Fox Ad Revenue Surged Nearly 50% In FYQ1 Buoyed By World Cup, Political, Tubi

Fox Corp. revenue jumped 22% last quarter to $4.57 billion, ahead of expectations, driven by a 47% surge in ad sales due to the current year broadcast of the FIFA Men’s World Cup, higher political advertising revenue, and continued digital growth led by Tubi.

Distribution revenue increased 9%, driven by 10% growth at the Cable Network Programming segment and 4% growth at the Television segment.

The shares popped more than 5% on the numbers for the company’s fiscal 2027 first quarter ended in September.

“FOX has had an outstanding start to fiscal 2027 with first-quarter records for revenue and Adjusted EBITDA underpinned by robust growth in both advertising and distribution revenue,” said CEO Lachlan Murdoch.

“We commenced the year with the stellar performance of the FIFA Men’s World Cup, the kickoff of the college football and NFL seasons, and an active election cycle at the national and local levels. These events supported strong contributions from across the company, reflecting the focused strategy we are executing and the strength of our content and brands. These record results coupled with the strong momentum we are continuing to see across our business gives us confidence in delivering value for shareholders in a thoughtful and disciplined manner.”

He and other execs will host a call at 8:30 ET.

Analysts will be eager to hear more about Roku. Fox is in the midst of closing its $22 billion cash and stock acquisition announced last June. Shareholders of both companies approved the deal last month. It’s moving through the regulatory process and expected to close on the early side of calendar 2027.

Wall Street is extremely bullish on the Roku merger, anticipating significant revenue and cost synergies, and a path to “fundamentally changing the company’s strategic and fundamental narrative,” one analyst said recently, i.e. “a credible path to transition its predominately linear portfolio toward DTC, addressing the company’s most significant weakness.”