BROADCAST TV BOOSTS NEWS CORP. PROFIT

NEW YORK (AP) — Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp. reported Wednesday that its earnings more than tripled in the latest quarter on a one-time gain of $1.7 billion from a stock exchange with Liberty Media Corp.

The media conglomerate, which owns Twentieth Century Fox, Fox News Channel and Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, earned $2.69 billion or 91 cents per share, versus $871 million or 27 cents per share a year ago.

Revenue rose 16 percent to $8.75 billion from $7.53 billion

The latest results were lifted by the gain of $1.7 billion from a stock exchange with Liberty, which wound up transferring NewsCorp.'s controlling interest in the satellite broadcaster DirecTV Group Inc. to the Colorado-based media company.

Higher earnings from broadcast television and cable network programming outweighed declines at the company's movie and TV studio division.

Broadcast television results jumped 53 percent due to higher results from Fox TV stations thanks to the Super Bowl; lower programming costs at the Fox broadcast network and better results from MyNetworkTV, a fledgling mini-TV network.

Profits from cable networks, a division that includes Fox News Channel and FX, rose 17 percent from the same period a year ago on higher results from Fox News Channel, tempered by startup costs from the newly launched Fox Business Network.

Newspaper earnings rose 38 percent on higher advertising revenue from the company's Australian newspapers, lower costs from its papers in the United Kingdom and the inclusion of Dow Jones, which the company acquired last December.

Earnings from TV and movie production fell 36 percent, partly on higher distribution costs from new movies including ''Horton Hears a Who!'' and ''Jumper.''