{"id":738995,"date":"2026-06-15T20:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/738995\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T20:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:43:12","slug":"murdochs-fox-to-acquire-us-streaming-giant-roku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/738995\/","title":{"rendered":"Murdochs&#8217; Fox to acquire US streaming giant Roku"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0388a84289da929cbf275745461f3546.jpeg\" alt=\"Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, shown here in 2017 with father Rupert Murdoch, described the Roku transaction as a winning means to expand in the streaming era (Drew Angerer)\" loading=\"eager\" height=\"511\" width=\"768\" class=\"yf-lglytj  loaded\"\/> Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, shown here in 2017 with father Rupert Murdoch, described the Roku transaction as a winning means to expand in the streaming era (Drew Angerer)  \u00b7 Drew Angerer\/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA\/Getty Images via AFP    <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Fox Corporation will acquire streaming platform provider Roku in a cash and stock deal worth $22 billion, the companies announced Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Fox executives said the transaction would give it &#8220;first-party data&#8221; and insight on Roku&#8217;s more than 100 million global subscribers, an attribute Roku has parlayed into advertising revenue growth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The deal deepens Fox&#8217;s exposure to the hardware of the streaming business, diversifying away from the legacy cable broadcast universe where the media giant&#8217;s mix of politically conservative news telecasts and blockbuster sports games have made it a dominant player.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">&#8220;This is a defining moment for Fox, and a natural extension of the deliberate and focused strategy we have been executing for nearly a decade,&#8221; said Fox Chief Executive Lachlan Murdoch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">&#8220;Today, we take the next step: bringing together the most valuable live content portfolio in video consumption with the preeminent streaming platform through which America watches it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">But shares of Fox sank more than 15 percent near midday Monday, a drop analysts said reflected concerns about the deal&#8217;s dilutive impact on existing equity as well as strategic questions about the deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Roku shareholders would receive cash and Fox stock under the deal valued at $160 per share, a joint press release said, with the transaction expected to close in the first half of 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Roku shares have traded between about $90 and $130 since late April.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">&#8211; Operating system &#8211;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">California-based Roku rose to prominence in the early days of streaming with its plug-in devices and is now a major player in smart TV operating systems, earning the vast majority of its revenue from advertising and other platform-related services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">It also has its own advertising-supported streaming channel, a competitor to Fox&#8217;s Tubi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Roku generated $4.7 billion in revenue in 2025, with approximately $88 million in profit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Murdoch &#8212; who was handed control of his father Rupert Murdoch&#8217;s media empire in 2023 &#8212; told analysts on a conference call that the current expectation is to keep Tubi and Roku as separate platforms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">While there is about a one-third overlap in the audience of Roku and Tubi, &#8220;they serve consumers and their viewers in different ways,&#8221; Murdoch said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Streaming media analyst Dan Rayburn said the Roku infrastructure will bring Fox valuable intelligence on a large portion of viewers in terms of what people are watching, how they are watching and &#8220;what are they wanting to pay for?&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Beyond that, Fox will also benefit from Roku&#8217;s distribution system. Rayburn noted that Fox has not disclosed viewership figures at Fox One, suggesting limited reach thus far.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Emarketer analyst Ross Benes also saw logic in the deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">&#8220;It remains to be seen how well the combination of a digitally innovating streaming company will mesh with a media conglomerate rooted in legacy assets,&#8221; Benes said. &#8220;But the strategy makes sense and it jibes with the continual consolidation that&#8217;s occurring in streaming.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">A note from Briefing.com alluded to Roku&#8217;s 100 million subscribers as a selling point, but said the weakness in Fox shares Monday shows &#8220;investors are also focused on dilution, leverage, integration risk, and whether Fox can preserve Roku&#8217;s partner-friendly neutrality while owning a gatekeeper platform.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Shares of Fox slumped 15.1 percent while Roku dipped 0.9 percent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">bur-jmb\/des<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, shown here in 2017 with father Rupert Murdoch, described the Roku transaction as a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,374,56584,71062,94838,17833,348],"class_list":["post-738995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-fox","tag-fox-corporation","tag-lachlan-murdoch","tag-roku","tag-rupert-murdoch","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}