Fox Sees 'Robust Demand,' 'Record Pricing' for Super Bowl 57

Fox has some Super news for investors. During its quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch gave a more detailed look at the company's upfront deals, noting volume commitments were up "approximately 15% above last year's upfront," with nearly 25% of the current year commitments coming across the company's digital properties. Murdoch said sports led the way in the company's upfront negotiations and gave an optimistic outlook for Super Bowl 57, which Fox will broadcast on Feb. 12, 2023. "We sold more NFL Sunday advertising in the current upfront market than we did across Sunday and Thursday combined in the prior year's market," Murdoch said. "This excludes advertising commitments for the upcoming Super Bowl, where we are pacing well ahead of schedule and seeing very robust demand and record pricing levels." The company initially began selling Super Bowl 57 advertising 18 months ahead of the game and a full six months ahead of Super Bowl 56. Fox Wraps Upfront Negotiations With CPM Increases of 9-12% Murdoch didn't share specific numbers regarding Super Bowl sales; however, NBCUniversal previously set records for Super Bowl 56, securing up to $7 million per 30-second spot. "It's obviously such a huge year for us," Murdoch added later. "We're looking forward to getting record pricing for the Super Bowl, and we're well ahead of plan in terms of selling our Super Bowl positions." Perhaps bolstering its Super Bowl demand, Anheuser-Busch isn't renewing its exclusive deal for Super Bowl 57, allowing other alcohol brands to advertise during the game for the first time in 34 years. Upfront insights Murdoch continued to put more of a lens on Fox's upfront during the earnings call, noting that the company's success spanned its entire portfolio. "We were able to achieve broadcast level pricing increases at Fox News, boosted sell-out at Fox Entertainment and, importantly, drove significantly more incremental ad dollars into Tubi," Murdoch said. The CEO also noted the company is well aware of a potentially ad-averse market ahead with a possible recession looming. "We will be prepared if the market turns downward. But let me be clear, we are currently not seeing an adverse advertising impact on our business," he added. The company was the third upfront week presenter to wrap talks this year, following The CW and Paramount, earning CPM (cost per thousand viewers reached) increases around 9-12%. During the earnings call, the company reported ad sales revenues were up. According to Fox, ad revenue increased 7% for the fourth quarter due to stronger pricing and higher ratings at Fox News Media, higher political advertising revenues at the Fox Television Stations and continued growth at its AVOD platform Tubi. TV ad revenues increased 4% primarily due to higher political advertising revenues at the Fox Television Stations, growth at Tubi and the addition of the USFL at Fox Sports. This was partially offset by lower ratings at Fox Entertainment. For Fox's full fiscal year, advertising revenues increased 9% due to higher pricing at Fox News Media and Fox Sports, growth at Tubi and a return to a full schedule of live sports following the Covid-19 shutdowns. Total ad revenue for the quarter and the fiscal year were $1.055 billion and $5.9 billion, respectively. Tubi's billion-dollar revenue goal During the call, Murdoch explained Tubi's total view time (TVT) grew nearly 40% across the fiscal year, with 45% revenue growth. Both metrics were coming in better than the company planned, and Fox continues to be bullish on the AVOD service. "In the quarter, we launched 25 linear channels, grew our VOD library to over 45,000 titles and premiered 13 efficient Tubi originals. We will continue to invest judiciously and to be with our sights set on achieving $1 billion in revenue run rate in the next couple of years," Murdoch said. Fox Corp. acquired Tubi for $440 million in March 2020, and the AVOD's total revenue already eclipsed the purchase price in 2021. The platform also received significant commitments in only its second year as part of the greater Fox upfront offering. Tubi’s viewership grew from 40 million monthly active users in 2021 to 51 million monthly active users earlier this year, founder and CEO Farhad Massoudi previously told Adweek. The streamer also recorded 3.6 billion hours watched in 2021, a 40% year-over-year increase in total viewing time. Murdoch also claimed Fox Nation increased its subscriber base by 80% over the fiscal year but once again didn't give any specific subscriber numbers or metrics for the SVOD streaming service.