10:34 AM EDT, 05/11/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Fox (FOX, FOXA) reported a surprise increase in quarterly earnings on Monday, while the media company's revenue topped estimates amid distribution growth.

Adjusted per-share earnings for the fiscal third quarter ended March 31 quarter rose to $1.32 from $1.10 a year earlier. Analysts in a FactSet survey expected a drop to $1. Revenue fell $3.99 billion from $4.37 billion, but exceeded the consensus estimate of $3.78 billion.

Fox's class A and B shares were up 3.6% each in Monday trade.

Distribution revenue grew 3% to $2.11 billion amid gains in the cable network programming segment.

The results reflected "strong core top-line delivery from ongoing advertising trends and distribution revenue growth,"Chief Executive Lachlan Murdoch said during an earnings call, according to a FactSet transcript.

Advertising revenue fell to $1.56 billion from last year's $2.04 billion, which included the Super Bowl broadcast. However, an additional National Football League Wild Card game and growth in streaming platform Tubi helped buoy ad sales.

"Excluding the Super Bowl impact, advertising revenue would have grown double digits driven by strength across the company,"Murdoch said. "And that momentum continues into our fiscal fourth quarter. The strength of these trends is most evident at Fox News, which achieved its highest third-quarter advertising revenue ever."

By segment, cable network programming revenue increased to $1.74 billion from $1.64 billion. Television revenue fell to $2.2 billion from $2.7 billion.

"Television distribution revenue was down 1%, which continues to be in-line with our expectation for TV distribution revenue to be about flat for the full year before returning to growth in fiscal 2027,"Chief Financial Officer Steve Tomsic said on the call.

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