Lachlan Murdoch
Executive Chair, Chief Executive Officer at FOX
Thanks Gabby and thank you all for joining us this morning to discuss our first quarter results, and Happy Halloween everyone. I was trying to think of a Halloween reference or a joke, but in fact there's nothing scary in these results. Actually fiscal '23 has started off -- by the way that's called a dead joke in my household. Fiscal '23 has started off on a solid footing for us, supported by healthy viewership at sports and news, revenue growth across our platforms and impressive momentum at TUBI.
Financially, we delivered 5% growth in our top line revenues, led by an 8% increase in advertising and 3% growth in affiliate revenues. Our advertising growth in the quarter was driven by strong pricing at FOX News and FOX Sports. Record first quarter political revenues at the local stations and in a quarter where industry-wide digital advertising revenues appear to have been under pressure, to be posted standout revenue growth of almost 30%. These are great results for FOX, however, we recognize that there is a lot of commentary around advertising headwinds as the macro environment evolves. Yes, the broader national advertising market is looking more fluid compared to the time of our last earnings call, however, the macro impact is not uniform across our verticals.
While we have observed some softness in the linear entertainment scatter marketplace, remember that FOX does not over index to network entertainment. So any impact there is nominal to us and has been more than offset by the digital entertainment strength delivered by TUBI. Additionally, despite the economic headwinds, we are seeing continued strength across our linear news and sports portfolios, led by the pharmaceutical, restaurant and streaming categories. These dynamics underscore a flight to quality and the importance of our focus on live content with over two-thirds of our advertising revenue generated by live sports and news.
At our local stations, we generated record political revenues for the September quarter. Second quarter to-date political revenues have also been very strong, given the combination of races and ballot issues across our markets. And I can confirm with a week still to go before election day, we have already beat our fiscal year 2021 record at the local stations excluding the Georgia runoffs. Meanwhile, base market sales at the local stations were stable in the first quarter. It's still too early to gauge how much of an impact the macro uncertainty will have on local base market advertising in the December quarter, but we are encouraged by the continued positive growth we are seeing in the automotive category, but recognized industry-specific dynamics that are impacting sectors such as wagering and government public health advertising.
On the distribution side of our business, we have completed the first rounds of our multi-year affiliate renewal cycle. So far the results are consistent with our expectations and we are pleased that the market recognizes the value of our brands as they deliver for their customers. Turning to our business units. FOX News turned in another stellar performance, finishing the fiscal first quarter as the number one channel on cable and the third most viewed network in Weekday Prime in all of television, behind only NBC and CBS.
FOX Nation had a standout quarter for subscribers and end engagement with total subscription growth north of 45% and total hours watched up almost 70% over last year, making our fiscal first quarter, FOX Nation's highest quarter ever for hours watched. FOX Sports has had a very exciting calendar -- has a very exciting calendar head of it this fall. The NFL on FOX is off to a great start and we're pleased to report that America's game of the week is averaging nearly 23 million viewers, up 9% over last year. The 2022 college football season also got off to an outstanding start with 10.6 million viewers for Alabama, Texas in the season's first big noon Saturday game.
It's no surprise that FOX's big news Saturday remains the number one window in college football with viewership up 15% over last year. And FOX continues to be the primary home for baseball's post season, where our coverage across FOX started in October and culminates with the world series throughout this week. As always, we're barracking for a tight seven game series. You know quite well that we have assembled an array of marquee sports rights and many of them will be on full display later this month during the Thanksgiving weekend, when FOX will play host to four of this year's biggest match-ups. The Giants versus Cowboys on Thanksgiving, the U.S. Men's Soccer Team versus England in the World Cup on Friday, Michigan and Ohio State on Saturday afternoon and of course, we'll present America's game of the week on Sunday afternoon, which is between the Rams and the Chief's. It'll be a terrific game.
This extraordinary holiday weekend slate sets us up nicely as we prepare to broadcast Super Bowl 57 in February. Elsewhere, the story at TUBI is breathtaking, with first quarter revenue growth re-accelerating to almost 30% over last year. This marks the first time that TUBI revenue has surpassed the advertising revenue generated by FOX Entertainment in a meaningful way, and in the December quarter for TUBI looks to be a continuation of that momentum with revenue growth rate currently pacing ahead of the September quarter at nearly 40%. Driving revenue at TUBI is strength across all major KPIs, particularly total viewing time, which was up over 50%. In fact, this was TUBI's highest quarterly viewership ever with TVT reaching 1.3 billion hours. TUBI's impressive progress in growing audience, engagement and monetization is indicating that our investment strategy and operational focus is working nicely.
At FOX Entertainment, we saw some changes last month with Charlie Collier moving on to new challenges. We are happy that Rob Wade has stepped into the role of CEO of FOX Entertainment, and those who know Rob will share my view that he will be a tremendous steward to our entertainment businesses. Our fiscal year is off to quite a start. The September quarter results once again highlight the strength of our leadership brands and we are just getting started on what promises to be a banner year for FOX. We are encouraged by the operating trends across the portfolio and the early returns on our digital investments. When paired with our strong balance sheet and low leverage, the FOX story remains a differentiated one amongst its media peers. And while we continue to be mindful of how the macroeconomic environment evolves during the months ahead, FOX remains well positioned to navigate and outperform through any potential uncertainty.
Finally, let me comment on the announcement we made earlier this month regarding a potential combination of FOX and News Corporation. As has been made public, both FOX and News Corporation have formed separate special committees to explore a potential combination following letters received from my father [Phonetic], Rupert Murdoch and the Murdoch Family Trust. For a combination transaction to proceed, it will need the approval of both special committees and a supportive vote by the majority of the minority non-affiliated shareholders of each company. The special committee has not made any determination at this time and there can be no certainty that the company will engage in such a transaction. Given the importance of the work of the special committees, I'm not in a position to take any questions on the proposed transaction at this time.
And now Steve will take you through the financial highlights of the quarter.