News Corp. on Tuesday reported third-quarter net income of $839 million, or 32 cents a share, compared with $2.7 billion, or $1.04 a share, for the same period a year ago.

The 2009 figures included $2.4 billion in one-time gains. Reporting after the close, the New York-based media conglomerate said revenue was $8.79 billion, compared with last year’s $7.37 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet Research had expected the company to earn 25 cents a share on sales of $8.24 billion.

In a Tuesday interview with Neil Cavuto on Fox News Channel, News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch credited Fox News Channel and James Cameron’s box-office champion “Avatar” for some of NewsCorp’s success this year. “That helped a lot. That contributed probably a bit more than $200 million this quarter,” he said of “Avatar.”

Amid a broad market selloff, News Corp. shares fell Tuesday by 3.8 percent to end trading at $17.68, but the stock climbed 2.3 percent in after-hours trading. News Corp. is the parent company of MarketWatch and NewsCore, publishers of this report.

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