EARNINGS : Murdoch Posts 45% Profits Gain

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. said today that profits surged 45% from a year earlier in the quarter ended in September but that costs of the Sky television network plunged its British operations into the red.

Profits rose to $42.1 million for the three months, buoyed by an abnormal profit of $22.3 million, details of which were not disclosed.

News Corp.’s British operations lost $16.2 million, a sharp turnaround from profits of $48.1 million a year earlier.

But the merger of Sky with rival British Satellite Broadcasting, announced earlier this month, will cut costs substantially and “ensure a return to profitability in the United Kingdom over the remainder of the financial year,” News Corp. said.

In the United States, the company’s biggest profit generator, News Corp. said turnover and operating profits were substantially higher at both 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and Fox Television and Fox Broadcasting.