forward. And we expect there to be, sort of no significant hurdles with that process, but it will take time. Of course, we've given ourselves plenty of time because our option is not due for another 2,030. 2,030. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:28:162,030 end of 2,030. So we've given ourselves another sort of 5 years to get through the process, but we would expect to be licensed very significantly before that. And we're happy the option today, the 18.6% of FanDuel is in the money on current consensus valuations by over $2,800,000,000 and our 2.5% holding in Flutter, the parent company, is worth over $1,100,000,000 So our sports betting strategy has really been very positive for the company for our register. Thomas YehAnalyst at Morgan Stanley00:28:59Operator, next question please. Operator00:29:02Have a question from Michael Lin from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Michael LinInvestment Banking Associate at Goldman Sachs00:29:06Hey, good morning. Thank you for the question. I wanted to ask about the subscriber trends, declines of 7% improving. Are you seeing any impact from the benefits of skinny bundle inclusion yet? Do you expect to outperform the market on sub declines over time because of inclusion there? Michael LinInvestment Banking Associate at Goldman Sachs00:29:29And then just a quick follow-up to Steve. You had said that you expect digital losses to go from, I think, mid-three 100,000,000 last year to high-two 100,000,000. Any updates there just given the comments around investing as well as the to be outperformance today? Thank you. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:29:51Thanks, Mike. So I'll let Steve talk to the losses. I'll talk to the gains. Steve can talk to losses. But we see them as good investments. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:30:02But on sub trends, Lucky, you're right. Look, 7% subscriber declines in this quarter is the 2nd consecutive quarter, where sub trends have sub declines have reduced. We see that as a very positive trend. I think it's too early really for these sort of skinny bundles, if you want to call them skinny bundles, I'll call them something a little bit different. But it's too early really to say that that's having a major impact. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:30:40Although I think there probably is some seasonality in subscriber trends with obviously being in the middle of an energized and exciting sports season. So there probably is some seasonality in that, but we are very heartened by the trends moving in the right direction. With these skinny bundles, if you look at the bundles from a Fox perspective on DIRECTV with My Sports or on Comcast with Xfinity Sports and News TV, Pretty much the entirety of our portfolio, our bouquet of channels, with a couple of small exceptions are in those bundles. So in both those I mentioned, the Fox Network, Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2 and the Big 10 Network. And so from a Fox perspective, this is not a skinny bundle, this is a lean and mean bundle. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:31:45So it's like it's Jack, this bundle. And from us, we from a financial perspective, we do as well in the Jacked Bundle as we do in our normal traditional bundle. So we're very pleased with this trend of the bundle. It's financially, economically positive for us. We would hope that this bundle will be attractive to the cordless customers, the cord cutters and cordnevers. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:32:17But to the extent that it does churn a traditional cable subscriber, I hope it doesn't. But if it does, we are certainly whole and if not, in some instances, better off. So we're pleased with the emergence of the bundle. We think it bodes well for our for the business going forward. Steve, do you want to Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:32:38talk to the Yes, sure. I'll let you know. So in terms of digital, Mike, we're bang on track in terms of the improvement in digital investment that you alluded to for the full fiscal year. In fact, just this quarter, we are probably close to $40,000,000 to the good in terms of lower digital investment. Half of that comes from better EBITDA at Tubi. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:33:03I would say just with Tubi, as you look to the outlook for the sort of balance of the year, obviously, with the Super Bowl, Tubi is going to take max advantage of the marketing and user acquisition that comes with that. So you should expect them to step on the gas a little bit in terms of investing around that next in Q3. But no we're spot on track in terms of bringing that digital investment down. But to the extent that we see more opportunities and we'll remain opportunistic, but at the moment we're bang on track. Gabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at Fox00:33:33Great. Operator, we have time for one more question. Operator00:33:37Your final question is from Robert Fishman at MoffettNathanson. Please go ahead. Robert FishmanSenior Research Analyst at Moffettnathanson LLC00:33:43Hi. Good morning, everyone. Just following up on the sports strategy. After Netflix won the rights for Women's World Cup, can you just talk about how you feel Fox is positioned to continue to compete with Netflix and the other digital bidders for future sports rights? And then just to clarify on the DTC offering coming back to that, Will that plan include Fox News or Fox Nation content? Robert FishmanSenior Research Analyst at Moffettnathanson LLC00:34:06Or is that just the sports only offering? Thanks so much. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:34:11Thank you very much, Robert. So on the sports strategy, overall, we continue to believe that reach is the number 1, 2 and 3 priority for leagues and certainly for our business. And what we will continue through and it actually ties into the direct to consumer strategy because to put our content in front of every consumer that wants it on any platform and every platform. And so by really driving our engagement with consumer viewers across traditional linear platforms, across cable distribution, across the digital MVPDs and across our own D2C services targeting these cord cutters and cord nevers, that will put us in absolutely the best position with the broadest reach to continue to serve both our viewers but also sports Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:35:10fans. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:35:14That package, the D2C package, we'll announce more as we in the coming future, but we would see that package as a package that's holistic of all of our content of sports and news. Gabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at Fox00:35:30Great. At this point, we are out of time. But if you have any further questions, please give me or Charlie Costanzo a call. Thanks so much for joining our call today. Steve TomsicChief Financial Officer at Fox00:35:40Thank you. Lachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEO at Fox00:35:40Thanks, everyone. Thank you. Operator00:35:43Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the Fox Corporation's 2nd quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call. Thank you.Read moreRemove AdsParticipantsExecutivesLachlan MurdochExecutive Chairman & CEOAnalystsGabrielle BrownExecutive VP & Chief Investor Relations Officer at FoxSteve TomsicChief Financial Officer at FoxJohn HodulikTelecom and Cable Analyst at UBS GroupMichael MorrisSenior Managing Director at Guggenheim PartnersThomas YehAnalyst at Morgan StanleyMichael LinInvestment Banking Associate at Goldman SachsRobert FishmanSenior Research Analyst at Moffettnathanson LLCPowered by