Fox Corp at UBS Global Media and Communications Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : Yes. We really appreciate you guys participating every year. And I think we should start by just -- you've had a great year so far. We were just talking about in the Hallway back up 40%. Can you -- we need to talk about the next year, and how you keep the momentum going? So if you could start off by just giving us a sense of the priorities as you look out into '26?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : US got a good draw. So we should --

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : That was a great overview, and we're going to touch on most of these points going forward. But let's start with sort of sort of near term more sort of micro focused. The quarter, I think, was highlighted by the outperformance in the -- on the advertising side. How would you characterize the health of the TV advertising market as you're seeing it today?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : Sounds great. And there appear to be, as you referred to, some structural shifts at FOX News with brand advertisers spending more in private time. Could you talk about the mix in terms of brand versus DR on FOX News and maybe the sort of sort of relative CPMs sort of what you're seeing?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : Great. As you mentioned before, sports has been particularly strong, phenomenal range, like you said, for the Big 10 Chambers for what you're seeing in the NFL. How sustainable is this sort of CPM uplift? And maybe can you give us some sort of sense -- or I don't know if you can quantify or talk about what you've seen historically as it relates to World Cup, and how you're looking at this summer?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : And you guys have shown a willingness to sort of shuffle the mix of the sports rights portfolio with football and WWE. Can you talk about the portfolio you have today? And then sort of how you make decisions to optimize the portfolio?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : Right. There's a lot of conversation about the NFL, potentially seeking an early renewal. How would FOX approach this? And could you pull back on the number of games or sort of anything you could tell us about sort of the way FOX thinks about that? And I've heard it could be as early as sort of the '27, '28 season.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : Right. Maybe you can turn to affiliate. You've cited early traction with FOX One. Any color you can give us around subscriber trends, or how bundling has helped the overall growth of the platform in the early days, admittedly early days?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : Word Cup would help that.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : Has the availability of FOX One impacted your affiliate negotiations or any deals that you guys have done? Does it hurt you guys from a pricing standpoint?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : Right. One other thing I was just thinking about when you sort of started off by talking about some sort of new that are not necessarily good comps just given their ratings trends they've seen, but you have Versant that is being spun out and then you have Discovery Global Networks, both sort of almost pure play, but sort of linear TV companies that don't have any sports, right? I mean the sports and the networks are being -- depending on the company, are being sort of held back. So you've got this sort of, I want to say, stranded assets, but you've got these businesses that are being carved off within the ecosystem. In your -- in the FOX view, does that change the pricing dynamic? So you guys -- your ratings are going to different -- your sports and news are going in a different direction. You have these very -- these are actually big drivers of -- there's a lot of viewership still on these platforms. There's the fact that they might -- first of all, do you -- I don't want you necessarily -- unless you want to comment on other companies, but you would see that they would have less pricing power, but that would leave more sort of money in the ecosystem for companies that are really getting a lot of viewership. So do you think that helps your case at all, having these sorts of spinouts big spend. These aren't small not channel groups.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : That makes sense. Maybe turning to Tubi. Tubi has been a consistent outperformer. Any color you can give us on how ad growth has trended so far this quarter? And how are you thinking about growth in that platform from here?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : And could you talk a little bit about what you're seeing in terms of CPMs? We talked with the ad panel this morning, they talked about continued pressure, modest pressure on an eventual turning in that, just given all the inventory and competition, especially on the free side. Just what are you seeing in terms of both demand and pricing sort of CTV CPOs?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : And getting back to fill rate. So fill rate will sort of be the -- or has been the driver or will continue to be the driver -- well, I guess on engagement like you said. So any view on sort of change in trends or when you could see the sort of supply-demand equation start to normalize or improve?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : Right. The Tubi reached profitability this past quarter, how sustainable is that? And how quickly can we see margins reach that sort of 20% to 25% level that you guys have spoken to?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : Sort of putting all the digital together, teams -- the total digital net investment is trending better than the $350 million drag you previously suggest for the year. Any help in sort of sizing that -- what you're seeing in terms of.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : Got it. Makes sense. Maybe one question on sports betting. Just talk about the process in sort of getting licensed in the state. What does that mean once that process is done? And maybe when do you think it's going to be done? And then anything you could help us with in terms of the strategy for sort of long term on the sports betting side?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : It just means fewer people need to be --

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : And then what -- I mean, so how do you sort of tie those assets together and sort of extract value? Is it you launch your own -- you have some experience with FOX Bet, but do you launch your own service? ESPN had fits and starts with their betting strategy?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : Got it. Maybe shifting to capital allocation. You announced a $1.5 billion ASR last quarter. Any updates you can provide on the status of the program? And how should we think about the $1 billion per year in buybacks that you guys have historically executed on?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : And just in summary, along those lines, what are some of the opportunities that you guys look at on a sort of day-to-day basis. And FOX has the scale to keep performing the way it has over the last few years, hitting all-time high seemingly each week. Just given what you're seeing in terms of the landscape, the spins, the mergers, do you think that there's -- given the present course speed and sort of your investment view of the world, do you have the assets to continue with this kind of the performance.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS AG - Analyst : Perfect. Let's leave it right there. Steve, thanks for joining again.