Good day, and welcome to the News Corp 4Q Fiscal 2021 Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. Media will be on a listen only basis. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mike Florin, Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, Valerie. Hello, everyone, and welcome to News Corp's fiscal Q4 2021 earnings call. We issued our earnings press release about 30 minutes ago and it's now posted on our website at newscorp.com. On the call today are Robert Thompson, Chief Executive and Susan Panuccio, Chief Financial Officer. We will open with some prepared remarks and then we will be happy to take questions from the investment community.
This call may include certain forward looking information with respect to News Corp's business and strategy. Actual results could differ materially from what is said. News Corp's Forms 10 ks and Form 10 Q filings identify risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ and contain cautionary statements regarding Forward looking information. Additionally, this call will include certain non GAAP financial measurements such as total segment EBITDA, adjusted segment EBITDA and adjusted EPS. The definitions and GAAP to non GAAP reconciliations of such measures can be found in our earnings release.
With that, I will pass it over to Robert Thompson for some opening comments.
Thank you, Mike. The past year has been a severe test for families, for countries and for companies. The stresses and strains of the pandemic have stretched the social fabric and the commercial canvas. I want foremostly to express my gratitude to the employees of News Corporation, who around the world have navigated these testing times with professionalism and with principle. Their efforts, Their creativity and their commitment have built on the company's proud foundations and been a catalyst for these impressive results for News Corp and for our group companies.
Overall, revenues in fiscal 2021 rose 4% and by 30% in the 4th quarter. That is 30%, indicating that the company is surely gaining in momentum, while profitability improved by 26% for the year. We have continued to focus our investment on growth areas with the acquisition of Investors Business Daily, Mortgage Choice in Australia And the Books and Media division of Horton Mifflin Harcourt. We have also continued to simplify the business with the rationalization of REA's Asian Property Business and the amicable settlement of residual litigation regarding News America Marketing, which we successfully sold just ahead of fiscal 2021. Our strong cash generation has given us increased optionality.
Our cash balance exceeded $2,200,000,000 at the end of June, And so we were able to take advantage of the required sale of OPUS, which we expect to strengthen and ultimately transform The Dow Jones Professional Information Business and our clearly robust cash position has prompted the company to actively review Our capital returns policy with a greater focus on buybacks. A few highlights before delving deeper into the businesses. For fiscal 2021, we had a record number of digital subscriptions at our key markets, record traffic at realtor.com, Where audience growth according to comScore is significantly outpacing that of its main rival and record subscriber growth at Foxtel, 55%, a profound escalation that included the successful launch of Binge last year. That success Has naturally given us much optionality as we consider Foxtel's rather favorable future. In short, We had the most profitable year since we created the new News Corp.
Dow Jones had its most profitable year since it was acquired in 2007 And HarperCollins and Move also recorded their most profitable years, and we believe there is clearly more growth ahead. The past year has seen the revaluing of our content through landmark news payment agreements with the major tech platforms. These deals, the financial terms of which are confidential, will add significant revenue annually, clearly into 9 figures, and are a profoundly important part of the ongoing transformation of the content landscape. We are also watching the evolution of the digital ad market, which Historically, has lacked transparency. The active interest of regulators around the world should reduce the opacity and provide high yields for publishers.
At Dow Jones, subscriber growth continued apace, leading to a significant increase in segment EBITDA for the Q4 and for the year, up 15% and 41%, respectively. The full year segment EBITDA Was indeed the most lucrative since the company's acquisition. Digital consumer subscriptions, which were 26% higher in the quarter, contributed to that growth as an overall increase in advertising revenues for the year of 4% as a surge in digital ads more than compensated for a decline in print advertising. At The Wall Street Journal, subscriptions grew 15% year over year in the 4th quarter, reaching nearly 3,500,000 and digital only subs Growing by nearly 100,000 from the 3rd quarter and by 21% year over year, now comprise nearly 80% of total subscriptions. Advertising in the 4th quarter rose 45% and digital advertising was 53% higher.
It is worth highlighting the success of our Risk and Compliance business, particularly as we contemplate the future potential of the just announced agreement to acquire Revenues at risk and compliance increased 23% for the fiscal year and burgeoned by 30 In the Q4 compared to a year earlier, marking 6 straight years of over 20% growth. We believe that the Professional Information business will continue to expand at a strong rate and that OPUS will be the cornerstone for commodities, Energy and Renewables Digital Business that will have a long term positive impact on our earnings. We are excited to be adding a new growth lever to Dow Jones, whose performance has manifestly been exceptional. We firmly believe Opus and Dow Jones will be more than the sum of their parts. Our acquisition of Investors Business Daily was completed in May and we expect to see the positive impact of this high margin digital operation in coming quarters.
We believe that there are multiple opportunities to cross sell And up sell products as IBD will benefit from Dow Jones reach and Dow Jones will prosper from IBD's range of high value specialist Investment Offerings. We are confident that Alain Latour and the team at Dow Jones are poised to deliver ongoing excellent results. The Foxtel narrative is particularly positive as our early emphasis on streaming and on securing long term valuable sports and entertainment rights Has put the company on a decidedly upward trajectory. Our paying subscribers were 40% higher and fiscal year revenue rose 10%, While our EBITDA growth was 11%, there was a noticeable acceleration in revenue growth in the 4th quarter when it surged 33%, driven by our streaming products And thanks in part to positive currency fluctuations. The strong growth in the streaming business, which is taking advantage of and successfully monetizing existing rights was evident in the 4th quarter when the number of total paying Streaming subscribers was 155% higher than at the same time last year.
We are obviously pleased with the evolution of both Kayo, our sports streaming product, which has rights to Australia's most popular sports And Binge, our entertainment streaming service, as they combine world class technology, clever user interfaces and high quality compelling content. It's worth pausing for a moment to consider how the Foxtel narrative has changed decisively and positively over the past 18 months. Then we were being asked whether we would need to put extra funds into Foxtel. And now we have attractive options For a growing thoroughly contemporary business that has a tangible upside. Our immediate task and that of our team led admirably by Siobhan McKenna and Patrick Delaney is to keep driving the business, to keep striving because those options will certainly be enhanced by continued success.
Digital real estate is another fast growing sector for the company, and we are proud of the performance of both REA and Realtor. Many of you will recall there was a certain skepticism when we acquired Move, the realtor.com parent, a certain doubt about our ability to turn around the company's end flagging Well, there is no overstatement to say there has been a realtor renaissance With fiscal 2021 profit contribution from Moov increasing by $100,000,000 as its revenue scale. For the year, revenue grew by 36% and the rate accelerated to 68% in the 4th quarter. Audience numbers Excessive months and averaged more than 20 percentage points faster in the last 8 months. That is a telling testament to the great work by Tracy Fellows, David Doctorow and to all at Realtor.
The 2 core pillars of the Realtor business, the premium referral model and lead generation have both And those who watch the industry closely will have noted that a key indicator, the number of houses listed for sale Has increased in the past 2 months. The more inventory on the market, the more opportunities for the realtor team to deliver their best in class services to buyers, Sellers and agents. REA had a supernal year with revenue growth of 27%, benefiting from currency and a robust housing recovery in Australia. Revenue growth actually accelerated in the 4th quarter compared to the 3rd quarter. Again, listings were a key driver of that success with full year listings 15% higher, while those in the 4th quarter surged 54%.
One of the absolute lessons of the pandemic is that families and investors have focused on property as both a source of returns, But also of enduring security, the allure of real estate is real and the profits are palpable. Meanwhile, we are expanding into sensible adjacencies, in particular mortgages, which will also benefit from the renewed flow of listings. SmartLine is already thriving and Owen Wilson and the team are confident that Mortgage Choice will benefit from that increased activity by offering borrowers the best possible range of loans. We look forward to updating you in coming quarters with the progress at both Mortgage Choice and Smart Loan. HarperCollins is another resilient source of revenue growth, profits and cash generation for the company.
Revenue for the full year rose 19%, while segment EBITDA was 42% higher as the company benefited from digital sales, Discovery of books as a medium and an extensive lucrative backlist. For example, the company certainly profited From the immense popularity of Bridgerton, the eponymous Netflix series, which has been extended into a second season to the benefit of Julia Quinn's novels and Harper The company's prospects and its backlist have been bolstered by the addition of the Horton Mifflin Harcourt Books and Media segment, which has a living library of 7,000 titles, including the perennially popular George Orwell And Curious George. We also acquired the U. S. Rights to J.
R. R. Tolkien's works, including The Hobbit And the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and now have global English language rights, which will surely benefit from the upcoming blockbuster Amazon series based on those classic, but durable books. Brian Murray and the HarperCollins team have focused on driving digital and direct to consumer offerings. And it is worth noting that e book sales rose 14% during the year, while audiobooks expanded a healthy 22%.
Clearly, there is much interest by various podcast related companies in our unique audiobook offerings and we stand to gain from the proliferation of streaming audio. For those of you who have perused our numbers, it is clear that there has been a Strong improvement in the profitability of the News Media Businesses with News UK, News Corp Australia and The New York Post All performing admirably and contributing to News Corp's overall enhanced profitability. There was disciplined cost control and stage leadership throughout those businesses And a strong recovery in advertising during the Q4. In the U. K, our businesses delivered a significant profit contribution for the year With digital subscriptions increasing markedly and listening at wireless rising sharply during the European Football Championships with advertising benefiting accordingly.
We look forward with Alacrity to the launch of the Premier League season next week. The Sun remained the country's largest digital news brand and advertising revenue across The properties in the U. K. Rebounded in the 4th quarter compared to a year earlier. That rebound is a sign that reach, At News Corp Australia, where Michael Miller and the team took the bold and necessary decision to convert Most of our regional and community payers to digital only platforms, we saw a 25% increase in digital subscribers at the mastheads in the 4th quarter, Well, there was a healthy recovery in advertising.
Clearly, businesses are subject to the vagaries of the virus in Australia, But the robust recovery in recent months is a hopeful harbinger. The New York Post was on the very cusp of making an annual profit for the first time in many decades, perhaps for the first time since the age of Alexander Hamilton, which is testament to the epoch of work of Sean Jankola, Keith Poole and all at the Post. The Post was a digital success in fiscal 2021, Generating 45% digital ad growth, including an acceleration in the 4th quarter with 65% growth. That is 65% growth. And we should harvest further savings from the exiting of our Bronx printing plant, which is attracting much demand from companies seeking this prime site.
I would like to thank all who have printed and distributed the Post and Dow Jones publications through the decades. They provided a great service to the company and to society By delivering news and insight every morning around the Greater New York region. All of our employees deserve gratitude for their sterling contributions, both The company and their communities over the past complicated, sometimes stressful year. Their efforts have been a crucial part of our unprecedented success and provided a firm foundation for ongoing revenue growth and increasing profitability. As I mentioned earlier, we are generating record profits and cash And that has given us the ability to make opportunistic acquisitions to bolster the company and generate even more momentum.
We will certainly be thoughtful and strategic in deploying our assets and will, as always, be cognizant It's our responsibility to and the interest of all of our shareholders. And now, I hand you over to Susan Panuccio, who will provide more
Thank you, Robert. Fiscal 2021 Q4 total revenues were almost Total segment EBITDA was $210,000,000 up 8% versus the prior year, including record high segment EBITDA at Digital Real Estate Services. Total segment EBITDA included several non recurring items that depressed year over year comparisons this quarter, including $49,000,000 of non recurring legal The results also include $11,000,000 of one off costs at Foxtel, which I'll come back to. Excluding the divestment of News America Marketing, acquisitions, currency fluctuations and the other items disclosed in our release, adjusted revenues increased 20% And adjusted total segment EBITDA increased 26%, driven by strong performance of Digital Real Estate Services and a big year over year improvement in News Media. For the quarter, we reported a net loss per share of $0.02 compared to a loss of $0.67 in the prior year.
Last year's loss included 2.90 to the Nickelodeon Australian Joint Venture, which is now covered through a separate affiliate agreement. Adjusted earnings per share was in the quarter compared to a loss per share of $0.03 in the prior year. Importantly, on a full year basis, Free cash flow available to News Corp improved to $731,000,000 from $180,000,000 in the prior year, driven by Higher total segment EBITDA, improvements in working capital and lower capital spending. Moving on to the results for the individual reporting segments, starting with Digital Real Estate Services. Segment revenues were $413,000,000 an increase of 74% compared to the prior year, A sharp acceleration from the 3rd quarter growth rate of 34%.
The performance was driven by another record quarterly performance that moved together with very strong results at REA and to a lesser extent a positive impact from foreign currency fluctuations. On an adjusted basis, revenues increased 59%. Segment EBITDA rose 92 percent to $136,000,000 or 99% on an adjusted basis. News revenues were $186,000,000 a 68% increase year over year with real estate revenues rising 77%, A significant acceleration from the 43% growth in the prior quarter. Move contributed $17,000,000 to the segment EBITDA growth this quarter, Increasing costs in the second half would materialize in the 4th quarter.
For the full fiscal 2021 year, Move increased its profit contribution by $100,000,000 and was the single biggest profit driver across News Corp. This year. We saw accelerated revenue growth across both The traditional lead generation and referral businesses in the quarter. The traditional lead generation business continued to benefit from strong agent demand, And higher referral fees. In addition, advertising and rental revenue also showed strength during the quarter with the combined revenues more than doubling versus the prior year, only partially offset by the lower revenues resulting from the sale of Top Producer in the 3rd quarter.
Realtor.com's traffic reached a quarterly record of 100 and 1,000,000 average monthly users, reflecting a year over year increase of 32%. Lead volume grew 14% year over year, a slower growth rate than the prior quarter as we lack tougher comparisons with the prior year, which saw growth rates in the mid-30s, coupled with ongoing industry supply constraints. Compared to the prior quarter, lead volume grew 8%. REA had an exceptional quarter with revenues rising 79% year over year to $227,000,000 including a $34,000,000 or 27% positive impact from currency fluctuations. REA's results benefit from a material increase in residential premier debt revenues despite the absence of a price increase this fiscal year as part of REA's prior year COVID-nineteen support initiatives.
Australian national residential new buy listings for the quarter rose 54% With Melbourne and Sydney both up 64% as growth rates were somewhat exaggerated by the impacts from COVID-nineteen last year. Listing volumes were not only higher than the prior year, but also higher than fiscal 2019, 2018 levels. Traffic remained robust With total visits to realestate.com.au for June at $123,000,000 up 8% year over year and the visits Please refer to REA's earnings release and their conference 33% versus the prior year and included an $85,000,000 or 21% positive impact from foreign currency fluctuations. The growth rate also improved sequentially. Adjusted revenues increased 12% with higher revenues from the streaming products more than offsetting the revenue declines from the broadcast product in the quarter helped by the COVID-nineteen comparison.
Total closing paid subscribers across Foxtel reached nearly 3,900,000 as of June 30, with total subscriptions, including trial lists, over 4,000,000 and were up 40% versus the prior year, from COVID-nineteen last year. Sequentially paid subscribers rose 10%. Kayo total subscribers increased to almost 1,100,000 and Binge total subscribers increased to 827,000. In the aggregate, Total streaming subscribers reached over 2,100,000 with paying subscribers up more than 150 percent to just over 2,000,000. Streaming products are now delivering meaningful growth at scale and over 50% of Foxtel's total paid subscribers are now on streaming platforms.
Residential broadcast subscribers declined to less than 1,700,000 and commercial subscribers, while growing sharply year over year, continue to be impacted by COVID-nineteen restrictions and further lockdowns, notably in the accommodation sector. We saw broadcast churn moderate from the past two quarters to 17.1%, but up from 13.2% in the prior year, With the team continuing their focus on retaining high value subscribers and driving ARPU growth. ARPU increased 4% to AUD81 from the prior year, partially offsetting broadcast subscriber volume declines. Segment EBITDA declined 37% to $4,000,000 of higher sports programming rights and production costs in the quarter, which we didn't have in the prior year due to COVID-nineteen, together with higher marketing expenses. In addition, Foxtel had approximately $11,000,000 of onetime costs, mainly related to IQ3 and was relatively stable in local currency, which includes the impact of $57,000,000 of sports rights costs that were deferred from last year.
The business also generated meaningful free cash flow across the year as increasing scale in streaming is leading to improved financial momentum within the company Compared to the prior year, including 2 months of revenue from the acquisition of Investors Business Daily with digital revenues accounting for 72% of total revenues this quarter. Circulation and subscription revenues increased $34,000,000 or 11%, driven by a 12% increase in circulation revenues, reflecting the continued subscriptions increased to over 4,500,000 average subscriptions to its consumer products in the quarter, up 19% from the prior year. Of that, nearly 3,500,000 were digital only subscriptions, up 26% year over year. IBD had over 100,000 subscriptions at quarter end with the majority being digital only. Professional Information Business Revenues rose 11%, driven primarily by Risk and Compliance.
Revenue growth from risk and compliance accelerated yet again with a year over year increase of 30% and marked the fastest growth in 3 years. For the year, risk and compliance reached approximately $195,000,000 of revenues, up 23%. Advertising revenues, which since News Corp's acquisition and was also higher than the Q4 fiscal 2019. Digital advertising posted record growth With revenues up 53%, with all categories performing above expectations. We saw significant increase in yield, particularly in direct display.
Print advertising revenues rose 36% year over year, primarily benefiting from the COVID-nineteen comparison. Dow Jones segment EBITDA for the quarter rose 15 percent to $69,000,000 EBITDA margins were relatively stable year over year as higher revenue growth was partially Costs were also notably depressed in the prior year due to COVID-nineteen related savings initiatives. As we previously communicated, Much of the cost increase this quarter were planned investments with some timing related items. Dow Jones achieved the highest level of profitability since its acquisition this fiscal year with margins expanding to nearly 20%, up almost 5 percentage points from the prior year. On an adjusted basis, Segment revenues and EBITDA for the quarter rose 14% 12%, respectively.
At Book Publishing, for the 4th quarter HarperCollins to the prior year. The moderation in growth was impacted by the lapping of COVID-nineteen benefits in the prior year and mix of titles as last year's results included the Magnolia Table Volume 2. Despite a difficult prior year comparison, book consumption levels remain high. 4th quarter continued to benefit from Bridgerton, but to a lesser extent than the prior quarter. While physical sales continued their momentum this Digital revenues declined 3% in the quarter, reflecting a difficult comparison to the prior year when many bricks and mortar stores were closed due to COVID-nineteen.
E book sales fell 11% in the quarter, but were partly offset by 11% growth in downloadable audio. This quarter's results also include almost 2 months of results from the acquisition of the HMH Books and Media segment. We're excited about the Turning to News Media. Revenues for the quarter were $595,000,000 up 21% versus the prior year, driven by the recovery of the advertising market from COVID-nineteen related weaknesses in the prior year. Growth in circulation and subscription revenues and a $73,000,000 or 14% positive impact from currency currency fluctuations.
Growth was partially offset by $58,000,000 or 12% negative impact from the divestiture of News America Marketing in May 2020. On an adjusted basis, revenues rose 21% as we cycle the steep declines from COVID-nineteen last year. Circulation and subscription revenues rose 26%, driven by $34,000,000 or 15% benefit from currency fluctuations, strong digital paid Advertising revenues increased $31,000,000 or 15% compared to the prior year, benefiting from the COVID-nineteen comparison with strong gains in both print and digital advertising revenues across key mastheads as well as a $29,000,000 or 14% increase from foreign currency. Those gains came despite a $58,000,000 or 28 percent negative impact related to the divestment of News America Marketing And a $10,000,000 or 5 percent negative impact related to the closure or transition to digital of certain regional and community newspapers in Australia. On a reported basis, advertising revenues in Australia rose 34% or 14% in local currency, While News U.
K. Advertising revenues rose 86% or 65% in local currency. In the U. S, the trends remain strong with the New York Post posting 60% advertising revenue growth, of which digital advertising grew 65%. Segment EBITDA for the quarter was breakeven compared to a loss of $44,000,000 in the prior year.
In the other segment, 4th quarter results include non recurring legal settlement costs. Excluding that charge, costs were modestly higher than we had expected, primarily driven by higher equity compensation across both cash and non cash expenditure. I would now like to talk about some themes for the upcoming quarter and fiscal 2022. Visibility remains limited, especially in Australia due to ongoing COVID-nineteen lockdowns. That said, we are very encouraged by our July trends and are looking to build on that momentum into fiscal 2022.
At Digital Real Estate Services, as noted in their release, Revenue in fiscal 2022 will benefit from a price rise in July for REA, and they also noted that new buy listings declined 3% in the month. Results will also include the acquisition of Mortgage Choice. Please refer to REA's press release for more details. At Move, we continue to see strong pricing in agent demand despite ongoing supply constraints. Like the Q4, we expect to balance reinvestments with revenue growth as we focus on expanding Intuit docencies.
In Subscription Video Services, we are pleased with the ongoing performance of Kayo and Binge and the efforts For the year, we expect costs in local currency to be stable with fiscal 2021 and revenue trends to continue to improve as the streaming products continue to Gail? At Dow Jones, overall trends across the business remain strong. We expect cost to increase as we focus on top line growth, but we will remain focused on margin expansion. Dow Jones will also see incremental content licensing revenues from Google. In Book Publishing, overall trends remain favorable despite lapping the benefits from COVID-nineteen.
While Book Publishing faces a And favorable secular trends. We also expect to see additional contribution from the acquisition of HMH. At News Media, we expect the segment to show notable improvement in fiscal 2022, driven by the contributions from the deals with Google and We will continue to manage spend closely throughout the year as we did during fiscal 2021. And finally, free cash Flow generation will remain a priority in the coming year. The company ends the year stronger, better capitalized and with new levers of growth.
We're excited about the potential for our recent acquisitions, including our announcement this week on OPUS. And as Robert mentioned, We are now actively reviewing our capital allocation policy as we look to balance reinvestment and growth with healthy shareholder returns. With that, let me hand it over to the operator for Q and A.
Thank you. And we will take our first question from the line of Kane Hannan of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Just two quick ones for me quickly. Just firstly on that comment around the buybacks. Could you give us a little bit more detail Around potential outcomes there, what sort of quantum and timing we should be thinking about? And then on Move, just obviously very strong revenue growth this year.
Can Can you just talk about enough of how we think about the sustainability of that growth into FY 2022 and some of those pricing tailwinds that you mentioned? Cheers.
Encho, on buybacks, obviously, you're indicating that there's a more vigorous, lively discussion about capital allocation. For a start, We have more capital to allocate given the strong cash generation in the company over the past year and for the foreseeable future. The acquisition of Opus does not change Thinking, which is at an advanced stage. So I'll reiterate what we said earlier. We are actively reviewing our capital returns policy with a greater focus on buybacks.
As for Realtor, Realtor really is at a very early stage of its exponential evolution. The growth Over the past year has come despite a relative paucity of listings, and the encouraging sign is the level of listings is on the rise again. And the Immutable laws of supply and demand as always is beginning to take effect. And it is worth reiterating that we've grown faster So then, Gelo and Trulia, as measured independently, for 17 successive months. And in the past 8 months, that growth has exceeded 20 percentage points.
And that is a profound transformation and surely indicates that the fundamentals are favorable.
And Kane, just in relation to Move as well as we sort of think about the coming year, notwithstanding obviously market conditions, we do expect within that product. In relation to the referral business, we expect to continue to benefit from record home prices, yield optimization and we'll continue to focus on improving the close rates. Overall, agent demand remains very robust and existing home
Thank you. We'll move to our next question from the line of Encho Raykovski of Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Hi, Robert. Hi, Susan. So if I
can ask one on books and just
a very quick one on Opus. So books in the quarter, you had very strong revenue growth, but adjusted EBITDA was flat. And obviously, you talked about the mix But just wanted to understand, are there any one off cost factors driving this? And should we expect perhaps a reversal In future quarters, if you could provide us more detail, that would be useful. And then with the Argus acquisition announced earlier this week, Do you see any potential synergies from that transaction?
And if you do, can you talk to what areas they could perhaps come from? Thank you.
And Joe, I might start in relation to HarperCollins. So look, there's not anything really that's material in one off. We have had integration costs for HMH, but they're not materially in the context of the overall results. It really was down to just the mix, so slightly lower digital sales. The backlist mix was a little bit different, 2% different quarter on quarter, year on year.
But the consumption trends do remain favorable. So we are
On Opus, Andrew, Opus was opportunistic. It was a required sale and we were able to act swiftly and decisively. We do have a significant amount of expertise in that Thanks to Dow Jones and a very clear sense of how we can develop the Opus business, which is already high margin cash generative and decidedly digital. I mean, it's grown every year since 2007 despite the ebb and flow of energy cycles. And so there's no doubt OPUS will be an important source of ongoing revenue and profit and cash growth for Dow Jones and News Corp.
We're talking energy, commodities, Renewables and carbon related products, which will have a long runway deep into the future.
Thank you, Anjou. Valerie, we'll take our next question please.
Thank you. We'll move to our next question from the line of Darren Leung of Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks. Thanks for your time. Just a very quick question, obviously, considering a buyback. Can you give us a feel for, I suppose, the other side of the corporate management, like, obviously, with the Opus acquisition, how we should think about debt levels
Look, Darren, I don't think we can give you any more detail And that which we have revealed today. But as I just made clear, the Opus acquisition itself has not affected Our thinking on capital allocation, and we are in the fortuitous position of having more capital to allocate.
And look, Darren, just to add to that, I mean, as I mentioned, we've got a healthy cash balance of about $2,200,000,000 at the end of the year. The Opus transaction will be an all cash Transaction, so we still will be retaining a healthy cash balance. And having generated meaningful free cash flow this year, We are continuing to focus on free cash flow generation as we move forward. So at this stage, we're fairly comfortable with what our balance sheet looks like.
Thank you, Darren. Valerie, we'll take our next question please.
Thank you. We will now take our next question from the line of Brian Hadd of Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Robert, you mentioned several times the optionality that's opening up for roxterol. Can you please elaborate on what that means and when you will make a decision on which option you're going to take? And Susan, you mentioned the decline in capital intensity for Foxtel. Can you shed some light on how CapEx will change for
Foxtel In
'twenty two compared to 'twenty one? Thanks.
Well, Brian, it's very clear that what we have with Foxtel are options, and that's a tribute to the team in Australia who patently transformed the business and its fortunes. We've got the key sports rights long into the future. We have an absolutely contemporary customer friendly streaming platform network and those Systems are another means of monetizing existing rights at no extra cost. We have our broadcast experience That is world class and is now the village square for video in Australia. And we surely have price elasticity in a market where an ever larger number of people in Australia understand that you pay a premium for premium content.
And these are auspicious circumstances and their confluence Combined with stage leadership from Patrick and Siobhan has transformed Foxtel's fortunes and certainly given us choices.
And then just to follow on in relation to the CapEx question. So the increasing investment next year is in relation to the IQ5 box, as I mentioned, which really is to Focus on IP for that business going forward, which will drive efficiencies going forward. So whilst CapEx will be slightly elevated relative This financial year, it will then start to come down. And even the forecast for financial year 'twenty two is materially below
Thank you, Brian. Valerie, we'll take our next question please.
Thank you. And we have
a follow-up question from Kane Hannan of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. I know you're not talking too specific around the Google, Facebook, 9 figure earnings number. But just was there any of that benefit in this 4th quarter? And then any comments I suppose you can make around the Dow Jones versus the news media split of that number?
Okay. And the numbers for Q4 are So we're expecting to see the full benefit of those deals come through into financial year 2022. We haven't actually Given any guidance on the allocation, it's fair to say the bulk of that allocation is obviously going to go across the Dow Jones segment and the News Media segment. And we'll obviously be updating on that as we work through the year.
Thank you, Kane. Valerie, we'll take our next question, please.
It appears that there are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the conference back to Mr. Florin
Well, thank you, Valerie, and thank you for all participating today. Have a great day. And
This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.