Susan Lee Panuccio
Chief Financial Officer at News
Thank you, Robert. We have entered fiscal 2023 with a different macro environment, including volatility in foreign currency impacting our headline results from our Australian and U.K. businesses. Throughout fiscal 2022, we successfully navigated the company to be in a position of strength, guided by our ongoing cost transformation work, which we have balanced with investment and innovation to drive digital expansion. The first quarter of fiscal 2023 presented some challenges, particularly at HarperCollins, but most of the businesses performed well in constant currency and suffice to say that News Corp remains well positioned given the strength of our asset mix, healthy balance sheet and the continued diversification of our revenue base. First quarter total revenues were approximately $2.5 billion, down 1%, which included a $153 million or 6% negative impact from foreign currency headwinds.
Excluding the impact of foreign currency fluctuations, acquisitions and divestitures, first quarter adjusted revenues grew 3% compared to the prior year. Total segment EBITDA was $350 million, down 15% compared to the prior year, which saw a record profit with 53% growth. That being said, total segment EBITDA this quarter was still up 31% over fiscal 2021, underscoring the material changes in recent years. Also noteworthy is that the majority of the profit line in this quarter was driven by lower sales from Amazon due to the reset of its inventory levels and the rightsizing of its warehouse footprint as well as foreign currency fluctuations neither of which we believe are reflective of underlying performance. Adjusted EBITDA declined 13% versus the prior year period. For the quarter, we reported earnings per share of $0.07 compared to $0.33 in the prior year. Adjusted earnings per share were $0.12 in the quarter compared to $0.23 in the prior year. Moving on to the results for the individual reporting segments, starting with Digital Real Estate Services. Segment revenues were $421 million, down 1% compared to the prior year.
The results include a negative impact of $20 million or 5% from foreign currency fluctuations. On an adjusted basis, segment revenues increased 3%. Segment EBITDA declined 14% to $119 million impacted by higher employee costs and increased operating costs driven by strategic investment activities of both Move and REA together with negative impact related to currency headwinds. The increase in investment costs at Move was due to the expansion into adjacencies, including salaries, rentals and new homes as we focus on the longer-term opportunity. Adjusted segment EBITDA declined 7%. Move revenues were $169 million, down 6%, following 30% growth in the prior year period. For the quarter, real estate revenues fell 9% driven by lower lead and transaction volumes, reflective of the broader industry trends. Consumer affordability constraints impacted uniquely volumes, which declined 32% in the quarter, although that was a slight improvement from the fourth quarter rate. Both trends were partially offset by price optimization within the traditional lead gen business, higher sell-through of our hybrid offering, market VIP, home price appreciation and continued advertising gains.
We also had revenue growth from our adjacencies, including the acquisition of UpNest, albeit these revenue streams are still in the early stages of development. Referral offerings accounted for approximately 30% of total revenues, down from 32% last year, impacted by lower transaction volumes, partially offset by higher home prices. Based on our internal metrics, Foxtel's average monthly unique users were 86 million in the first quarter. REA had another strong quarter, with revenues rising 2% year-on-year on a reported basis to $252 million, which included a $20 million or 9% negative impact from foreign exchange. Growth was driven by price increases, contribution from Premier Plus favorable debt penetration and growth in national listings, partially offset by a modest decline in financial services revenues due to lower settlement activity. Overall, new buy listings rose 5% with Sydney and Melbourne up 5% and 12%, respectively. Please refer to REA's earnings release and their conference call following this call for more details. Turning to the Subscription Video Services segment.
Revenues for the quarter were $502 million, down approximately 2% compared to the prior year on a reported basis due to foreign currency headwinds. Importantly, on an adjusted basis, revenue grew 6% versus the prior year, accelerating from the prior quarter rate of 4% growth. Streaming revenues accounted for 25% of circulation and subscription revenues versus 19% in the prior year and again, more than offset broadcast revenue declines. Total closing paid subscribers across Foxtel Group reached almost 4.5 million at quarter end, up 16% year-over-year with the growth rate improving three percentage points from the fourth quarter. Total subscribers, including trial has reached over 4.6 million. Total paid stream subscribers reached over 2.8 million, increasing 34% versus the prior year and adding 117,000 sequentially with streaming subscribers now representing 63% of Foxtel's total paid subscriber base. Kayo paying subscribers reached almost $1.3 million, up nearly 19% year-over-year, slightly down from the fourth quarter levels due to typical seasonal patterns at the end of the AFL and NRL seasons in September.
BINGE paying subscribers grew a robust 67% year-over-year to over 1.3 million subscribers benefiting from the release of the House of the Dragon and the popularity of the Foxtel Origin series, The 12. Foxtel ended the quarter with over 1.4 million residential broadcast subscribers, down 10% year-over-year, similar to the fourth quarter rate. Broadcast churn was 14.2% compared to 14% in the prior year, partly reflecting the acceleration of migrating subscribers of cable. Broadcast ARPU rose over 1% to approximately AUD83. Segment EBITDA in the quarter of $111 million fell 3% versus the prior year, significantly impacted by currency, with adjusted segment EBITDA increasing 5%. Moving on to Dow Jones. Dow Jones continued to post strong performance in the first quarter with revenues of $515 million, up 16% compared to the prior year, with digital revenues accounting 79% of total revenues this quarter, up four percentage points from last year. Results included a full quarter from both the Opus and Chemical market analytics acquisitions.
On an adjusted basis, revenues rose approximately 6%. Circulation revenue grew 5%, driven by strong year-over-year volume gains with the Wall Street Journal digital-only subscriptions, up 13% to over $3.1 million and total Dow Jones digital-only subscriptions also up 13%. Professional information business revenues rose 40% and accounted for approximately 35% of segment revenues driven by the acquisitions of Opus and CMA. Revenues from the acquisitions are progressing in line with our expectations as the businesses benefited from strong demand across numerous industries, including metals, carbon, plastics, sustainability, biofuels and renewables, while yields continue to rise and retention remains strong. Risk and Compliance revenues grew 6%, although currency had a 10 percentage point negative impact on revenue growth given the business' higher exposure to Europe and APAC. Advertising revenues grew a healthy 4% to $94 million despite lapping 29% growth in the prior year.
Digital advertising revenues rose 11% in the quarter as we continue to see very strong yield improvement and saw growth in all categories, especially in B2B this quarter. Digital advertising accounted for approximately 65% of total advertising revenues, which improved four percentage points from last year. Print advertising revenues were down 6%. Dow Jones segment EBITDA for the quarter rose 19% to $113 million as margins continued to improve with 50 basis points of expansion year-over-year to nearly 22%, helped by the inclusion of Opus and CMA. Adjusted segment EBITDA for the quarter was down 1%, reflecting higher employee costs. At Book Publishing, as we fared during the quarter, results were materially hampered by Amazon's reset of inventory levels and rightsizing of its warehouse footprint resulting in significantly lower orders and higher returns. Supply chain pressures continue to impact freight and manufacturing costs but are showing some signs of easing from recent quarters.
As it relates to Amazon, we have not seen similar inventory level adjustments from other book distributors or retailers. And as Robert noted, consumer demand has remained healthy, and consumer sales data remained consistent with prior quarters. For the quarter, revenues declined 11% to $487 million and segment EBITDA declined 54% to $39 million. We estimate Amazon accounted for almost the entire year-over-year revenue decline and the majority of the year-over-year segment EBITDA shortfall. Our backlist contributed 65% of revenues, up slightly from last year, benefiting from the demand of token titles helped by the premier of the Rings of Power on Amazon. Digital sales rose 1% this quarter and accounted for 23% of consumer sales. On an adjusted basis, revenues fell 7% and segment EBITDA declined 51%. Turning to News Media. We continue to see relatively strong advertising trends, particularly at News Australia. Revenues were $553 million, down 4% versus the prior year, largely due to currency, which had a $62 million or a 11% negative impact on revenue.
Importantly, despite macro uncertainty, adjusted revenues for the segment increased a healthy 6% compared to the prior year due to strength in circulation and subscription and advertising revenues in constant currency. Circulation and subscription revenues declined 6%, but that included a 12% or $32 million negative impact from currency fluctuations. Growth in constant currency was driven by cover price increases in the U.K. and Australia, and increase in content licensing revenues and double-digit subscriber gains across News Australia and The Time and the Sunday Times. Advertising revenues declined 4% compared to the prior year, which included a 9% or $22 million negative impact from currency fluctuations. Growth in constant currency was driven by an increase in digital advertising revenues, primarily of the sun where digital revenue yet again equals print revenue, while Australia benefited from strong preperformance led by a recovery in retail and travel, which were impacted by the lockdowns in the prior year. The New York Post also posted strong digital games.
Segment EBITDA of $18 million declined 47%, driven by over $20 million of higher costs related to Talk TV and other digital investments, together with higher news production and distribution costs across the businesses, which are being impacted by the current inflationary and supply chain challenges. Adjusted segment EBITDA fell 44%. Before we look at the outlook for the next quarter, I would like to touch on free cash flow. First quarter free cash flow is typically lower due to the timing of working capital payments, and we remain focused on driving strong and positive free cash flow generation for the year. Turning to the upcoming quarter. We continue to expect higher costs due to supply chain and inflationary pressures. Advertising conditions are mixed and visibility remains limited across the businesses. We also expect ongoing foreign exchange headwinds, given the current spot rate for the Australian dollar and pound sterling compared to the prior year. Looking at each of our segments, at Digital Real Estate Services, Australian residential new buy listings for October declined 18% as we lapped tougher prior year comparisons.
Please refer to REA for more specific outlook commentary.At Move, we expect lead and transaction volumes will be challenged in the short term, and we will continue to take steps to mitigate those pressures while balancing ongoing investments with cost discipline. In Subscription Video Services, we remain pleased with the performance of the streaming products and the ongoing focus of broadcast ARPU and churn as we continue to migrate customers from cable to streaming. At Dow Jones, we remain focused on the integration of Opus and CMA. Advertising visibility remains short term. However, we are expecting a more challenging second quarter. We also expect the rate of investment in the second quarter to be higher than the prior year as we continue to focus on driving consumer subscription and enhancing our PIB offerings. Input publishing supply chain and inflationary pressures continue to persist, albeit by showing signs of easing.
We still expect headwinds from Amazon in the second quarter, although with strong customer demand, we expect any issues to be short term in nature. At News Media, like the first quarter, we expect incremental costs in relation to price investments across the businesses, including top TV and other digital initiatives, together with ongoing inflationary pressures, including newsprint prices. Before we open for questions, I would like to remind everyone that we will not be addressing any questions related to the special committee and/or a potential combination with FOX Corporation, as Robert stated earlier. With that, let me hand it over to the operator for Q&A.
