Cable Channels Lift News Corp.’s Profit

Net income at News Corporation climbed to $2.85 billion, or $1.22 a share, compared with $937 million, or 38 cents a share, in the same period last year, the company reported on Wednesday. Revenue increased by 14 percent, to $9.54 billion, largely on the strength of an 11 percent increase from domestic television affiliates and a 2 percent increase in advertising revenue at its cable channels, which include FX and Fox News.

News Corporation is expected to complete a split of its entertainment assets and publishing divisions into two publicly traded companies by the end of its fiscal year this summer. But the company’s third-quarter results already read as if they came from two distinct companies, with the publishing assets dragging on overall profits.

That division, which includes The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and HarperCollins, had a $45 million decrease in operating income compared with the same period a year ago, largely because of weakness at the company’s Australian newspapers. The company’s cable channels reported an increase of 17 percent, or $147 million, in operating income, to $993 million.

FX, with original series like “The Americans,” about Russian spies hiding in plain sight in suburban America, and National Geographic both reported double-digit growth in advertising revenue.

Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, said in a statement that the company was on track to complete the split. “I am more confidant than ever of the long-term value the separation will unlock for the company and its shareholders,” Mr. Murdoch said.

Earnings reflected $25 million in costs related to the proposed separation, which will create two companies. One will be called 21st Century Fox and will include Fox Broadcasting, FX and the Hollywood studio; the other, smaller company will retain the name News Corporation and will include newspapers and a handful of Australian pay television assets.

The company spent $42 million on costs related to the closure of The News of the World, the British tabloid that was shut nearly two years ago after reports emerged that reporters had hacked into the cellphone of a murdered schoolgirl.

The entertainment company, 21st Century Fox, will face its own challenges. Operating income increased by 15 percent at Fox Broadcasting to $196 million, in large part because the fees cable and satellite operators pay to carry the station nearly doubled. But the network reported lower national and local advertising attributable to declines at “American Idol,” now in its 12th season.

In the third quarter, the company’s movie studio reported $289 million in operating income, up from $272 million last year, mostly because of the success of “Life of Pi.”

News Corporation pointed to a decline in quarterly advertising revenues at Fox News, saying that they suffered in comparison to last year because there were no presidential primaries this time. Still, Chase Carey, president and chief operating officer at News Corporation, said: “Fox News has been a success story second to none.”

The coming Fox Sports 1 channel has garnered attention from Wall Street analysts who expect it to compete with ESPN. Mr. Carey said sports were the “driving force” behind the company’s channels business, but he also said that sports should not “cloud the importance” of Fox News, FX and other channels.

Weather Channel’s Parent Company Is Renamed

It’s not ridding itself of the actual Weather Channel, a staple of cable lineups across the country. The channel’s name will remain the same. But the corporate re-branding reflects the fact that most of the Weather Company’s growth is coming from the Web and from specialized products for businesses, not from television. It senses huge opportunities in international markets where it will not have a television channel, but will have apps and Web sites.

“The word ‘channel’ is too limiting. The Weather Company better defines who we are,” said David Kenny, who was named the chairman and chief executive of the company in January.

Mr. Kenny proposed the name change while presenting a three-year plan to the company’s board in September. (The company is owned by NBCUniversal and the private equity firms Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group.) In the board meeting, Mr. Kenny cited Apple’s name change: “When Apple Computer decided to just be Apple, it broadened their minds to what was possible,” he said.

Apple put the iPhone on sale the same year it streamlined its name. The iPhone now brings in more revenue than Apple’s computers do.

The change by the Weather Channel Companies reminded Mike Vorhaus, a digital media analyst who heads Magid Advisors, of the companies that dropped “dot-com” from their names a decade ago.

“Now I think many companies will want to drop any reference to platform in their name,” he said. “They aren’t a channel or online or mobile — they are just media. Bye-bye channel, hello cross-platform.”

The flagship Weather Channel, available in 100 million homes in the United States, still accounts for more than half of the Weather Company’s revenue, thanks in large part to the per-home fee it receives from cable and satellite distributors. But the channel business has been slowing significantly, Mr. Kenny said. Already the company’s advertising revenues are fairly evenly split between television and digital media. He expects digital media (including mobile devices, an area of focus) to overtake television in that category.

Products for businesses — weather forecasts for airlines, energy traders, local television stations and others — account for 10 percent of the company’s revenue now. That proportion could double in the next three years, Mr. Kenny said. Over the summer the company bought another supplier of professional products, Weather Central. It also bought Weather Underground, a competitor to its consumer Web site, Weather.com.

Last week, just before the new name was announced internally, the company laid off about 75 people, 7 percent of its work force. The layoffs were attributed to a reorganization, partly necessitated by the recent acquisitions. Additionally, Mr. Kenny said the television division wasn’t “altogether efficient” in its production, suggesting it was overstaffed.

Driving the acquisitions and the name change is a sense that the company’s unit of measurement is not a minute or an hour of TV programming. Instead, it’s a local forecast — one that can be shared on television, distributed to apps and sold to businesses. The company wants to offer a 30-day local forecast in the future. At an all-staff meeting last Wednesday, Mr. Kenny emphasized science and innovation, saying the Weather Company’s focus was on “connecting people with the world’s best weather forecasts.”

His comments foreshadowed a shift for the flagship television channel, as well. The previous chief executive of the company, Michael J. Kelly, oversaw the addition of taped reality shows and documentaries, some of which were only tangentially connected to weather. The changes sometimes lifted the channel’s ratings, but alienated fans who wanted live weather news.

Mr. Kenny seems to be pulling back a bit: taped shows in the future will have weather as a “main character,” he said, not just a background character. A documentary series about ironworkers in New York is not being renewed, for instance. Some new programs will emphasize stories from Internet users who submit weather videos and photos.

“The TV division has really doubled down on weather enthusiasts as their core audience,” Mr. Kenny said.

“We’re not trying to serve everybody,” he added. “We’re trying to serve our core audience really well.”