CABLE NETS DRIVING NEWS CORP PROFITS

Its Fox broadcast network may have a higher profile, but News Corp’s cable networks proved to be the driver of profits during its last quarter. The company reported that operating income at its cable outlets rose 17 percent to $993 million on revenue of $2.8 billion, largely as a result of solid ad sales for […]

DIGITAL HOME-VIDEO RELEASES BOOSTING STUDIO PROFITS

Releasing movies for digital download before they hit stores and rental outlets as DVDs and Blu-ray Discs may be reversing the downturn in home-video business that movie studios have struggled with in recent years. At least such is the case with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, News Corp COO and President Chase Carey said in […]

FOX NEWS WINS RATINGS VOTE

It may have been a more strident voice in opposition to Barack Obama during the 2012 election campaign than Mitt Romney’s, but unlike Romney, Fox News turned out to be a big winner at the end of the day. In its quarterly report, released on Wednesday, News Corp reported that its cable unit, of which […]

DOH! MUSICIANS UNION SUES OVER THE SIMPSONS‘ THEME

Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Pictures are embroiled in a lawsuit with the musicians’ union over use of the theme from The Simpsons at the Universal Studios’ amusement park in California. The American Federation of Musicians filed a lawsuit in U.S. district court alleging that use of the music for the Simpsons roller-coaster ride violates […]

DREAMWORKS ANIMATION JUMPS FROM PARAMOUNT TO FOX

DreamWorks Animation has a new distributor: 20th Century Fox. The deal, which in effect unites Jeffrey Katzenberg’s studio with Fox’s Blue Skies division — its latest release, Ice Age: Continental Drift, has thus far earned $797.4 million worldwide — makes Fox an animation powerhouse. In a statement, Katzenberg said that his studio will benefit in […]

DISNEY WITHOLDING JOHN CARTER DISCS FROM NETFLIX, RED BOX

Last February, the Walt Disney Co. quietly changed its policy of making DVD releases available to Redbox and Netflix on the same day that they went on sale in stores, but, unlike Universal and 20th Century Fox, it did not offer the two principal rental companies deep discounts on the DVDs in return for accepting […]

THANKS TO CHINA, FOX CROSSES $1-BILLION MARK OVERSEAS

Reflecting Hollywood’s increasing dependence on the expanding Chinese market, 20th Century Fox has become the third studio to cross the $1-billion mark in gross international earnings, following the lead of Disney and Warner Bros. Daily Variety pointed out that the studio was able to reach that milestone relatively quickly as a result of $286 million […]

CHINA MAY SAVE TITANIC 3D

Moviegoer interest in the 3D version of Titanic may have fallen steeply at the domestic box office, and by and large, it is not living up to its name in most foreign markets either. But in China it is turning out to be a big hit. Tuesday’s debut brought in $11.6 million, by far the […]

DESPITE COSTLY HACKING SCANDAL, NEWS CORP PROFITS SOAR

Forget about the fact that News Corp may have to pay $200-400 million to settle all of the invasion-of-privacy cases that have been filed against it in the wake of the recent telephone hacking. The company on Wednesday reported second-quarter earnings of $1.06 billion, up 65 percent above last year’s $642 million. Revenue rose to […]

SOAPS GO DOWN THE DRAIN

In the end, the skepticism that greeted the announcement that Prospect Park producers Jeff Kwatinetz and Rich Frank planned to keep two beloved-but-canceled soap operas alive by moving them online proved to be justified. The pair announced today that they were “suspending our aspirations to revive One Life to Live and All My Children via […]

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