Fox News a Bright Spot in Bleak News Corp. Earnings Report

News Corp. reported full year adjusted operating income of $3.6 billion, a 32.5% fiscal-year drop. For Q4, the media conglomerate posted a loss of $203 million, compared with earnings of $1.1 billion a year ago.

Chairman Rupert Murdoch singled out the success of Fox News Channel in his release:

The FOX News Channel (FNC) operating income, as compared to the prior year, increased 50% for both the fourth quarter and the full year, primarily from increased affiliate revenues. For the full year, FNC primetime ratings were up 45% compared with the same period a year ago.

And Fox News continues on a ratings tear this week. On Monday night and again last night, FNC beat the combined prime time averages, in both Total Viewers & A25-54 viewers, of MSNBC and CNN.

In fact last night, “The O’Reilly Factor” (on cable TV) averaged 3.67 million Total Viewers at 8pmET topping the 8pm average of 2.91M on ABC (on broadcast TV), with “Superstars.”

> Update: On Wednesday’s “Factor” Bill O’Reilly seemed to break any cease-fire that may have been forged.

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