Fox Corporation has officially entered a deal to acquire streaming platform Roku in a blockbuster $22 billion stock and cash transaction, one of the biggest media buyouts in recent memory and a move that signals just how aggressively legacy broadcasters are fighting for the future of television.
The agreement, announced Monday, brings together Fox’s portfolio of news and sports programming, its free ad-supported streaming service Tubi, and Roku’s connected TV operating system, the software already embedded in millions of smart TVs and streaming devices sitting in American living rooms. Fox says the combined entity will rank as the third-largest television company in the United States by viewership.
At its core, this is a data and advertising play. Roku currently reaches 100 million households, and Fox made clear it intends to use that footprint to sharpen ad targeting and reduce its dependence on traditional cable and satellite delivery. The connected TV advertising market — known in the industry as CTV — has become one of the most lucrative and fastest-growing segments in media, and Fox just bought itself a major seat at that table.
Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch framed the acquisition in sweeping terms.
“This combination will transform the scope of our company into high-growth verticals and yield a step change in our overall growth profile,” he said in a statement. “Roku pioneered streaming TV and scaled it into a leading CTV platform. Together, we intend to lead its next chapter.”
Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood echoed the enthusiasm.
“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,” Wood said. “I couldn’t be more excited about what we’ll accomplish together.”
The deal is the latest chapter in Fox’s deliberate push into streaming. The company acquired Tubi for $440 million in 2020 during the height of the streaming wars, and launched its direct-to-consumer service Fox One last year. Adding Roku’s platform infrastructure takes Fox from content owner to platform operator — a significant upgrade in leverage and scale.
To fund the purchase, Fox secured a $12 billion loan. Both companies’ boards have signed off on the transaction, which is expected to close in the first half of 2027.
For the 100 million households currently using Roku devices and smart TVs, the short-term experience is unlikely to change overnight. But over time, the merger could reshape what the platform looks like, and whose content gets pushed to the front.
The most likely shift: deeper integration of Fox properties. Tubi, Fox News, Fox Sports, and Fox One could receive more prominent placement within Roku’s interface, potentially at the expense of competing services. Roku’s home screen real estate is already one of the most valuable pieces of digital advertising in streaming, and Fox now owns it.
There are also open questions about whether Roku’s historically platform-neutral stance, it has long positioned itself as a Switzerland-style hub for all streaming services, can survive under Fox’s ownership. Fox has real financial incentives to favor its own content ecosystem, which could put pressure on how other streaming apps are surfaced to viewers.
This deal also arrives amid a broader consolidation wave sweeping the media industry as traditional broadcasters scramble to compete with Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube for eyeballs and ad dollars. Fox is betting that owning both the content and the pipes to deliver it gives them a durable competitive edge.
The deal still needs regulatory clearance. Until it closes in 2027, Roku operates independently.
