Fox Corporation booked $2.08 billion in advertising revenue in the three months to the end of September, a jump of 47 percent on the same quarter a year earlier. Television advertising alone rose 60 percent to $1.71 billion. Total company revenue climbed 22 percent to $4.57 billion.
The quarter is the first full earnings period after the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Fox held the English-language rights.
Lachlan Murdoch, Fox’s executive chair and chief executive, called it “an outstanding start to fiscal 2027 with first-quarter records for revenue and Adjusted EBITDA underpinned by robust growth in both advertising and distribution revenue.”
Spain’s final set the ceiling
The tournament’s commercial engine was its climax. Spain beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time on 19 July, and the Fox broadcast averaged 38.9 million viewers, peaking at 51.7 million in the closing stretch. During the match itself, the window drew 42.5 million.
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Fox has described it as the most-watched soccer telecast in US television history. In raw numbers, it was up 132 percent on the Qatar 2022 final, which averaged 16.8 million viewers.
The entire 104-match tournament averaged 7.74 million viewers across Fox, FS1 and Tubi, more than doubling the Qatar average.
A quarter running on football and politics
Fox’s quarter was not football alone. The company booked more than $350 million in political advertising across its portfolio for the US midterm cycle, which Murdoch described as a record for a midterm year. The streaming service Tubi grew ad revenue by 35 percent and viewing time by 23 percent.
Still, the single sharpest line of year-on-year growth sat in television advertising. The 60 percent increase there ran well ahead of distribution revenue, which rose only 3.5 percent in the TV segment, pointing to how heavily the quarter leaned on one tournament.
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Net income rose 57 percent to $957 million. Adjusted EBITDA, the measure Fox leans on for operating performance, climbed 54 percent to $1.64 billion.
What comes after the summer
Fox will not have another World Cup to post against until the 2030 edition. In the meantime, the NFL carries the regular US sports advertising calendar: “America’s Game of the Week” has averaged close to 25 million viewers so far this season, according to Murdoch on the earnings call.
The company is also pushing its direct-to-consumer service Fox One, where roughly 97 percent of new subscribers are coming from outside the traditional pay-TV universe. Fox’s next quarterly report, covering the holiday and NFL playoff build-up, is due in February 2027.
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