Fox to Acquire Roku in $22 Billion Streaming Deal
Fox Corporation announced the acquisition of Roku, Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal that values the streaming platform at approximately $22 billion in enterprise value, with consideration of $160.00 per share in a combination of cash and FOX Class A common stock. The agreement, unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, marks a strategic turning point for the U.S. media industry.
Once the deal closes, the combined group will bring together FOX’s sports and news coverage, alongside a smaller entertainment offering, and its Tubi streaming service, with Roku’s connected TV platform (not yet available in Italy), merging the group’s live content with Roku’s connected TV platform, The Roku Channel, its proprietary data, and its direct relationship with more than 100 million households worldwide.
Fox Corporation’s CEO and Executive Chair, Lachlan Murdoch, called the acquisition “a defining moment” for the company, emphasizing the intent to carry out the deal from a position of financial strength while maintaining its investment-grade rating. Anthony Wood, Roku’s founder, will join FOX’s board of directors and will continue to lead the platform.
The acquisition does not mark an exit from linear television, which remains the core of the group through sports and news, nor an abandonment of the older audience that follows it. What the deal adds is a missing digital leg, since until now FOX had remained on the sidelines of the streaming wars, without owning a distribution platform of its own. With Roku, the group returns to being a distributor as well, a role it hadn’t held since the sale of DirecTV in 2007 and of Sky and Star TV in 2018, expanding its audience base to so-called cord-cutters and cord-nevers, without giving up its historical audience.
The topic was central to an episode of the podcast The Town with Matthew Belloni, in which the host discussed the deal with Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw. Among the points raised, a figure cited by the two journalists helps quantify the scale of the deal: according to Nielsen’s viewing-share data, FOX held roughly 7.2% of total U.S. viewing time, while The Roku Channel stood at around 3%. Combined, the two assets would push the new group past the 10% threshold, a level that would place it among the major players, namely Disney, Netflix, and NBCUniversal, alongside another side effect of the merger: the end of the internal rivalry between Tubi and The Roku Channel over which was the fastest-growing FAST channel, now that the two services will sit under the same corporate roof.
On the consumer side, the analysis converges on one point: the growth of ad-supported models. The deal will bring two competing FAST platforms, The Roku Channel and Tubi, under the same umbrella, in a market where users have shown they don’t mind advertising as long as it lowers the price of their subscription. One issue remains, though, and that is neutrality. Roku’s historical strength has always been positioning itself as a neutral platform with respect to the content it hosts, and any perceived favoritism toward FOX products would risk undermining the very asset the deal is meant to capitalize on.
Sources: Fox Corporation, NPR, Podcast: The Town with Matthew Belloni (Puck), “Fox Is Buying Roku for $22B. Is It Now a Streaming Power Player?”, June 15, 2026
Share:
Google Backs A24 With $75 Million to Develop AI Filmmaking ToolsRelated Posts
Fox Corporation announced the acquisition of Roku, Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal that values the streaming platform at approximately $22 billion in enterprise value, with consideration of $160.00 per share in a combination of cash and FOX Class A common stock. The agreement, unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, marks a strategic turning point for the U.S. media industry.
Once the deal closes, the combined group will bring together FOX’s sports and news coverage, alongside a smaller entertainment offering, and its Tubi streaming service, with Roku’s connected TV platform (not yet available in Italy), merging the group’s live content with Roku’s connected TV platform, The Roku Channel, its proprietary data, and its direct relationship with more than 100 million households worldwide.
Fox Corporation’s CEO and Executive Chair, Lachlan Murdoch, called the acquisition “a defining moment” for the company, emphasizing the intent to carry out the deal from a position of financial strength while maintaining its investment-grade rating. Anthony Wood, Roku’s founder, will join FOX’s board of directors and will continue to lead the platform.
The acquisition does not mark an exit from linear television, which remains the core of the group through sports and news, nor an abandonment of the older audience that follows it. What the deal adds is a missing digital leg, since until now FOX had remained on the sidelines of the streaming wars, without owning a distribution platform of its own. With Roku, the group returns to being a distributor as well, a role it hadn’t held since the sale of DirecTV in 2007 and of Sky and Star TV in 2018, expanding its audience base to so-called cord-cutters and cord-nevers, without giving up its historical audience.
The topic was central to an episode of the podcast The Town with Matthew Belloni, in which the host discussed the deal with Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw. Among the points raised, a figure cited by the two journalists helps quantify the scale of the deal: according to Nielsen’s viewing-share data, FOX held roughly 7.2% of total U.S. viewing time, while The Roku Channel stood at around 3%. Combined, the two assets would push the new group past the 10% threshold, a level that would place it among the major players, namely Disney, Netflix, and NBCUniversal, alongside another side effect of the merger: the end of the internal rivalry between Tubi and The Roku Channel over which was the fastest-growing FAST channel, now that the two services will sit under the same corporate roof.
On the consumer side, the analysis converges on one point: the growth of ad-supported models. The deal will bring two competing FAST platforms, The Roku Channel and Tubi, under the same umbrella, in a market where users have shown they don’t mind advertising as long as it lowers the price of their subscription. One issue remains, though, and that is neutrality. Roku’s historical strength has always been positioning itself as a neutral platform with respect to the content it hosts, and any perceived favoritism toward FOX products would risk undermining the very asset the deal is meant to capitalize on.
Sources: Fox Corporation, NPR, Podcast: The Town with Matthew Belloni (Puck), “Fox Is Buying Roku for $22B. Is It Now a Streaming Power Player?”, June 15, 2026
Share:
Google Backs A24 With $75 Million to Develop AI Filmmaking Tools
