Fox has announced it is acquiring Roku in a deal worth approximately $22 billion, including debt, according to the Wall Street Journal. The acquisition brings together two very different but complementary pieces of the streaming puzzle.
On one side is Fox, the broadcast and cable giant that also owns Tubi, one of the largest free ad-supported streaming services in the United States. On the other is Roku, the company behind the ubiquitous streaming sticks, smart TV software, and its own free channel — The Roku Channel.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal gives Fox access to more than 100 million streaming households. That figure represents the scale of Roku's reach: the company's software runs on a huge portion of smart TVs sold in the U.S., making it one of the most common front doors into the streaming world.
The companies said in a statement, as reported by The Verge, that the plan is to combine Fox's TV networks and Tubi with Roku's device ecosystem and streaming platform. In plain terms: Fox would control not just the content, but the remote control and the home screen millions of viewers see when they turn on their TVs.
The deal is a significant bet that owning the distribution layer — the software and hardware that delivers streaming content — is just as valuable as owning the content itself. For consumers, it raises questions about whether Fox will favor its own properties on Roku's platform over competitors.
If it closes, this merger could reshape the streaming wars by giving a single media company an unprecedented combination of content, a massive free streaming service, and the pipes through which a huge share of American TV viewing flows.