Despite the impact of inflation Foxtel has delivered revenues of $506 million in the quarter an increase of $5 million, or 1% with new speculation emerging that the News Corp controlled business could be sold.

News Corp has told shareholders that there is “third-party interest in a potential transaction involving the Foxtel Group” which is now seeing app demand outstripping the older Foxtel boxes.

A significant factor in any sale of Foxtel is sports rights with NRL rights key to any future sale.

These are due to expire in 2027 with NRL executives having already held discussions about bringing forward renewal negotiations.

Foxtel has already secured the rights to the AFL and most of the cricket until the early 2030s.

Overall, News Corp had a significantly improved quarter, with revenue up 6%, to $A3.91 billion – up on the Wall Street estimate of A$3.78 billion.

Compared with the prior year, the Foxtel Group quarterly growth was driven by higher revenues from Kayo and BING with the higher streaming revenues, coupled with increased and higher advertising revenues offsetting the revenue declines from lower residential broadcast subscribers who are still using an iQ box.

Foxtel Group streaming subscription revenues represented approximately 30% of total circulation and subscription revenues in the fiscal year compared to 27% in the prior year.

Segment EBITDA in fiscal 2024 decreased $37 million, or 11%, compared to the prior year.

This was primarily due to $51 million of costs related to the launch of Hubbl, higher sports programming costs due to contractual increases and the $9 million, or 3%, negative impact from foreign currency fluctuations.

“We are confident in the company’s long-term prospects and are continuing to review our portfolio with a focus on maximising returns for shareholders,” News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said.

“That review has coincided recently with third-party interest in a potential transaction involving the Foxtel Group, which has been positively transformed in recent years.

Earlier today Hubbl announced the onboarding of Optus Sports with speculation that Optus could switch from suppling Fetch TV boxes to Hubbl in the future.

Thompson said that “We are evaluating options for the business with our advisors in light of that external interest.”

Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany is currently in Paris where he is meeting with overseas content providers.

Total Foxtel Group subscribers are up 1% year-on-year, with 4.776 million Australians using the service, and 4.69 million payers.

Also, up 5% are streaming subscribers, for Kayo Sports, BINGE and Foxtel Now, with over 3.305 million, or 69% of all subscribers now getting their content via a Foxtel Group or Hubbl app.

Kayo Sports is up 14%, with 1.606 million subscribers (1.550 million paid), while BINGE reached 1.552 million subscribers (1.529 million paid), up 1%.

Foxtel residential and commercial broadcast subscribers sit at 1.452 million, with a churn rate of 11.7%, but with average revenue per user up 6%, due to price hikes.

“We believe Foxtel is particularly well-positioned for both subscriber and advertising growth as Kayo and Binge have gained traction given their unique strengths in sports and entertainment programming,” Thompson said.

“Those two services added almost 200,000 paying subscribers in the quarter and digital advertising now represents more than 40 percent of Foxtel’s total advertising with Kayo growing 42 percent compared to the prior year and the recently rolled-out ad offering at BINGE growing fourfold.

“We will keep you updated on the advertising renaissance as the quarters unfold.”