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The News Corporation, which is also home to Fox News, is headquartered in Manhattan on April 18, 2023 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Fox Corporation. The company reported a quarterly net loss on Tuesday due to costs related to its settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, despite revenue raised by the Super Bowl and ad-supported streaming service Tubi.
Fox brought in $4.08 billion in quarterly revenue, up 18% from the same period last year. Its advertising revenue soared on the back of the Super Bowl – the most-watched program in American television history with 115 million viewers, which brought in nearly $650 million in total advertising revenue. The company also saw a boost after airing more NFL games during the season and increasing viewership for Tubi.
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The company said Tuesday that swing It resulted in a net loss of $54 million, or 10 cents per share, in the fiscal third quarter ended March 31, from a gain of $283 million, or 50 cents per share, in the year-ago period on fees associated with settlement costs.
Last month, Fox agreed to pay $787.5 million to Dominion to settle a defamation lawsuit over false allegations that the company’s voting machines influenced the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Chief Financial Officer Steve Tomsick said Tuesday that while the company is unlikely to see a significant drop in its bottom line from the Dominion case, it has faced high legal costs in recent quarters related to the lawsuit due to filings and pretrial preparation.
The executives added that they do not expect litigation costs to affect share buybacks.
The settlement stopped in its tracks a trial that was set to include appearances on the witness stand by senior executives including chairman Rupert Murdoch, as well as Fox News talent.
“We made the decision to act to resolve this dispute and avoid the intensity of the divisive trial and multi-year appeals process, a decision that is clearly in the best interest of the company and its shareholders,” CEO Lachlan Murdoch said Tuesday. “The settlement in no way alters Fox’s commitment to the highest standards of journalism across our company or our passion for unabashed reporting of the day.”
The executive director said Tuesday that the Delaware court had “severely limited” its defenses because of the pretrial ruling. Among the challenges he cited was the judge’s ruling that Fox could not use newsworthiness as a defence.
The company said earlier, and Lachlan Murdoch echoed Tuesday, that Fox “has always acted as a news organization, reporting on the newsworthy events of the day,” which includes allegations made publicly by then-President Donald Trump and his allies. Fox argued he is protected by the First Amendment, which the CEO echoed on Tuesday when discussing the remaining defamation lawsuit Fox faces from Smartmatic USA, another voting technology company.
Lachlan Murdoch noted that the Smartmatic case is moving at a “fundamentally different pace” than Dominion, potentially going to trial in 2025, but all of Fox’s First Amendment defense remains.
Shortly after the settlement with Dominion was announced, the network fired live broadcast host Tucker Carlson, a surprising move for a network that had seen prime-time show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” high ratings.
On Tuesday, the Fox CEO said there would be no changes to its primetime programming strategy, noting that the network is “always adjusting our programming and our lineup and that’s what we continue to do.” Fox is the highest-rated cable news channel, even as primetime ratings have slipped in Carlson’s slot since his departure.
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