'The Devil Wears Prada' was a success this year, but the studios could not match last year's performance, which was helped by the DVD of 'Robots' and the pay-TV availability of 'I, Robot'. The division's quarterly operating profit was down from $368m to $239m. Revenues grew 4% to $5.81m
However, it is looking forward to next quarter, when 'X-Men: The Last Stand' and 'Ice Age: The Meltdown' come out on DVD.
News Corp's newspaper assets in Australia and the UK, including The Sun and The Times, generated an operating profit of $124m, down from $125m. Profit dropped in the UK because the costs associated with its News Magazines division and its recently launched freesheet thelondonpaper outweighed gains in circulation revenue.
The company's new-media activities are quickly moving towards profitability, Murdoch claimed, pointing to the $900m it is receiving from Google over three-and-a-half years for the rights to sell search advertising on Fox Interactive Media properties including social network site .
News Corp said that in the financial year to June 30 2007, online revenues could exceed $500m landmark. It also said that it was considering launching MySpace in China during if it could find the right joint venture partner.
Peter Chernin, chief operating officer said: "We've had some conversations. It's possible, if we can find some joint venture that makes sense."
The possible timeline on MySpace's China ambitions comes on the heels of an announcement on Tuesday that News Corp has struck a joint venture deal with Softbank Corp to launch a version of MySpace in Japan.
The results also reveal that News Corp's earnings from its controlling stake in US satellite TV business DirecTV were up dramatically.
DirecTV was recently reported to be the bargaining chip in Murdoch's ongoing negotiations with rival media mogul John Malone. The two men have been in talks about Malone exchanging the 19% stake in News Corp he owns through Liberty Media for a News Corp asset, expected to be DirecTV.
DirecTV's improved earnings meant that News Corp received $116m from the company this quarter compared with $9m a year ago. It currently owns a 38.6% stake in DirecTV, which was 33.9% a year ago.
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