News Corp. Hits Targets

News Corp. (NWS Quote) posted a strong fourth-quarter earnings report Wednesday, paced by growth in its television, cable network programming and newspaper segments.

For the fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30, the big media company earned $399 million, or 29 cents a share. That's up from the year-ago $370 million, or 24 cents a share. Excluding certain costs, latest-quarter earnings were $429 million, or 29 cents a share.

Revenue rose 20% from a year earlier to $5.52 billion, and operating income rose 31% from a year ago to $747 million.

All the numbers were in line with or ahead of the Wall Street estimate. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had expected earnings of 28 cents a share on revenue of $5.25 billion. The median operating profit expectation was $722 million.

"We delivered our third consecutive year of record operating profits on double-digit revenue and operating income gains," CEO Rupert Murdoch said. "Our success was once again achieved across our uniquely balanced collection of assets with record profits generated at nearly every established business segment from our film to our television to our print assets."

The news comes as the company prepares for a move to the U.S. toward the end of the year. News Corp. has been based in Australia for many years but unveiled plans this spring to move stateside to boost its visibility with advertisers and investors.

Operating income at the filmed entertainment segment rose 7% from a year ago, driven by domestic home entertainment performances of Cheaper by the Dozen.

Operating income at the TV segment jumped 21% from a year ago to $351 million, reflecting earnings improvement at the Fox Broadcasting Company and Fox Television Stations, and higher contributions from Star.

Cable network programming operating surged 60% from a year earlier to $154 million, led by Fox News Channel, which reported operating income growth of over 40%. News Corp. said higher advertising pricing drove double-digit revenue gains over a year ago.