New York  - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp reported sharply higher earning Wednesday, thanks to double-digit growth from its film, cable networks and newspaper groups, and the sale of its stake in Gemstar-TV Guide International.

The media conglomerate reported net income of 1.1 billion dollars, or 43 cents a share, for the quarter that ended June 30, compared with 890 million dollars, or 28 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 17 per cent to nearly 8.6 billion dollars from 7.4 billion dollars in the year-ago period.

For the full fiscal year, net income rose 57 per cent to 5.4 billion dollars, or 1.81 dollars a share, an increase of 2 billion dollars from 3.4 billion dollars, or 1.08 dollars a share, reported in fiscal 2007.

Revenue rose 15 per cent to nearly 33 billion dollars from 28.5 billion dollars in 2007.

"Other companies may indeed be struggling, but our confidence and ambitions are buttressed by very healthy balance sheets," said chief executive Rupert Murdoch, speaking from Beijing on Tuesday in a call with analysts.

The film group saw the greatest earnings growth as robust DVD sales of Alvin and the Chipmunks, Juno and 27 Dresses raised revenue for the group by 5 per cent to 1.5 billion dollars, from 1.45 billion dollars a year earlier.

But the television division saw earnings drop by 106 million dollars to 279 million dollars as advertisers slashed marketing budgets. However the cable network programming group reported a 10 per cent boost in operating income, to 313 million dollars from 284 million dollars, largely on advertising growth at the Fox News Channel.

Newspapers also saw healthy gains with operating income of 262 million dollars, up 59 million dollars from the year ago period as the inclusion of revenues from the Wall Street Journal helped boost sales by 54 per cent 1.84 billion dollars, from 1.2 billion dollars a year earlier. Murdoch said that the Wall Street Journal was showing strong online growth, with more than 1.1 million digital subscribers.

Fox Interactive Media, led by the online social networking site MySpace, also saw strong growth, boosted by advertising gains. (dpa)