Fox is buying Roku | The Verge

Fox has announced that it’s acquiring Roku outright, in a deal that values the streaming company at $22 billion. Once the deal is complete, Fox content will be promoted more heavily than before on Roku streamers and smart TVs.

The deal will see Fox’s TV networks and Tubi streamer combine with Roku’s network of streaming devices, smart TV software, and The Roku Channel. The companies say in a press release that by combining they’ll become the third-largest player in the US TV industry by viewing share.

”This is a defining moment for Fox, and a natural extension of the deliberate and focused strategy we have been executing for nearly a decade,” Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement. “Today, we take the next step: bringing together the most valuable live content portfolio in video consumption with the preeminent streaming platform through which America watches it.”

It doesn’t sound like the plan is to build Roku and Fox into a walled ecosystem, but the Roku home screen will be used to promote Fox content. Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood, who will stay on in the company and join Fox’s board of directors, said in an investor call that Roku “will continue to operate as an open, partner-friendly platform supporting the entire streaming ecosystem.”

But Wood added that the home screen sections Roku uses to promote its own content “will obviously now include Fox properties,” giving the specific example of “more deeply integrating Fox Sports into the Sports Zone.” He pointed out that this “isn’t a new problem for us,” because Roku already has a mix of its own content and that from partners. “We know how to promote our own services as well as promote our partner services, and so we intend to continue doing that,” Wood said.

As for Fox, the press release says the companies are “committed” to the “continued ubiquitous distribution” of Fox’s own content.

“Over the past two decades, we’ve built Roku into the leading TV streaming platform, reaching more than 100 million households globally and reshaping how people discover and enjoy entertainment,” said Roku CEO Wood. “I’m incredibly proud of what our team has built, and the combination with Fox is an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate our vision, scale faster and innovate more aggressively for viewers, partners and advertisers.”

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027. It remains subject to US regulatory approval, which in the current climate seems unlikely to pose a problem, and what the company expects to be “very limited” international approvals.

Update, June 15th: Added Anthony Wood quotes from the investor call.