Roku’s shop window phase didn’t last long. Fox has agreed to acquire the streaming company, which boasts an audience of 100 million households globally, in a $22 billion deal announced today (June 15).
The deal will make Fox the third largest organization in American TV by share of viewing, and combines the company’s formidable live sports portfolio with Roku’s homescreen capabilities and CTV tech.
Signs that Roku might be flirting with suitors emerged at the end of last week, when Reuters reported its execs were negotiating with at least one U.S. media company. Today, both companies announced a cash and stock deal that valued Roku shares at $160 each (it’s currently trading around $141).
“The combination not only strengthens Fox’s existing business, but more importantly, expands our presence in the highest growth segments of media, connected TV advertising, and subscription aggregation,” said Lachlan Murdoch, executive chair and CEO of Fox Corporation, in a call with analysts this morning. As part of the deal, Roku boss Anthony Wood is set to join Fox’s board of directors.
In first quarter of this year, Roku netted $613 million in ad revenue and $519 million in subscription revenue; in 2025 Roku brought in $4.7 billion in revenue. Fox’s earnings during the same period saw it bring in $5.18 billion, with ad revenues increasing a tepid 1%.
As well as almost doubling Fox’s annual revenue, the deal would provide the media company with a more diverse portfolio, noted eMarketer analyst Ross Benes. “In upfront buys, Fox is mostly linear TV now. The mix between linear TV and CTV will be much more balanced after owning Roku,” Benes told Digiday.
“We already were going to see a condensing of the converged TV ad market with the Paramount and WBD merger, and Disney combining Hulu into Disney+. Roku being acquired by Fox further collapses the number of ad sellers where U.S. advertisers can gather scaled audiences,” he added.
Michael Shaughnessy, COO of Kargo, said consolidation might benefit brands looking to cut non-working media and advertise at scale. “Buyers are constantly being asked to navigate a fragmented ecosystem of publishers, platforms, data providers, and measurement partners. The idea of getting more scale, more audience data, and more inventory through a single relationship is attractive,” he said.
Murdoch argued the combination of Fox’s portfolio with Roku’s first-party data would improve the blended company’s offer to advertisers. “When you pair [CTV advertising] with the reach of our content, with live sports, combined with Roku’s rich first-party data and performance marketing tools… it’s a tremendous opportunity,” he said.
He added that the platform’s performance-oriented ad products, which include a partnership allowing brands to target using Amazon e-commerce data, would also bring benefits to Fox advertisers.
“Roku [has] unique expertise in performance marketing, with which we can bring across our entire platform. I think the advertising synergies or revenue upsides are very significant,” said Murdoch.
As CTV homescreens have gradually become more valuable to advertisers seeking premium inventory seen by the entire household, streamers and OEM companies have begun the inventory up to programmatic buying.
Roku’s homescreen ad inventory added a fresh source of premium ad space to Fox’s books, Murdoch said, referring to the service as “beachfront property.”
“It creates a player where you can buy CTV inventory at larger scale, along with home screen takeovers,” said Danny Weisman, chief media officer and co-founder of Obsessed Media. “And I do think this makes FOX more attractive as a place where you can get news, sports, and younger audiences via streaming in one place.”
Fox has promised investors it expects to find $400 million of “cost synergies” following the deal. It’s unclear what those synergies might mean for advertisers in practice. Murdoch, for example, suggested Fox would keep its live sports coverage on Fox One rather than spread them across Roku’s portfolio.
Mark Zamuner, CEO and founder of independent media agency Juice Media, suggested the combination of Roku’s data and tech stack with Fox’s portfolio could be attractive to advertisers.
“This definitely opens up opportunities as Fox now has massive reach across unduplicated audiences, both paid and free, and the ability to insert into non-owned content,” he said.
Murdoch suggested Fox would maintain Tubi, the streaming platform it acquired in 2020 for $440 million, as a separate service: “Fox and Roku are committed to continuing to operate Roku as an open, partner-friendly platform.”
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