Fox advertising, streaming service Tubi get boost from World Cup

Fox Corp .'s quarterly financial report got a big kick from the FIFA Men's World Cup.

The company said Thursday that the tournament that took place in North America this summer lifted advertising revenue across the company and drove growth for its free streaming service, Tubi.

Overall revenue was up 28% to $4.21 billion compared with the same period last year. Advertising revenue shot up 78% to $1.92 billion largely due to the World Cup and Tubi. Fox reported its fiscal fourth-quarter and annual earnings on Thursday.

Fox's broadcast and streaming of the tournament averaged roughly 7.7 million viewers across 104 matches, with the final match between Spain and Argentina drawing a record of nearly 39 million viewers for Fox's platforms, according to Nielsen. NBCUniversal 's Telemundo and Peacock, which aired the Spanish language broadcast of the games, also reaped strong viewership and ad dollars.

Live sports have continued to lift media companies across the board due to the large audiences that games tend to attract. Major sporting events, like the World Cup, Super Bowl and other playoff series, tend to bring in the most ad revenue. This week, Disney said during its earnings call that it had already sold out of ad inventory ahead of the next Super Bowl in February.

Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch on Thursday's earnings call with investors said the company's fiscal year was one of "record financial performance."

"These are excellent results made even more impressive by the comparison to the especially strong prior year which benefitted from the Super Bowl and presidential election," he said Thursday.

Advertising has emerged once again as a critical component to driving revenue and profitability. Traditional pay TV subscriber losses have led to declines in distribution revenue, and subscriber additions have stagnated for many streaming services as consumers have turned to other options.