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Segment EBITDA decreased $14 million in the quarter, or 16%, as compared to the prior year, primarily due to lower contribution from News America Marketing. Adjusted Segment EBITDA (as defined in Note 1) decreased 15%.
Digital revenues represented 31% of News and Information Services segment revenues in the quarter, compared to 29% in the prior year. For the quarter, digital revenues for Dow Jones and the newspaper mastheads represented 36% of their combined revenues, and at Dow Jones, digital accounted for 55% of its circulation revenues. Digital subscribers and users across key properties within the News and Information Services segment are summarized below:
| • | | The Wall Street Journal average daily digital subscribers in the three months ended March 31, 2019 were 1,775,000, compared to 1,490,000 in the prior year (Source: Internal data) |
| • | | Closing digital subscribers at News Corp Australia’s mastheads as of March 31, 2019 were 493,200, compared to 409,000 in the prior year (Source: Internal data) |
| • | | The Times andSunday Times closing digital subscribers as of March 31, 2019 were 286,000, compared to 230,000 in the prior year (Source: Internal data) |
| • | | The Sun’s digital offering reached more than 84 million global monthly unique users in March 2019, compared to 84 million in the prior year, based on ABCe (Source: Omniture) |
Subscription Video Services
Revenues and Segment EBITDA in the quarter increased $410 million and $82 million, respectively, compared to the prior year, primarily due to the inclusion of Foxtel. Adjusted Revenues and Adjusted Segment EBITDA, which exclude the impact of foreign currency fluctuations, acquisitions and divestitures, increased 4% and declined 88%, respectively.
On a pro forma basis, reflecting the Transaction, segment revenues in the quarter decreased $84 million, or 13%, compared with the prior year, of which $53 million, or 9%, was due to the negative impact from foreign currency fluctuations. The remainder of the revenue decline was driven by the impact from lower broadcast subscribers and the changes in the subscriber package mix, partially offset by higher revenues from Foxtel Now and Kayo Sports.
As of March 31, 2019, new Foxtel’s total closing subscribers were 2.896 million, which was higher than the prior year, primarily due to the launch of Kayo Sports, subscriber growth at Foxtel Now and the inclusion of commercial subscribers of FOX SPORTS Australia beginning in the first quarter of fiscal 2019, partially offset by lower broadcast subscribers. 2.4 million of the total closing subscribers were broadcast and commercial subscribers, and the remainder consisted of Foxtel Now and Kayo Sports subscribers. As of May 8, 2019, there were 239,000 Kayo Sports subscribers, of which 209,000 were paying subscribers. For the same period, there were 567,000 Foxtel Now subscribers, of which 505,000 were paying subscribers. Broadcast subscriber churn in the quarter was 17.7% compared to 15.3% in the prior year, reflecting the impact of the price increase implemented in October. Broadcast churn improved to 16.2% in March and 15.1% in April. Broadcast ARPU for the quarter declined 1% compared to the prior year to over A$79 (US$57), as the impact from the price increase was more than offset by a negative impact related to the adoption of the new revenue recognition standard.
Pro forma Segment EBITDA in the quarter decreased $29 million, or 23%, compared with the prior year, primarily due to lower revenues as discussed above, $25 million of higher sports programming and production costs
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