Robert Thomson
Chief Executive Officer at News
Thank you, Mike. The overuse of superlatives really is unbecoming. But the past quarter and the full year have created so many unprecedented records that reflect well on all of News Corp, and we believe have created a platform for future performance and enduring returns for our investors. These accomplishments, which necessarily demand the use of superlatives, follow intense digital transformation by the businesses and focused acquisitions that we expect will provide increased revenue and healthy profits far into the future.
Profitability for the full year rose 31% to a record $1.67 billion, and that followed a 26% surge in the previous year, which itself was a record. Revenues rose a robust 11% despite incipient economic uncertainty and unfavorable ForEx fluctuations that outweighed the benefit of an extra week. In total, the favorable results were reflected in our reported EPS of $1.05, compared to $0.56 in the prior year.
It is worth noting that we saw enhanced success in each and every business segment last year, and we are confident of our prospects in fiscal 2023. Our core pillars, Dow Jones, Digital Real Estate Services and Book Publishing, all notched record results that exceeded the sterling performance of the previous fiscal year when new benchmarks were set across most of the company. And it's worth noting that our net cash from operating activities was a record $1.35 billion, topping the previous year's record of $1.24 billion. That extra cash has enabled us to return capital to shareholders and to be pointedly poised for opportunistic investments of the kind that have already transformed the Dow Jones business, making it more digital, more premium and more profitable.
The successful journey of our media properties is unlike any in the world, as has been the principal pursuit of change in terms of trade with the big digital players. We believe the profoundly positive commercial and social impact of those changes will be felt for many years to come. None of that would have been possible without a strong corporate culture created by and curated by Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, the support of an engaged enlightened Board and passionate, committed and creative employees around the world.
So we have a steady balance sheet, potent cash generation, profitable and growing businesses and the resources to take advantage of emerging opportunities. That muscularity was also reflected in the past year by the termination of our shareholder rights plan, or as it is referred to colloquially, the poison pill. Over the past 8 years, our reported revenue has grown by $1.8 billion, even though our advertising revenue, print newspaper dependent as it was, declined by $2.2 billion. That is a $4 billion swing. Over the same period, our total segment EBITDA has more than doubled, and our free cash flow available has increased by over 80%. Dow
Jones has prospered, more than doubling its segment EBITDA to $433 million in just the past 3 years. Our faith in its prospects has been shown by the acquisitions of Investor's Business Daily, OPIS and Base Chemicals, all of which we expect will contribute to revenue and profitability in the years ahead. Meanwhile, Digital Real Estate Services has expanded rapidly from 5% of our revenues in 2014 to 17% in fiscal '22. To be precise, we have seen growth in every quarter of this past year despite the recent increases in interest rates and the home supply challenges. We are confident that digital runway for real estate is long and lucrative.
It is certainly worth recognizing that News Corp's profits have expanded prodigiously compared to 8 years ago, rising from a reported $770 million in total segment EBITDA to nearly $1.7 billion this year. Our teams have made this successful journey despite the upheaval in the advertising market, despite the significant challenges to print media and despite the pandemic. We are more digital, more mobile 2 3 more mobile, more global, acutely cost conscious and astutely tracking trends, in the quest for more revenues, increased profitability and enhanced returns for our investors. To be specific about the segments, Dow Jones is already seeing the tangible benefits of OPIS and Base Chemicals, which we have rebranded Chemical Market Analytics, or CMA, to the -- These 2 businesses complement each other, and they certainly complement Dow Jones. We were fortunate to acquire them at a favorable price as their sale was required by regulators for approval of the S&P Global-IHS Markit merger. We thank those companies and the regulators for the opportunity bequest to us. Not only are OPIS and CMA is starting to benefit us financially, but they have contributed to the depth and breadth of Dow Jones' overall expertise in commodities, in traditional fuel sources, in essential chemical products and in renewables and more. The analysis and analytics fit perfectly into our professional information business, where we have seen sustained growth, particularly from risk and compliance, which reported an 18% surge in full year annual revenues, with the fourth quarter seeing another double-digit increase. That means we have reported 28, that is correct, 28 successive quarters of double-digit growth. Advertising at Dow Jones remained strong in the fourth quarter and was a significant contributor to the segment throughout the year. Total advertising at Dow Jones achieved year-over-year growth of 20% for the full year, the highest on record. Dow Jones also made progress in expanding its high-yielding subscriber base, which rose 9% to almost 4.9 million, including over 4 million digital-only subscribers. As a point of comparison, digital advertising at Dow Jones rose 16% in the most recent quarter, while it shrank, it contracted, it diminished at the New York Times. In what was a resounding performance for News Corp, Dow Jones really is worthy of note. Dow Jones profitability saw 54% in the quarter to $106 million. And as noted earlier, for the year, segment EBITDA was $433 million, up 30%, while revenues rose to over $2 billion, an 18% increase. The imperative at Dow Jones is to provide a premium service and premium value to a premium audience and is remembering that this is a premium audience at scale, with more than 100 million visitors each month to Dow Jones sites and thousands of the world's largest companies as enterprise clients. Our task, our opportunity is to offer more of the information, the intelligence demanded by discerning professionals. These are fertile fields for the future. At Digital Real Estate Services, revenues for the full year surged 25% to more than $1.7 billion, while segment EBITDA grew 12% to $574 million as we continue to build brands and products for future success. In Australia, REA continued its expansion into intelligent adjacencies, most notably with the Mortgage Choice acquisition, and residential listing volume improved by 11% in fiscal '22 to the highest level since 2016. We also now have the #1 digital property company in India in terms of audience share with Housing.com expanding its lead in an expanding market. Monthly visitors rose in June by 52% to $15.7 million. In the U.S., Move, operator of realtor.com, reported revenue growth for the year of 11% while we invested in expanding our expertise in rentals and acquired uplist, an agent marketplace that focuses on monetizing seller leads. The broader thing is that we see a confluence of trends in the U.S. and Australian marketplaces. The U.S. market has traditionally derived revenue from buyer leads, but the future will bring opportunity to harvest seller revenue, which is the basis for REA's emphatic success in Australia. As for the U.S. housing market, obviously, the hiking of interest rates has influenced market trends. For example, mortgage refinancing has imploded, which plays to our strength as a source of mortgage origination leads, which mortgage companies were ignoring somewhat because it was easier to refinance an existing an own customer. The rate of price increases that put homes out of reach is generally expected to continue to decline, and inventories have at last started to improve, with active inventory in June up 19% year-over-year according to Realtor.com. News Media, which in recent years has faced severe challenges, did particularly well, both in Q4 and throughout the fiscal year. To be precise, News Media was the single largest contributor to profit improvement across the company this fiscal year. Let's be candid. This spectacular result came as many other newspaper companies around the world struggled and is a true tribute to the efforts of our executives and teams in Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. In fiscal 2022, revenues were up 10%, and the segment delivered $217 million of segment EBITDA, expanding 317% year-over-year. I should repeat that stunning number for clarity, 317%. At News UK, the Sun reported a historic shift with digital advertising outpacing print in fiscal '22 and as its online audience surged 33% in Q4 to 165 million monthly average uniques globally, including 173% growth for the sun.com, driven by the successful launch of the Sun U.S. Overall, News UK, thanks to Rebecca Brooks and her team, increased its profit contribution by $54 million. News Corp Australia under Michael Miller and his team increased its profit contribution by $109 million, its highest since separation, as digital subscribers to News Corp Australia properties rose by 12% to $964,000, and advertising revenues remain robust. The New York Post posted a historic result. It formally reported a profit, possibly the first since Alexander Hamilton founded the paper, and we are now on a pathway to increasing profit contribution. The Post has distinguished itself with brave journalism that has seen it so far above the media mediocrity. That is a tribute to the intrepid editor, Keith Paul, his journalists and to Sean Giancola, the Chief Executive, and all on the team. We also transitioned from the Bronx printing site and are working towards completion of that facility sale. At Subscription Video Services, the Foxtel Group's renaissance continued with adjusted revenues, which excludes currency impact, rising 4% in the fourth quarter, while adjusted segment EBITDA rose 32% in the fourth quarter. And importantly, excluding currency, full year revenues for the segment rose for the first time in 5 years. Again, the Foxtel Group is a company transformed and one generating record metrics. Total streaming subscribers at the end of the fiscal year soared 31% from a year ago to $2.8 million, while broadcast churn fell to 13.8% in the fourth quarter, sharply lower than the prior year. Our sports streaming service, Kayo, is particularly successful with ARPU rising partially attributable to the recent price increase and given the quality of our teams, productions and the quantity of quality sports. HarperCollins grew full year revenue and segment EBITDA despite higher freight and manufacturing costs and a challenging prior year comparison given that the pandemic created a captive audience and record revenues in many countries. We can clearly see the virtue of acquiring Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media as the value of that price list back list is being realized. That efficacy should be obvious in coming months as HMH includes the U.S. rights to the Lord of the Rings collection, and we have seen increased orders ahead of the Rings of Power series on Amazon Prime, scheduled to be launched next month. Speaking of superlatives, we have the best-selling book in the U.S. with the new Daniel Silver novel, Portrait of an Unknown Woman, and we are pleased by the lingering melody of Where the crawdads Sing, the first movie that was just released in partnership with our friends at Sony Pictures. The News Corporation of 9 years ago is not the News Corporation of now. The provenance and the principle endure, but the business is fundamentally transformed. It is vastly more profitable and with the potential for even greater growth. Our teams are rightly proud of the way they have influenced the digital landscape, changing the terms of trade for media businesses, bringing clarity to an opaque advertising market and increasing transparency to hit the 2 uncountable algorithms. The commercial changes are integral to our ongoing success, but the social consequences are also profound and enduring. Almost a decade after our reincarnation, thanks to the efforts of our employees and the faith of our investors, News Corp is set fair for the future. Our CFO, Susan Panuccio, will now provide a concise account of what has transpired and a glimpse of the shining light that is the future.
