By Jacob Shteyman in Canberra

Foxtel has a potential buyer, offering owner News Corp a possible end to its drawn-out attempt to offload the pay-TV service.

News Corp had recently garnered third-party interest in Foxtel Group, the multinational’s chief executive Robert Thomson told a media call on Friday.

The Murdoch-chaired group is conducting a strategic review into its asset portfolio, he said.

“There is no assurance regarding the timing of any action or transaction, nor that the strategic review will result in a transaction or other strategic change,” Mr Thomson said, without providing further details around any potential suitor.

Foxtel is 65 per cent owned by News Corp, with Telstra controlling the remaining share.

It launched in 1995 as a pure-play cable TV service but in recent years expanded its offering with streaming services Binge and Kayo to adapt to changing media consumption.

Speculation has long surrounded News Corp’s intentions with Foxtel as its traditional subscriber base eroded.

Plans to publicly float Foxtel in 2022 were abandoned amid a lack of demand from fund managers.

It has turned around performance in recent years with record subscriber numbers, low broadcast churn and rising revenue per user, Mr Thomson said.

It comes as News Corp lifted revenue by six per cent in the June quarter to $US2.6 billion ($A3.94 billion), driven by higher residential real estate revenues at REA Group, stronger book sales and continued growth in professional information business Dow Jones.

“Our core pillars of growth – book publishing, digital real estate services and Dow Jones – inspired the increasing profitability and their strength augurs well for fiscal 2025,” Mr Thomson said.

The group swung to a net profit of $US71 million after making a loss of $US32 million in the previous year.

But the performance was dampened by $US51 million in launch costs at Foxtel-owned streaming aggregator Hubbl and more disappointing results in news media.

Revenues at News Corp Australia – which owns newspapers including The Australian, Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph – sunk five per cent as advertising revenues and circulation continued to slide.

Foxtel lost 131,000 residential broadcast subscribers but this was more than offset by an increase in subscriptions at Binge and Kayo, with revenue up one per cent.

It was another solid result for News Corp, beating consensus estimates after a lean few years for the media industry, E&P Capital analyst Entcho Raykovski said.

“The comments on potential third-party interest in Foxtel should also be taken positively,” he said.

Mr Thomson reiterated the company’s bullishness about the money-making prospects of generative artificial intelligence.

He applauded the company’s “lucrative” deal with ChatGPT developer OpenAI, which allows the tech darling access to News Corp content, but acknowledged it was taking measures to ward off malign actors who would use content without permission.

“We have begun to take legal steps against AI aggressors, the egregious aggregators, who are predatory in the confiscation of our content,”  he said.

“‘Open source’ can never be a justification for ‘open slather’.”

For the full year, News Corp revenues edged up two per cent to $US10.1 billion, while net income grew 89 per cent to $US354 million.

The company’s Australian-listed shares rose after the result and were trading 6.7 per cent higher at $44.16 at 3pm on Friday.