Tubi, Fox Nation Drive Revenue Growth for Fox Corp.

As part of Tuesday’s Fox Corp. earnings report, the media company revealed that ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) streaming service Tubi was primarily the cause behind a $54 million increase in revenue for the company’s television unit over the first three months of 2022 over the same quarter last year. Fox’s TV division improved revenue from $915 million to $969 million.

“This increase was led by Tubi, which saw its advertising growth accelerate from approximately 40% in the December quarter to 50% on the back of increased engagement,” said Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch.

The AVOD streamer reportedly increased its total viewing time by 50% during the first three months of the year while also delivering 18 of its 20 largest days in history based on time streamed. According to Fox, this growth was due, at least in part, to substantial increases in Tubi’s library.

“Tubi expanded its industry-leading library, and now counts more than 42,000 titles in this portfolio,” Murdoch said. “Importantly, Tubi also renewed key distribution deals, including its Amazon partnership, and signed its first custom deal for Samsung’s smart TVs.”

The company as a whole beat analyst expectations by delivering $3.46 billion in revenue, up 7% over the same period from a year ago; Wall Street had been forecasting Fox to deliver $3.39 billion. Fox reported that its cable networks saw revenue increase by 3%, affiliate revenue rise 5%, and the television division climbed 8%. The “other revenue” category saw the largest rise jumping 18% on the strength of sports returning following the pandemnic and increases at subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service Fox Nation.

The company has never announced the political streamer’s subscriber totals since launching in 2018, but Fox did say that the service was instrumental in boosting the company’s “other revenue” to $140 million last quarter from $120 million during the same period in 2021.

Given the recent successes that Fox has enjoyed in its under-the-radar streamers, Murdoch believes in maintaining the company’s steady, reserved investment in the services.

“We see the level of investment this year in our digital properties, and that’s Tubi, but it also includes FOX Weather and FOX Nation and some other smaller elements, we see the current level of investment at the appropriate level going forward,” Murdoch said. “So that, we’ve guided the market between $200 million and $300 million that we’re putting back into investing, into growing those businesses. And we would not expect any kind of significant level above that on sort of our current plans. And we think that level is the right amount, particularly with an asset like Tubi that there is really going to be the future of how people watch television in this country.”