Fox Corp. attributed significant gains in its quarterly financial performance to broadcasting rights and advertising revenue generated from the FIFA World Cup held in North America this summer. The company’s overall revenue increased 28% to $4.21 billion compared with the prior-year period, while advertising revenue climbed 78% to $1.92 billion, with the World Cup serving as a major contributor alongside the company’s free streaming service Tubi.
The tournament averaged approximately 7.7 million viewers across 104 matches on Fox’s platforms according to Nielsen data. The championship match between Spain and Argentina achieved a record viewership of nearly 39 million viewers on Fox’s outlets. NBCUniversal’s Spanish-language broadcast partners, Telemundo and Peacock, also benefited from strong viewership and advertising spending during the event.
Tubi, Fox’s advertising-supported streaming platform, attracted over 20 million viewers throughout the tournament, with select early-round matches generating among the highest traffic days in the service’s history. The platform’s World Cup hub contributed to overall growth for the streaming service. Fox One, the company’s broader subscription offering that launched nearly a year prior, also benefited from World Cup viewership and added new customers with strong retention rates.
Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch characterized the fiscal year as delivering record financial performance and noted the strongest upfront advertising sales in company history with double-digit volume growth. He stated that Fox continued to observe minimal cannibalization of traditional pay TV operations from its newer streaming ventures. The company recently announced a proposed $22 billion acquisition of Roku to expand its advertising infrastructure and reach.
Live sports events have become increasingly valuable to media companies as audiences for such programming remain substantial. Disney similarly reported selling out advertising inventory ahead of the next Super Bowl in February. Fox’s portfolio of sports and news-focused networks has positioned advertising as a consistent revenue driver as traditional pay TV subscriber losses have pressured distribution revenue across the industry.
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