Fox Corporation is Expanding Past Sports and News, Buying Roku For $22 Billion
The deal will close in 2027
Fox Corporation, the company that owns FOX News and FOX Sports, shocked consumers this morning by announcing that it is buying the streaming stick manufacturer, Roku. Roku makes streaming devices to add smart TV capabilities to HDMI-capable displays, plus its own line of smart TVs.
Fox is buying the company for $160 per share, which totals to about $22 billion. $12 billion of that will be financed through a loan.
It’s worth noting that this is not the same arm of the Fox brand that controls 21st Century Fox and owns the X-Men. That branch was bought up by Disney a few years ago and is no longer affiliated with the Fox Corporation. But this is the version of Fox that’s controlled by Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch.
Read on for more info on the implications of yet another entertainment merger.
What this means for you and me
What’s interesting about this deal is where Fox and Roku intersect. Each one has its own free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service: Fox bought Tubi six years ago and Roku has The Roku Channel. But at least for now, there are no plans to merge the two services, which Lachlan Murdoch calls “complementary.”
It’s also interesting that this is coming at the same time that Paramount Skydance is buying up Warner Bros. Discovery. In both cases, a single company (run by a notorious conservative figurehead from a powerful family) is buying up an entertainment brand with a lot of reach. When that happens, competition shrinks and monopolies grow.
If I had to guess, I’d say that all of those Roku-branded streaming sticks and TVs are about to lean heavily into advertisements for Fox brands. It’s tough to say this—of all the streaming devices I’ve tried, I like Roku the best, and even upgraded to a Roku TV earlier this year. I’ve always highly recommended their products, and yet I have to wonder if Fox ownership will have a negative impact on the user experience.
Roku has always been pretty ad-heavy. They even trick users into watching ads in the guise of entertainment (what do you think that Roku City screensaver is all about?). But it’s about to have a super vested interest in spotlighting one production company in particular, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see an increase in FOX Sports and FOX News ads on my Roku TV.
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