NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (NWSa.N) nudged up its full-year outlook on Monday and said it has not seen any weakness in the television advertising market, after posting a moderate rise in quarterly profit.
News Corp, which owns Fox News and the Fox television network in the United States, forecast its fiscal 2008 operating income would grow in the mid-teens percentage range, above its previous estimate in the low teens.
"Now I know there are concerns about the health of the ad market. But we here at Fox have not seen any weakness to date. Pricing remains very strong for both entertainment and sports," News Corp Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin said on a conference call with analysts.
Fears of an economic recession and a three-month-old strike by Hollywood screenwriters, which has crippled TV production, have raised concerns about advertising spending in the United States this year.
But unlike rival TV network NBC Universal, owned by General Electric Co (GE.N), which said it was considering cancelling its May upfront advertising presentations to introduce new prime-time TV shows to marketers, Fox said it will hold them.
Fox reaped about $250 million in TV network ad revenue from Sunday night's broadcast of the Super Bowl, making it "the biggest day in the company's history," Murdoch told analysts on a conference call.
News Corp said net profit in its fiscal second quarter ended December 31 rose to $832 million, or 27 cents per share, from $822 million, or 26 cents per share, a year earlier.
While profit per share missed Wall Street expectations by 1 cent, News Corp's revenue growth of 9.5 percent to $8.6 billion beat analysts' average forecast of $8.3 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
The results were driven by higher advertising sales at the Fox News channel and the Fox television network, which offset a decline in its movie studio business.
A one-time write-down of BSkyB's (BSY.L) investment in ITV also dragged affiliate earnings by $299 million.
Excluding the write-down, Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield said, News Corp did "significantly better than expected" on an operating basis.
Operating income at the New York-based media conglomerate, which closed a $5.6 billion deal to buy The Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co Inc in December, jumped 23 percent to a record $1.4 billion, boosted by double-digit percentage gains in nearly all of its operating businesses.
News Corp said operating profit at its cable networks, which also includes its regional sports networks and international channels, rose 23 percent to $337 million.
Movie studio profit fell 14 percent from the absorption of costs to release box office hits "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and the "timing and delivery" of shows from its TV production studio.
Television profits more than doubled to $245 million, boosted by the Fox network and Star, primarily in India, offsetting a decline from its TV stations.
Fox Interactive Media helped boost operating income in News Corp's "other" segment to $23 million, a $22 million improvement.
The company said the division's profit growth was driven by higher search revenue from its Google Inc (GOOG.O) agreement. It said it was confident Fox Interactive Media, which owns the online teen hangout MySpace, will meet its $1 billion revenue target.
NO DEALS IN SIGHT
Murdoch said the company had no interest in bidding for Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) or Time Warner Inc's (TWX.N) AOL, if it is up for sale, highlighting that the company prefers going after start-ups rather than established companies.
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) offered last Friday to buy Yahoo for about $45 billion, stoking speculation that other companies would attempt to counter-bid. Yahoo is also mulling an alliance with Google, one source familiar with the matter said earlier.
"We're not interested in bidding," Murdoch told reporters on a conference call, answering a question about Yahoo.
Regarding any other deals, he said, "We're not considering anything of significance at this moment."
News Corp was widely expected to make the Web site of the Wall Street Journal freely available to Web viewers, but in January said it would give away parts of the site for free.
Murdoch's company also snapped up a stake in German pay-television broadcaster Premiere in January, putting the company in play as a takeover candidate, analysts said.
News Corp shares were unchanged in extended trading.
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