Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. media conglomerate swung to a loss of $433 million in the latest quarter on a $1 billion accounting charge to write down the value of its TV stations’ broadcasting licenses.
The loss amounted to 14 cents per Class A share for the three months ended Sept. 30 and contrasted with a profit of $625 million, or 22 cents a share, a year ago.
Without the effect of the charge, which the company took to comply with new accounting rules, net earnings would have declined 7 percent to $580 million, or 19 cents a share.
Revenues rose 10 percent to $5.68 billion from $5.15 billion.
Operating income rose 19 percent to $909 million, driven largely by a 26 percent jump in its Twentieth Century Fox movie and film studios, which benefited from home video earnings from movies including “Robots” and higher syndication revenues from shows including “X-Files” and “Dharma and Greg.”
Income from cable network programming also rose 19 percent as profits from Fox News Channel continued to grow, as well as higher contributions from the company’s regional sports networks.
Those showings outweighed a 32 percent slump in earnings from broadcast television, which the company attributed to lower earnings from its local TV stations and declines at its Fox broadcast network due to higher promotional costs associated with the launch of the fall season. The company also cited higher costs from returning shows.
