News Corp profit drops 30%, TV, Movie businesses take big hits

International media conglomerate News Corp. has reported a 30% drop in quarterly profits off the back of big dives in News Corp’s TV and Movie businesses.

News Corp. net income for the quarter that ended Sept. 30 dropped to $515 million, or 20 cents per share, down from $732 million, or 23 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue rose 6.3 percent to $7.5 billion. The results included a $447 million write-off associated with German pay TV operator Premiere AG.

News Corps movie interests led the decline, with revenue from Twentieth Century Fox and other studios down 20% to $1.3 billion. Television revenue fell 15% to $974 million. Ad revenue at News Corp TV stations declined 17%.

Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch revised News Corps forecast for 2009 down, noting a drop of “low to mid-teens” percentage wise for the fiscal year ahead. Murdoch told the media that the forecast was a “clear reflection of the economic downturn, which we believe will persist through fiscal 2009.”

The News Corp internet business Fox Interactive Media (FIM) which includes MySpace saw revenue grow 17% to $220 million.

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