Fox Corporation closed its fiscal year with a bang, reporting fourth-quarter earnings that sailed past what Wall Street expected — and the FIFA Men's World Cup did the heavy lifting.

The company posted adjusted earnings of $1.79 per share on $4.2 billion in revenue for the quarter ending June 2026, according to Variety. Analysts polled by LSEG had forecast $1.34 per share on $3.6 billion in revenue. Fox beat on both counts.

The standout number: advertising sales rose 108% during the quarter, driven by Fox's broadcast of the FIFA Men's World Cup. Fox and Telemundo together pulled in roughly $1.2 billion in World Cup ad sales across the 36-day tournament, with Fox taking a 70% share — about $835 million — Sportico reported.

For context, that single-tournament ad haul rivals what some media companies earn in an entire year of primetime programming. The World Cup, held across June and July 2026, gave Fox a concentrated window of live sports at a scale few properties can match.

CEO Lachlan Murdoch called fiscal 2026 an "exceptional year" for the company, pointing not only to the World Cup broadcast but also to two strategic moves: the launch of streaming service FOX One and the announced acquisition of Roku, the TV streaming-platform and hardware maker, Variety reported.

The Roku deal, if completed, would fold one of the largest smart-TV operating systems in the United States into Fox's portfolio — a significant expansion beyond traditional broadcasting. FOX One, meanwhile, gives the company a direct-to-consumer streaming home for its content, joining an already crowded field of platform launches across the industry.

The strong quarter caps a year of momentum. In Fox's fiscal third quarter, reported back in May, the company posted $4 billion in revenue with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA — a measure of operating profitability) up 11% to just over $950 million, per Fox's own earnings call. The second quarter had been softer on the advertising side, with total advertising including streaming down about 4% year-on-year, though Fox's core advertising was up about 8%, according to that quarter's transcript.

What the World Cup numbers show is the enduring power of live sports in an era when audiences are fragmenting across dozens of streaming services. A 36-day tournament with a fixed schedule, massive global viewership and no ability to time-shift the experience is exactly the kind of property advertisers will pay a premium to reach. Fox had the rights, and the rights delivered.

Fox executives discussed the full fiscal year 2026 results via webcast, according to the company's press releases.