Good day, and welcome to the News Corp Third Quarter Fiscal 2021 Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. All media will be in 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, Todd. Hello, everyone, and welcome to News Corp's fiscal Q3 2021 earnings call. We issued our earnings press release about 30 minutes ago and have now posted on our website at newscorp.com. On the call today are Robert Thompson, Chief Executive Susan Fanucchio, Chief Financial Officer. We'll open with some prepared remarks and then we'll 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 Form 10 ks and Form 10 Q filings identify risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ and contains 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'll pass it over to Robert Thompson for some opening comments.
Thank you, Mike. While some nations including America are spasmodically emerging from the ravages of the pandemic, other regions continue to suffer profoundly. We certainly hope that the vicissitudes of the virus will abate and trust that all on this call are navigating these perplexing times safely and securely. I must again salute the people of News Corp as they continue their extraordinary work for the company and for their communities in these demanding circumstances. Their efforts, their expertise and their endurance have yielded strong results for our company and for the millions of people who find comfort and inspiration an illumination from the news, information insight and entertainment our businesses around the world deliver each and every day.
It is further testament to the efforts of all at News Corp that fiscal year 2021 has been defined by improving revenue trends and flourishing profitability. In fact, in strictly financial terms, this year is on a trajectory to be the most successful since our reincarnation in 2013 in profitability, highlighting how much the character of the company has evolved over that period. Patently, the strategy of simplifying the asset mix, The vigorous pursuit of digitization, the disciplined cost reductions and the investment focus on 3 growth areas, digital real estate, Dow Jones and Book Publishing have proven to be particularly fruitful. You will have noticed that since our last earnings call in February, we announced 3 significant acquisitions that we firmly expect will immediately increase revenue and EBITDA upon closing. The first being Investors Business Daily to be operated by Dow Jones.
The second was Horton Mifflin Harcourt's Books and Media segment, which will become part of HarperCollins. And the third was Mortgage Choice by REA Group, which will add heft to their mortgage broking business. And since our last earnings announcement, we have reached historic and lucrative deals with Google and with Facebook As we continue our campaign for equitable and substantial compensation from the big tech platforms for our premium journalism, whether in text, audio or video. The 3 year Google deal is global and involves the creation of a subscription platform, ad revenue sharing and partnerships in audio journalism as well as video journalism on YouTube. That agreement is evolving well and should be a platform for further cooperation between our companies in the future.
The Facebook deal also for 3 years involves leading metro Newspapers in Australia and a large array of regional and local mastheads as well as Sky News Australia and will have a material and meaningful impact on our business in Australia. This deal is in addition to that launch with Facebook in the U. S. In 2019 involving Dow Jones and The New York Post. We are yet to reach agreement with Facebook in the UK and hope that reason will descend imminently.
We note the U. K. Is chairing the G7 and applaud the diligent and intelligent work of Andrea Casheli and the Competition and Markets Authority, which has developed great insight into the digital landscape and will play a crucial role in drafting a G7 response and in raising social and commercial consciousness. As the terms of trade change, we can expect to see tangible benefits flow to those who report and distribute news to the public. And I am confident that will include publishers large and small, urban and rural in many countries and in many languages.
For us in Australia, the deals will obviously improve the results at our newspapers, but also enable us to hire journalists to improve the coverage in underserved regions and communities. Finally, before turning to the quarter's results, I would like to highlight the successful completion of our inaugural bond offering, which was multiple times oversubscribed at an attractive coupon and thus a resounding vote of confidence in the company's strategy and its prospects. As for the Q3 of fiscal year 2021, Revenues in the Q3 exceeded $2,300,000,000 representing a 3% increase from the prior year. Turning first to the resolutely robust digital real estate services segment, Move's revenue growth was 37%, Exceeding Q2's 28% growth, Move and realtor.com's value to News Corp to the real estate industry and its Consumers is becoming more obvious with each passing quarter. Overall, Digital Real Estate Services revenues were up 34% year over year and segment EBITDA surged 58%.
Realtor.com traffic growth has outpaced out of Zillow for 14 consecutive months through March and the significant growth disparity between the two has been widening markedly. According to comScore, in March, because we are focused on our consumers, whether that be a family buying or selling a house or the agents handling that important transaction. We are not flipping houses. We are not competing with our clients. We are not building up a stock of bricks and mortar inventory.
We are not worrying over the wallpaper or fretting over fences or This Reputational and functional advantage for Realtor comes at a moment of genuine momentum for the U. S. Real estate market. Our internal metrics show that average monthly unique use in the quarter were 44% higher than the prior year and reached 108,000,000 uniques for the month of March alone, a burgeoning of 60% versus the prior year. Not only is realtor.com serving home buyers and sellers, we are serving renters and landlords as well.
We expanded our rentals offering via Wiring Avail, where revenue growth has exceeded initial expectations and we are excited about the opportunity that lies ahead in this lucrative market segment. In Australia, the real estate market is thriving, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne. REA Group, the clear leader in that country's digital real estate sector, So revenues increased by 32%. During the quarter, REA announced that it proposed to acquire 100% of the shares in Mortgage Choice Limited. The proposed acquisition aligns with REA's financial services strategy by leveraging the group's digital expertise, Motivated property buyers and data insights across a larger network.
At Dow Jones, revenues rose 6% year over year and segment EBITDA led an impressive 61%. Overall advertising, which was slightly down in Q2, moved into positive terrain in Q3, with digital advertising 30% higher in the quarter, Almost double the growth rate of The New York Times. Digital now represents 61% of all advertising compared to a ratio of 48% in the prior year. Digital only subs at Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal surged 29% and Dow Jones digital only net adds in the quarter exceeded those of The New York Times its new subscriptions. MarketWatch is achieving record high revenues and is now benefiting from multiple revenue streams with the successful launch of its subscription offering in October.
Risk and Compliance reported growth of 24% in the quarter, marking 23 consecutive quarters of double digit expansion. This strength underscores RNC's value as a global leader in data intelligence, including in anti money laundering, anti corruption and commercial risk assessment. With increasingly stringent demands from the U. S. Government and bodies around the world for strict compliance and heightened emphasis on ESG, We believe Dow Jones Risk and Compliance is perfectly poised to benefit.
If anyone on this call would like to minimize risk or maximize compliance, Please do reach out. Meanwhile, we are on the cusp of integrating Investors business daily. That deal closed this week and we expect IVD We'll provide innumerable opportunities for cross selling and up selling with the Dow Jones portfolio of products. IBD will also be a source of important expertise and insight as 90% of its revenue is digital and the company has a compelling lucrative suite of software products. Book publishing is another engine of growth for News Corp.
As HarperCollins continued to honor its extremely positive trajectory with 19% revenue growth in the quarter compared to a year earlier and segment EBITDA surging 45% as both our powerful backlist and notable frontlist performed strongly. 1 of the standouts in the Q3 was the Bridgerton series, which is now the most successful series for HarperCollins in fiscal 2021. Other strong performers included The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse by Charles Mackesy and Cicely Tyson's memoir, Just as I Am. The power of the HarperCollins substantial backlist in Q3 reinforces our enthusiasm, The anticipated integration of the newly acquired Horton Mifflin Harcourt Books and Media segment, which should close in Q4. This acquisition will greatly expand the HarperCollins backlist with an additional 7,000 titles, including such monumental works as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Animal Farm and 1984 and beloved children's production of J.
R. R. Tolkien's works due in coming years. As with HMH, we will have acquired the U. S.
Rights to that extraordinary collection and will now own the global English language rights. As Tolkien himself wrote, the greatest adventure is what lies ahead today and tomorrow are yet to be said. In subscription video services, our strategy to rapidly expand streaming has been transformational for Foxtel. The express growth of Kayo and Binge together with Foxtel Now saw the number of paying OTT subscribers reach approximately 1,600,000 as at the end of March. That represents a doubling of streaming subscribers over the past year alone, an extraordinary achievement.
In total, Foxtel closing subscribers grew to a record of over 3,500,000, up 21% year over year, driving a significant increase in profitability. Kayo Sports has helped make Foxtel the preeminent home of sports in Australia with a record 2,200,000 sports subscribers. Of these, Kayo accounted for 851,000 paying subscribers as at March 31, more than double the prior year where it was 408,000. In recent days, Kayo exceeded 1,000,000 total subscribers with paying subscribers expected to reach that milestone imminently. A strong summer of cricket and the start of the dominant winter sports saw Kayo generate more momentum.
This was supported by our recent agreement with Telstra, which has seen Kayo replace Telstra Live Pass in the AFL Live app and NRL official app, making Kayo the exclusive streaming home of the extremely popular Aussie Rules and Rugby League Competitions. Not yet 1 year old, DaVinci Entertainment streaming service reached 516,000 paying subscribers, up nearly 20% on the 2nd quarter. Binge has established consistent weekly Subscriber growth underpinned by the growing awareness of the Binge brand, the popularity of hit shows such as The Flight Attendant, The Walking Dead and Zack Snyder's Justice And its deserved reputation for user friendly, tech savvy access to the world's best content. Foxtel's resurgence during the pandemic, coupled with the continuing value of its broadcast product, the rapid growth of Kayo and Binge and a relentless focus on cost transformation have delivered a much enhanced financial performance that certainly gives us flexibility and optionality. In the News Media segment, revenues declined somewhat as expected.
The difference was entirely attributable to the sale of News America Marketing and the restructuring of regional and community titles in Australia, most of which became digital only properties. In the UK, Circulation revenues increased, while the New York Post continued revenue growth driven by strong expansion in digital advertising. Finally, I want to express my enduring gratitude for the thousands of people who work at News Corp around the world for their creativity, their commitment and their collaborative spirit, which has been a guiding force as we navigate through the uncharted turbulent waters of the pandemic. The past 12 months I've seen record profits in many of our businesses, a strong reinforcement of our digital imperative and particularly potent performances by the 3 sectors that we had targeted for expedited growth. It is clear that our investors are increasingly embracing that strategy and Profiting from that strategy.
And now I turn to Susan Fanucchio for words of financial wisdom.
Thank Robert. Fiscal 2021 Q3 total revenues were over $2,300,000,000 an increase 3% versus the prior year, while total segment EBITDA was $298,000,000 up 23% year over year, reflecting Strong performances across our key segments. Our 3 core pillars Dow Jones, Digital Real Estate Services and Book Publishing collectively grew segment EBITDA by 50 5% versus the prior year. On an adjusted basis, which excludes the impact from acquisitions and divestitures, most notably the sale of News America Marketing the Q4 of fiscal 2020, as well as currency fluctuations and other items disclosed in our release, revenues rose 4%, while total segment EBITDA grew 24%. Net income for the quarter was $96,000,000 compared to a net loss of $1,000,000,000 in prior year, which reflects the absence of a non cash impairment charges related to Foxtel and News America Marketing in the prior period.
For the quarter, we reported earnings per share of $0.13 as compared to a net loss per share of $1.24 last year. And our adjusted EPS were $0.09 in the quarter compared to $0.03 in the prior year. Turning now to the operating segments. Digital Real Estate Services segment revenues were $351,000,000 an increase of 34% compared to the prior year, which is more than double the growth rate we saw in the Q2. The performance was driven by another record quarterly performance at New, together with improvements at REA as well as the Alara consolidation and positive impact from foreign exchange fluctuations.
On an adjusted basis, revenues increased 22%. Segment EBITDA rose 58 percent to $117,000,000 or 52% on an adjusted basis, the fastest quarterly growth rate in nearly 4 years. Move's revenues accelerated to $162,000,000 a 37% increase year over year with real estate revenues rising 43%. Move contributed $36,000,000 or 84 percent of the segment EBITDA growth this quarter, the highest contribution to growth to the segment for the fiscal year. Realtor.com's traffic increased to 98,000,000 average monthly unique users in the 3rd quarter, reflecting a year over year increase of 44%.
Notably in March, Realtor's unique users eclipsed 100,000,000 for the first time reaching over 108,000,000 unique users, up 60% compared to the prior year. Monthly average lead volume remained very strong growing over 40%, which was higher than the 2nd quarter rate despite We saw very strong growth across both the traditional lead generation and referral businesses in the 3rd quarter With a notable acceleration from the 2nd quarter rate in the growth of Connection Plus, our traditional lead generation product, which benefited from higher traffic and lead volumes, high retention rates and improved pricing. These results underscore the success of our strategy of choice Revenues from the referral business continue to grow strongly, representing 25% of total move revenues, lower than the first half, mainly due to the acceleration in the traditional lead generation business, coupled with the seasonality impact. Overall, the drivers behind the performance of the referral model remain similar to the prior quarter with continued strong transaction volumes, higher home pricing And stable to higher referral fees. As we mentioned last quarter, we expect to continue reinvesting in Moov, primarily in marketing and product development, Balancing continued improvement in profitability with revenue growth.
We are pleased to see strong growth across both as the team accelerates the pace of innovation and new products as we expand into adjacencies. Turning to REA Group. Revenues at REA rose 32% to 100 and $89,000,000 reflecting a $28,000,000 or 19 percent positive impact from currency fluctuations and a $7,000,000 from the acquisition of Alira. Australian National Residential Listings for the quarter rose 8% with Melbourne up 13 and compared to the prior year. REA's results also benefited from an increase in residential debt resident use despite the absence of a price increase this fiscal as part of REA's COVID-nineteen Support Initiatives.
Like REALTOR, REA is benefiting from record traffic with realestate.com.au hitting an all time high of 137,000,000 monthly visits in March, up 60% year over year and buyer inquiries are also at record highs. Please refer to REA's earnings release and their conference call following this call for more detail. Thanks to the Subscription Video Services segment. Revenues for the quarter were $523,000,000 up 13% versus the prior year and included a $79,000,000 or 17 percent positive impact from foreign currency fluctuation. Adjusted revenues were down 4%, Continuing the improving trend through the fiscal year as the expansion of OTT revenues partially offset the declines in broadcast subscription revenue.
Total closing paid subscribers across Foxtel were over 3,500,000 as of March 31, up 21% versus the prior year as the team focused on maintaining its Premium broadcast customers, while the Kayo and Binge streaming services delivered subscriber growth at scale. The comparison versus the prior year was helped by the absence expanded to nearly 1,600,000 paying subscribers, up 120% compared to the prior year with Kayo reaching 851,000 and Binge at 500 and Including TriList, Kayo and Binge reached 914,000 679,000 subscribers respectively, which is indicative of the strong consumer interest in each of the product's unique content set. Kayo's growth has been enhanced by the recent Agreement with Telstra to replace Telstra's Live Pass with Kayo, accelerating the penetration and adoption of the product. While the revenue impact from the addition of former Live Pass customers will be minimal in year 1 of the agreement due to the pricing promotion. We see this partnership as a unique opportunity and window to introduce Kayo to a new audience.
Residential broadcast subscribers declined 12% from the prior year to over 1,700,000 and commercial subscribers also declined 12% to albeit the accommodation sector remains challenged. Broadcast churn was elevated at 20.1% versus 17.5 in the prior year as the team continued to balance churn with revenue optimization. As a result, ARPU continued to rise both year over year and sequentially, Partly mitigating broadcast subscriber volume declines, broadcast ARPU rose 2% to over A80 dollars or US62 dollars Segment EBITDA improved 34 percent to $91,000,000 and was up 13% on an adjusted basis. The improvement was driven by Finally, on Foxtel, they refinanced their existing AUD 650,000,000 revolving credit and working capital and extended the maturity date out 18 months to May 2024 at a slight price improvement. Moving on to Dow Jones.
Dow Jones delivered another outstanding quarter with year over year growth of both revenue and segment EBITDA accelerating versus the 2nd quarter and the first half rate. Revenues for the quarter were $421,000,000 up 6% compared to the prior year with digital revenues accounting for 74% of total revenues this quarter, up 6 percentage points from the prior year. Circulation revenues again rose 8% due to the growth in digital circulation revenues, partially offset by lower single copy and amenity print volume, which is still impacted by COVID-nineteen restrictions. Dow Jones continue to post record Subscriptions with nearly 4,300,000 average subscriptions to its consumer products in the quarter, up 19% from the prior year. Of that, nearly 3,300,000 were digital only subscriptions, reflecting 238,000 sequential net adds and 29% year over year growth.
For The Wall Street Journal, there were approximately 3,400,000 average subscriptions for the quarter, up 21% from the prior year with digital only subscriptions growing 29% to over 2,600,000. Revenues from Dow Jones Risk and Compliance grew 4% improving from the Q2 rate and was the fastest growth since the Q1 of fiscal 2020. Overall, Professional Information Business revenues rose 9%. Within Professional Information Business, Risk and Compliance was the largest source of revenues this quarter for the first time on record and is now approaching $200,000,000 in revenue for the full year compared to approximately $160,000,000 in fiscal 2020. Advertising revenues, which accounted for 20% of revenues Quarter grew 1% to $85,000,000 a marked improvement from the 4% decline last quarter and was the first growth since the Q1 of fiscal 2020.
As Robert mentioned, digital advertising revenues had the fastest growth in a decade, up 30% and accounting for 61% of advertising revenues for the Q3. It is worth noting that this level of growth came despite a tough prior year comparison of up over 20%, which at the time was a record quarterly performance. Encouragingly, the growth was again broad based with notable gains in the financial services category. We saw growth in both volume and yield, particularly in direct display. Print advertising revenues declined 25% year over year, which was an improvement from the 29% decline in the 2nd quarter.
Dow Jones segment EBITDA for the quarter rose 61 percent to $82,000,000 with margins expanding close to 7 percentage points versus the prior year. Total costs declined 2% this quarter, which was better than we had expected, mostly due to lower print volumes and other discretionary savings, partially offset by higher Ad Book Publishing HarperCollins posted 19% revenue growth to $490,000,000 45 percent segment EBITDA growth to $80,000,000 reflecting another very strong quarter and continues to benefit from the industry wide increase in consumption. Like the Q2, revenue growth was again broad based and was led by the general trade, children's, UK and foreign language categories. The backlist was the key driver this quarter accounting for 62% of sales led by very strong sales from the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn. Similar to previous quarters, we are continuing to benefit from a strong rebound in e books with sales up 38% year over year and gains in all categories, While downloadable audiobooks increased 42% year over year, overall digital sales were up 38%.
HarperCollins again demonstrated strong operating leverage despite a 15% increase in total costs in part due to royalties and higher production We continue to remain focused on rightsizing the cost base and moving towards digital within this segment. Revenues for the quarter were $550,000,000 down 25% versus the prior year, of which the impact from the divestment of News America Marketing accounted for the majority of the decline. On an adjusted basis, revenues declined only 7%, which is an improvement from the 9% decline last quarter. The client also reflects the $28,000,000 or 4% negative impact from the closure or transition to digital of certain regional and community newspapers in Australia. Circulation and subscription revenues rose 13% driven by a $26,000,000 or 10% benefit from currency fluctuations, Strong digital paid subscriber growth and cover price increases, partly offset by lower newsstand sales related to COVID-nineteen.
Advertising revenues decreased $215,000,000 or 50% compared to the prior year, reflecting a $199,000,000 or 40 7% negative impact from the divestiture of News America Marketing and a $23,000,000 or 5% negative impact related to the closure or transition to digital of certain regional and community newspapers in Australia. The remainder of the movement was driven by favorable foreign exchange, partly offset by the continued weakness in the print advertising market exacerbated by COVID-nineteen. Advertising performance was mixed across the regions with Australia showing 2nd quarter impacted by another lockdown which started at the end of 2020. In the U. S, the trends remained robust with the New York Post posting 21% advertising revenue growth of which digital advertising grew 32%.
Segment EBITDA for the quarter was $8,000,000 compared to In our other segment, the 3rd quarter costs were higher than we expected primarily driven by higher equity compensation due to the rising share price and the initial I would now like to talk about some themes for the upcoming quarter. As noted in the past Forecasting remains challenging given the ongoing global COVID-nineteen pandemic. At Digital Real Estate Services, national residential listings in Australia for And expect the revenue momentum to continue. We continue to expect additional reinvestments that move in areas such as brand marketing and product development as we focus on gaining market In Subscription Video Services, we have seen broadcast churn trends moderate during April and we remain encouraged by Strong OTT demand from Kayo and Binge. We expect EBITDA results to be challenged due in large part to the lapping of the prior year cost savings.
As a reminder, the prior year's 4th quarter results included US70 $1,000,000 of lower sports programming rights costs, mainly due to the suspension of sporting events as a result of COVID-nineteen. For the current fiscal Q4, we expect to incur those rights, which will be impacted by the rising Aussie dollar versus the U. S. Dollar as well as some additional costs for further OTT investments. At Dow Jones, overall revenue trends remained favorable compared to the prior year, including strong digital advertising growth.
As mentioned last quarter, we expect to reinvest in the business as we focus on driving revenue growth through its digital assets and expect second half expenses to increase modestly compared to the prior year. In Book Publishing, overall industry trends remain favorable, but we continue to monitor closely Sustainability of recent consumer spending patterns such as the increasing free time for consumers to read and the increase in the average number of books purchased. We continue to expect performance to moderate in the 4th quarter, in part due to the strong performance in the prior year, which benefited from increased consumer At the onset of COVID-nineteen lockdowns and restrictions as well as the successful release of Magnolia Table Volume 2. At News Media, we expect continued improvement in the 4th quarter as we lap both the impact from COVID-nineteen and the sale of News America Marketing in May 2020. Cost decline should moderate as we lap COVID-nineteen saving initiatives as well as the divestment of News America Marketing and the closure of digital transition of of our newspapers in Australia in the Q4 of fiscal 2020.
We expect overall profitability trends to improve and we expect modest revenue impacts from our new licensing agreement. In our other segment, we expect the 4th quarter cost to increase around $20,000,000 versus the prior year in part due to the reduction bonuses in the prior year, higher share price and the costs related to the Global Shared Services Initiative. Our year to date free cash flow available was $762,000,000 compared to $63,000,000 in the prior year, benefiting from higher EBITDA, Improvements in working capital and lower CapEx. Some of the working capital improvement is timing related, but we're very pleased with the progress made to date. Also note that the Q4 balance sheet will reflect the proceeds from our recent senior notes offering together with the 3 recently announced acquisitions, which will impact our interest expense and cash balance.
With that, let me hand it over to the operator for Q and A.
Thank Thank you. And we'll take our first question from Alan Gould with Loop Capital. Thanks for taking the question. Robert, these results at Realtor are quite impressive. Can you just look out 3, 5 years and give us some sense of what the opportunity is for digital real estate in the United States?
Well, I'm not sure I'm that present and I said don't pass myself off as a soothsayer. But We are firmly of the view that real estate properties make us the world's leading digital property company. We also are firmly of the view that we have vast potential for growth given the markets in which we operate and given our successful acquisition strategy. And equally, we are firmly of the view that the full value of that digital property assets and their potential is not yet entirely recognized in our share price. We now have global leadership of our real estate assets with Tracy Fellows and her appointment itself was a sign of Through ideas for the future, she's driving the business and seeking out new opportunities such as Opcity, such as rental and such as other adjacencies that will generate even more momentum.
Thank you, Alan. We'll take our next question, please.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from Kane Hannan with Goldman Sachs.
Good morning, guys. Just In terms of the investment at Moove and Dow Jones you've been calling out, should we be expecting investment to step up in the Q4 relative to the Q3? I know you guys obviously spoke about this investment in the half year. So just interested how we think about the phasing?
I'll take that one. So I think just at Realtor, if you think about the cost for Q4, we did guide to an additional $40,000,000 of cost in the second half. Probably could assume the bulk of that $40,000,000 that we quoted will hit in Q4. So if you compare that to the Q3 numbers, we also expect those numbers to Scale up from a variable cost perspective given the revenue growth. In relation to Dow Jones, we would expect To see higher costs in Q4 largely as a consequence of compensation and marketing expenditure, but we have been Very encouraged by the ongoing cost focus in that business.
And as you could see, they had a pretty good cost result for this quarter as well. So probably more investment come
Thank you, Kane. Thank you, Kane. Todd, we'll take our next question, please.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Alexia Quadrani with JPMorgan.
Thank you. My question is On the journal Dow Jones, when you look at The Wall Street Journal digital subscription, do you think that the change in administration here in the U. S. Has a positive is it a tailwind going forward for future digital subscriptions? Or is it a negative or is it neutral?
I'm curious Curious to hear how you think the change in the political environment may or may not influence digital sub growth there.
Well, the key factor for us is the quality of The Wall Street Journal, the quality of the journalism, the quality of the leadership. We have great Tim Adao Jones with Al Malatore and Josh Stinscum, our Chief Revenue Officer, who've done a sterling job collectively in developing our digital expertise. So we don't have to worry about a Trump bump becoming a Trump slump As you might see in other places, the Wall Street Journalism obviously rises above So the gauntlet's rhetoric, the pamphlets hearing, the jaundice journalism that you see in some other places. And so The Dow Jones results certainly rise above those of the New York Times both in circulation now in the news segment and in Digital Advertising, which was almost double that of The New York Times. And so it is In essence, the enduring quality of the journal, it gives us momentum and those are very positive wins that we're seeing now and confident that we'll see in the future.
And Lexio, I think the other thing that is really encouraging for us is if I look back over the last ten Quarter and quarter on quarter sort of net adds. So there, so we had this quarter with the 2nd highest that we've had over those 10 periods. And so that gives us confidence actually about the
And to further supplement Susan's observation, the acquisition of IBD will give us further opportunity to up sell to cross sell across both properties. And that's why We acquired the IBD, which is close to closing, and that's why and that investment itself was an indication of our confidence in the sector.
Thank you, Alexia. Todd, we'll take our next question please.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Incho Raykovskiy with Credit Suisse.
Hi, Robert. Hi, Susan. My question is on the other segments. Costs were up circa $50,000,000 in the quarter year on year, and you're obviously guiding to a further $20,000,000 increase in Q4. I'm just interested in what's driving the incremental uplift relative to the $50,000,000 number which you gave us back in Feb.
I Is it the share price performance that's driving bonuses? So any color would be useful. And is there an element of catch Could there be a potential for a drop as well? Thank you.
Yes. Look, in Q4, we obviously had the absence of some bonuses in Q4 of last year, and so we obviously wouldn't expect to see that this year. So we've got that movement that's happening. We also had some of the COVID impacts coming through In Q4, so we did have a couple of one off cost savings that hit in Q4 of last year, which we wouldn't say repeated expect to be repeated in Q4 of this year. And we also have the scale up of some of the new Nextel transformation project costs that are going to hit in Q4.
So I think when we look Sort of going forward, we wouldn't expect to see the large movement that we've been seeing in equity comp. I mean, obviously, the share price continues to go up, we'll have that So we did have a very depressed share price as a consequence of COVID back in Q4. And so we've been seeing those movements come through this year.
Thank you. And Todd, we'll take our next question please.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Craig Huber with Huber Research Partners.
Thank you. I want to focus if I could on your IBD acquisition in the book segment. You guys are buying from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Obviously, you're spending a little bit over $600,000,000 for the 2. I wanted to hear if you agree with this.
I mean, my take on this, in this environment, if you guys spend over $600,000,000 Which is unlike you. You don't do it too often. I think you run your balance sheet pretty conservative. You run the company pretty conservative over the years. But for you to do this right now, Do you agree with my thought that you must be feeling pretty good, pretty optimistic on the direction of the virus, the direction of the global economies, And more importantly, direction of your revenues and your great cost containment here when you put it all together that gave you the confidence we're out there to spend $600,000,000 plus.
Craig, look, I think that's a fair assessment. We certainly have confidence in our teams and their ability to integrate those acquisitions. We certainly have Fundamental faith in the sectors themselves and you will see that the financial impact of the acquisitions will be almost immediately positive for both revenue and EBITDA. Both Investors Business Daily and the Horton Mifflin Harcourt General Book division are highly profitable. And in Australia, Mortgage Choice will surely complement the existing mortgage broking business at REA.
And as I mentioned earlier at IBD being 90% digital now, it's extremely contemporary. We will be able to cross sell and up sell and make the most of our existing content. And at HarperCollins, with Brian Murray and the team, there's no doubt we have a history of
Thank you, Craig. Todd, we'll take our next question, please.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Darren Leung with Macquarie.
Good morning. Thank you for the update. I just wanted to ask a question around Dow Jones. You obviously talked about the sort of growth trajectory in the risk and compliance business. Can Can you please give us a feel for what the margins look like, not necessarily in FY 2021, but perhaps into the medium term once you're done investing For the Wall Street Journal versus the Risk and Compliance business, please?
We don't give out the margins actually for Risk and Compliance. But what we would So they are high margin, and they've been scaled. So we are seeing good growth within that particular
And as we indicated earlier, the climate for risk and compliance is certainly conducive to growth given the Advent of U. S. Administration that is obviously intent upon increasing regulation and the need for compliance.
Thank you, Darren. Todd, we'll take our next question please.
Our next question comes from Brian Hahn with Morningstar.
Hi. For Foxtel in Australia, are you still investing in marketing and retention of Foxtel broadcast subscribers?
Well, We're certainly focused on all segments at Foxtel and we're genuinely delighted by the progress where we have EBITDA up 34% and the revenue trends are obviously improving. We haven't seen the Spin down from forecasting that some feared. And Kayo is, as we mentioned, on the cusp of a 1000000 paying subscribers with Pinned by world class cutting edge technology that provides a great user experience. And its financial position overall is Much more robust and Patrick, Siobhan and the team deserve much credit for the markedly improved performance that means we Frankly, have options, real options.
Thank you, Brian. Todd, we'll take our next question, please.
Sir, at this time, we have no questions. I'll turn it back to you for closing remarks.
Great. Well, thank you, Todd. Thank you all for participating. Have a great day. And as always, we look forward to speaking with you all in the very near future.
Have a great day.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.