London, Feb 7 : News Corporation has reported a more-than-doubling in profits, but spent another 56 million dollars to cover costs related to the defunct News of the World.

News Corp''s net income for the three months to December came in at 2.38 billion dollars due to strong growth at its cable networks, which include Fox TV, reports the BBC. News corp also owns newspaper titles, including the Wall Street Journal and the Times newspapers in the UK.

It closed the News of the World in 2011 following the UK phone hacking scandal. The cost to News Corp of its continuing investigations into the News of the World during the three-month period represented just 2.4 percent of its profits, and was down from 87 million a year ago.

News Corp said in June that it was separating its entertainment and publishing businesses, partly as a result of the scandal, in which journalists gained illegal access to the phone messages of many well-known people, and allegedly bribed members of the UK police force.

Shareholders had expressed concern about damage done to the publishing business by the events at the News of the World. News Corp said it was making progress towards this goal, which is said it hoped to complete by the summer of this year.

Murdoch, who is both chairman and chief executive of News Corp, said the strategies they executed against in the quarter has bolstered their competitive position and has enhanced their ability to benefit from global demand for content. The more lucrative TV and film business will remain in the parent company, to be called Fox Group. It will include the US news channel Fox News and the 20th Century Fox film studio. (ANI)