It's been the big, round Kayo subscriber stats and the ongoing threat of digital giants - this time Amazon, perhaps - that grabbed attention when chief executive Robert Thomson presented News Corp's quarter earnings.

Buoyed by what seems like limitless house ads in group papers, streaming service Kayo - which News like to call 'Netflix for sport' - has scored 100,000 paying customers since its November launch and ahead of what is expected to be the peak selling season. I was going to call them "paying punters", but that's another growing side of News' business.

And then there's the competition - of which we have been warning for a while - presented by the Amazon empire of Jeff Bezos who, uniquely, is also a newspaper publisher. Thomson didn't name him, but talked of "almost limitless" potential for abuse in the audiobook market - one in which Amazon with its foundations as a bookstore and development of Kindle - has something of a start.

That may also be why the News chief executive was also spruiking his own company's literary credentials, while also reporting a 13 per cent "jump" in December-quarter earnings. Book publishing division HarperCollins contributed a six per cent increase in revenue, with digital revenue growing 12 per cent, thanks to a 58 per cent increase in sales of audiobooks. The successes of Joanna Gaines' best-selling Homebody and Rachel Hollis' Girl Wash Your Face were highlighted, with both set to publish new titles in the current quarter.

The Amazon digital marketplace of Bezos - who privately owns the Washington Post and its Arc Publishing newsmedia systems offshoot - is part of a dysfunctional digital world Thomson sees as open for dominant players to manipulate and in need of regulation. "There is no doubt that some of these companies are arbitrating algorithmic ambiguity and hoping that regulators do not fully ­appreciate or define their dominance in certain sectors," he said.

"When one company controls much of the US consumer audiobook ­market and has its own products in that market and can tweak its algorithm at will, the ­potential for abuse is almost limitless."

Sounds just like an argument for restricting another company which controls much of the media ­market and has its own products in that market. Just wishing we were better able to tweak the necessary algorithms, are we?

Of the scrutiny under which digital giants - the usual suspects are Google and Facebook - have come, Thomson says it "is clear that there has been a regulatory awakening and the time has come for a regulatory reckoning".

News Corp booked a 21 per cent increase in revenue for the December quarter to $US2.63 billion (A$3.7 billion), with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rising to $US370 million.

While warning of the impact NSW and federal elections in Australia might have, he commented on potential there with growing earnings and digital transformation "continuing apace".

"We're par­ti­cu­larly optimistic about the pot­ential for the business," he said.

Peter Coleman

Pictured: Cricket and soccer contributed to the success of streaming start-up Kayo - subscribers can watch up to four different videos, games or shows at a time