Lachlan K. Murdoch
Executive Chair and Chief Executive Officer at FOX
Thanks very much, Gabby, and welcome aboard. Well, we have concluded another successful fiscal year, achieving both the financial and operational goals we set ourselves with a relentless focus on strengthening our core brands, while investing in our high-growth digital initiatives. Over the year, we delivered 8% total company revenue growth, including 7% affiliate revenue growth, notably, without the benefit of any meaningful renewals and 9% advertising revenue growth, despite the record political revenues we saw in the prior fiscal.
Those of you on this call, who were at our 2019 Investor Day, will remember our commitment to you that we would have achieved $1 billion of incremental Television segment affiliate revenue by the end of calendar 2022. I'm more than pleased to confirm that we have achieved that $1 billion target in this past quarter a full six months ahead of schedule. As anticipated, our EBITDA was down modestly, as we continued our investment in Tubi and the FOX News Media digital properties, including FOX Nation and FOX Weather and with the launch of the USFL this past spring. Most importantly, Fox continues to stand apart in a crowded media ecosystem, delivering a consistent operating performance and a robust free cash flow profile alongside an enviable balance sheet.
Our leadership position was again evident during the recent upfront advertising sales cycle, in which we booked volume commitments approximately 15% above last year's upfront, with nearly 25% of our current year commitments across our growing digital properties. We achieved pricing increases in the high single to low double digits, as compared to last year's upfront.
Sports led the upfront market, illustrated by the fact that we sold more NFL Sunday advertising in the current upfront market than we did across Sunday and Thursday combined in the prior year's market. This excludes advertising commitments for the upcoming Super Bowl, where we are pacing well ahead of schedule and seeing very robust demand at record pricing levels. Our success in the upfront spanned our entire portfolio. We were able to achieved broadcast level pricing increases at FOX News, boosted sellout at FOX Entertainment and importantly, drove significantly more incremental ad dollars into Tubi. We are, of course, aware of the chatter around advertising headwinds. And of course, we will be prepared if the market turns downward. But let me be clear, we are currently not seeing an adverse advertising impact on our business. This speaks to the unique positioning and strength of our core platforms.
Over two-thirds of our fiscal 2022 advertising revenue was generated by live content with sports and news, delivering 40% and 30% respectively. Locally, base market advertising sales have been stable. In fact, we are currently seeing a return to growth in the auto category for the first time in a couple of years. This stability in the base market provides a good foundation for the upcoming political cycle where the outlook is remarkably strong.
On a comparable basis, our June quarter political advertising revenues were roughly three times larger than those of the fiscal fourth quarter of the last presidential election, which turned out to be an all-time record political cycle for the company. With the combination of political races and ballot issues across our markets, we continue to expect this election to deliver another record midterm cycle. In fact, excluding the impact of the Georgia runoffs in the last cycle, this midterm cycle looks certain to surpass the 2020 presidential cycle at our local stations.
There are US center races in 13 of our 18 markets, including what we expect to be heavy political spending in Arizona, Florida and Georgia. Additionally, there are gubernatorial races in 17 of our 18 markets, where we expect heavy spending in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Texas and Wisconsin. Add to that the issue money in a few key markets and we are seeing an unprecedented wave of political spending which accelerates as we head towards November.
At the national level, we believe that we achieved the highest upfront pricing increases in cable news history at FOX News, which to a certain extent is to be expected, as the FOX News channel again closed the year, as cable's most watched network in prime time in total day and continues to generate audiences on par with those of the Big 4 broadcast networks.
FOX News was the only cable news network to post viewership gains in the fiscal year in the key adult 25 to 54 demo and total viewers, while extending its streak to 16 consecutive months beating CNN and MSNBC combined in prime and total day for both the key demo and total viewers. For over two decades, FOX News has been the highest-rated cable news channel in prime time. Notably, FOX News just finished the month of July as the third most viewed network in weekday prime in all of television, trailing only CBS and NBC.
I've spoken about the political diversity of the FOX News audience previously, specifically about the fact that we have more independents and Democrats watching us than watch CNN or MSNBC, but the diversity of our audience extends beyond political affiliation. In July, the Fox News Channel was the most viewed cable network with Asian and Hispanic viewers. In fact, in that month viewing among Hispanic households was up 38% and among Asian households, up 43%. Elsewhere news, the FOX Nation platform increased its subscriber base by approximately 80% over the past fiscal year, supported by sustained and high conversion rates of trialists to paid subscribers and retention rates well above industry averages.
At FOX Sports, live event viewing was up 5% through the first half of the calendar year led by our NASCAR schedule, which generated viewership up a solid 10% over 2021. This spring was busy for FOX Sports, as we launched the inaugural season of the USFL. The USFL averaged over one million viewers on FOX, at least 20% higher than the EPL on NBC and regular season NHL broadcast on ABC and more than twice the viewership of MLS on FOX. In its first season, the USFL clearly delivered on its most essential goal, which was to demonstrate that the league belongs alongside other long-established spring sports properties. And as you know, we have an incredibly strong year ahead in sports which includes the FIFA Men's World Cup beginning this November and the Super Bowl next February.
At FOX Entertainment, our content strategy is focused on ad-supported multi-platform television that can thrive both creatively and financially well into the future. We look to use our broadcast network to build and support businesses beyond our linear air. An example of this approach is Next Level Chef which was the number one new broadcast entertainment program this past season and FOX' first owned production inside our partnership with Gordon Ramsay, whereas we used only to license Gordon's product from third parties, we now license hits like Next Level Chef to third parties and we have done so with the sale of the format to ITV in the UK.
Another example of how we extend and monetize our IP is the just launch of Gordon Ramsay FAST Channel on Tubi. And speaking of Tubi one year ago -- one year into our focused investment cycle at Tubi, the platform generated TVT growth of nearly 40% and revenue growth of 45% across the fiscal year with both metrics coming in better than planned and reinforcing our decision to invest in this strategic asset.
During the June quarter 34% growth in TVT helped drive revenue growth in the low double digits, despite a more difficult prior year comparison when we began our ramped content and monetization strategy. In the quarter, we launched 25 linear channels, grew our VOD library to over 45,000 titles and premiered 13 efficient Tubi Originals. We will continue to invest judiciously in Tubi with our sights set on achieving $1 billion in revenue run rate in the next couple of years.
As you know, our affiliate renewal cycle begins in earnest this new fiscal year and we are again looking forward to industry-leading gains from the superior value of our channels and services. With some early meaningful station and affiliate deals already completed including the recently closed Verizon deal, we go into this renewal cycle with confidence the market appreciates the value of our brands.
In aggregate, these financial and operating achievements again highlight the fact that the FOX story is one of strength, one of focus and one of stability. We will see how the macroeconomic environment evolves during the months ahead. But as we have demonstrated over the course of the last few years, FOX is well positioned to outperform. We remain encouraged by the FOX specific trends that I've highlighted and that we're observing in real-time, underpinned by the best balance sheet in the business the same solid balance sheet that helped us thrive, despite the challenges of COVID and that will continue to support our investments for long-term growth and shareholder returns.
And with that, I will turn you over to Steve.
