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In its first earnings report since the high-profile Dominion lawsuit settlement, Fox posted a $50 million loss for its fiscal third quarter, despite revenue boosts from the Super Bowl and Tubi.
The company said the loss was “primarily due to charges associated with” legal settlement costs, meaning the $787 million charge will likely appear in Fox’s next quarterly report, rather than this one.
“We made the business decision to resolve this dispute and avoid the acrimony of a divisive trial and a multiyear appeal process,” CEO Lachlan Murdoch said during the company’s earnings call Tuesday morning.
Murdoch also said that there is “no change to programming strategy” at Fox News—despite Tucker Carlson’s high-profile exit last month.
Regarding the upcoming litigation with Smartmatic, Murdoch said the two cases are very different. The CEO doesn’t believe the trial will begin until 2025.
“We’ll be ready to defend this case surrounding extremely newsworthy events when it goes to trial,” Murdoch said.
Into the upfront
With Fox’s upfront next week, Tubi is expected to play a large role.
Tubi is now the most-watched FAST service in the U.S., according to the company, and saw a boost in revenue from increased viewership.
While the company didn’t break out Tubi’s numbers by quarter, Murdoch said the streamer’s total viewing time (TVT) has grown by over 200%, and revenue jumped 400% since Fox’s acquisition three years ago.
Last month, Tubi CEO Farhad Massoudi exited the company, just months after a viral Super Bowl campaign. Moving forward, the company has reorganized its digital efforts as a new business unit, Tubi Media Group, with Paul Cheesbrough set to lead the division as CEO.
Advertising revenues at the company grew 43% to %1.86 billion, led by the Super Bowl and Tubi. Total revenues for the quarter reached $4.08 billion.
Heading into the upfront, Murdoch said the company isn’t seeing a softness in the ad market, with the national and sports market being “very strong, very robust.”
