Fox revenue rises 22% to $4.57 billion in first quarter
Key Facts
Fox said on November 2, 2026, that revenue reached $4.57 billion in the three months ended September 30, up $833 million, or 22%, year over year. The company said adjusted EBITDA reached a record $1.64 billion, an increase of $576 million, or 54%. Adjusted net income attributable to the company’s stockholders was $1.09 billion, or $2.54 per share, compared with $686 million and $1.51 per share a year earlier. Chief Executive Lachlan Murdoch said the company delivered "record first-quarter revenue and adjusted EBITDA." The results reflect strong advertising and distribution growth in the first quarter of fiscal 2027.
Advertising revenue rose 47%, driven primarily by broadcasts of the men’s World Cup, higher revenue from political advertising and continued digital growth led by ad-supported service Tubi. The company said the college football and National Football League seasons, alongside an active national and local election cycle, contributed to the results. The advertising boost combined major sports broadcast rights with political spending and expansion in digital activity. Distribution revenue increased 9% overall, rising 10% in the cable network programming segment and 4% in the television segment. This shows that first-quarter growth extended beyond advertising sales to distribution revenue in both segments.
Advertising strength was accompanied by higher content costs, as Fox said expenses increased primarily because of greater consumption of sports programming rights costs and production costs tied to World Cup broadcasts. The company added that digital content costs also rose. It said revenue growth partly offset the increase in expenses. These costs illustrate one effect of the tournament on quarterly results: it supported advertising sales while also increasing rights and production costs. The expansion of digital content that supported advertising also came with higher production costs for that content.
Fox attributed television advertising growth to the World Cup, political advertising and digital growth led by Tubi. In the cable network programming segment, revenue rose 8%, while advertising revenue also increased 8%, supported mainly by higher sports advertising, including World Cup ads. This was partly offset by a decline in digital news advertising, the company said, highlighting differences among advertising sources within the segment.
Revenue growth in the first quarter of fiscal 2027 was faster than the increase in the year-earlier period, when Fox revenue rose 5% and advertising revenue increased 6%, according to the transcript of the first-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call. In the current quarter, revenue growth was 22% and advertising growth was 47%. Murdoch said the World Cup, the college football and National Football League seasons, and the active election cycle contributed to record revenue and adjusted EBITDA. Fox Class A shares closed at $63.24 on October 30, according to EL7 data. The company scheduled its annual shareholder meeting for November 4, 2026, at 10 a.m. Eastern time, after discussing results whose audio webcast was scheduled for November 2 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.