News Corp quarter profit beat f'casts

Revenue for the just-ended quarter was $8.1 billion, a 2 percent increase from a year earlier.

The television unit that includes Fox Broadcasting saw operating income gain 17 percent to $156 million.

Operating income at the company's movie unit, which released animated mega-hit Ice Age: Continental Drift, rose 15 percent from a year earlier to $400 million.

News Corp said it took a $67 million charge in the quarter for costs related to ongoing investigations into a telephone hacking scandal at British tabloid News of the World, which the company has closed.

In June, News Corp said it would separate its publishing and entertainment assets by next year in a move to satisfy shareholders pressing the company to shed its troubled newspapers business. Executives spoke little about the coming split on the earnings call, promising more details by year end.

For the fiscal first quarter, the publishing business that includes British and U.S. newspapers reported a 48 percent drop i n operating income to $57 million due to lower advertising revenue.

Satellite broadcaster Sky Italia suffered from higher programming expenses and a strengthened U.S. dollar, News Corp said. The service's operating income plunged 81 percent to $23 million.