NEW YORK (Reuters) - News Corp posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday due to strong performances by its cable networks and its film business, which is reaping rewards from the 3-D blockbuster, "Avatar."
Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate, whose shares rose 3 percent in after-market trading, also benefited from an improvement in the broader advertising market, which helped its newspapers and cable networks.
"The quarter was really impressive. Film was expected to be the standout, but it was even stronger than expected and blew out the Street's numbers," said Tuna Amobi, equity an analyst at Standard & Poor's.
News Corp is home to Fox broadcast and cable networks, Twentieth Century Fox movie studios and newspapers, including Wall Street Journal and The Sun in the UK.
Its fiscal third quarter net income was $839 million, or 32 cents a share, compared with $2.7 billion a year earlier when it had $2.4 billion in gains and tax benefits on its partial sale of technology company NDS Group.
Revenue grew 19 percent to $8.8 billion for the quarter ended March 31.
Analysts had on average been expecting profit of 23 cents on revenue of $8.2 billion according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The quarter was led by the cable networks unit, where operating income rose 38 percent to $588 million, thanks to strong performances from Fox News and its regional sports networks among others.
It was also boosted by the continuing success of "Avatar," which is already the biggest movie of all time. Operating income at the filmed entertainment unit jumped 76 percent to $497 million.
Avatar's strong DVD sales in the current quarter has already prompted some Wall Street analysts to raise their full-year forecasts for News Corp.
The positive results were offset by higher operating losses at News Corp's digital media group, which includes social networking site MySpace and its satellite TV business in Italy, Sky Italia.
Costs cuts and an advertising bounce-back at the Wall Street Journal and News Corp's British newspapers also drove newspaper operating profits up to $131 million, a rise of $102 million.
News Corp shares have risen 12 percent since the start of the year, benefiting from the wider advertising recovery like other major media companies.
(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; editing by Andre Grenon)
