News Corp said net profit in its fiscal second quarter ended December 31 rose to $832 million, or 27 cents per share, from $822 million, or 26 cents per share, a year earlier.

News Corp., which bought Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. in December, earned $832 million in the final three months of 2007, up 1 percent from the $822 million it earned in the same period a year earlier.

The company's second fiscal quarter results were equivalent to 27 cents per Class A share, which met estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

Twentieth Century Fox Television reported lower contributions versus the second quarter a year ago, primarily reflecting the timing and delivery of new episodes partially offset by higher contributions from domestic syndication and international television, most notably from 'Family Guy' and 'The Simpsons,' the company said.

Profit at News Corp.'s film and television production unit dropped 14 percent to $403 million. The quarter included contributions from Alvin and the Chipmunks, which has sold $207 million in tickets domestically, and strong DVD sales of Fantastic Four sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer, Live Free or Die Hard and The Simpsons Movie. The year-ago quarter included bigger revenues from such blockbusters as Borat.

Meanwhile, its Fox Interactive Media business helped boost operating income in its other segment to $23 million, a $22 million improvement. The popular social-networking Web site MySpace, owned by Fox, said its earnings rose to $23 million from $1 million as revenue advanced 9.5 percent. The growth in profit resulted from its advertising agreement with Google from January last year, which allows the site to further monetize its inventory.

News Corp. closed its $5.7 billion purchase of Dow Jones in mid-December.