Dive Brief:
- Fox Corporation today announced plans to acquire Roku in a deal valued at approximately $22 billion, per a press release. The cash-and-stock transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.
- The deal combines Fox’s portfolio with Roku’s connected TV platform, which reaches more than 100 million global households. Roku will continue to operate as an open platform for other streaming services.
- The combined companies, which together generated about $9 billion in ad revenue over the last twelve months, will become the third-largest player in U.S. television by share of viewing and a significant factor in the evolving streaming landscape.
Dive Insight:
Fox’s acquisition of Roku shakes up the advertising market, uniting a portfolio of news, sports and entertainment content with the top CTV operating system in the U.S., which reaches — and draws first-party data from — more than half of all broadcast homes. The deal recognizes the rise of streaming and the enduring power of live sports and news to drive viewership.
“This combination will transform the scope of our company into high-growth verticals and yield a step change in our overall growth profile,” Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in a press release. “Roku pioneered streaming TV and scaled it into a leading CTV platform. Together, we intend to lead its next chapter.”
The deal gives Fox, which last year launched the direct-to-consumer Fox One streaming service, a bigger standing in CTV, a channel that produces both advertising and subscription revenue. These markets are forecast to reach about $60 billion and $85 billion by 2030, respectively, per EMarketer data shared by the companies.
Fox will also control two of the largest free ad-supported streaming TV channels in Tubi and The Roku Channel, strengthening its position in one of the fastest-growing segments of streaming. All major streamers are now jockeying for advertising revenue, said Mike Proulx, vice president and research director at Forrester.
“With 2026 shaping up as a defining year of streaming consolidation, the market shift is that streaming is no longer just about quality content slates. It’s about controlling the full stack. If this deal closes, Fox will control more of what viewers watch, how they discover it, and how it gets monetized,” Proulx said in emailed comments.
Roku, in the last twelve months, generated about $2.5 billion, nearly half of its total revenue, from advertising, while Fox generated about $6.5 billion in ad revenue, per details shared during an investors call. Executives expect the deal to accelerate the advertising flywheel between Fox's inventory, demand and engagement and Roku's first-party data, targeting, measurement and personalization capabilities.
“Roku really does have unique expertise in performance marketing, which we can bring across our entire platform. I think the advertising synergies or revenue upsides are very significant,” Murdoch said on the investors call.
The combined company will represent the third-largest player in monthly TV viewership behind YouTube and Disney and ahead of Netflix and Paramount, per Nielsen Gauge data. However, it will likely fall behind if and when Paramount's planned merger with Warner Bros. Discovery closes.
Roku is expected to continue to be an open platform for other streaming services, like HBO Max and Prime Video, that can be accessed through its operating system. Roku previously teamed with Amazon Ads to give advertisers access to its authenticated footprint through Amazon DSP. Roku saw platform revenue, a segment of its business that includes advertising, rise 18% year over year to a record $1.22 billion in Q4 2025 — a rate that outpaced the broader over-the-top and digital ad markets in the U.S. last year, Roku executives claimed.
Fox advertising revenue totaled $1.56 billion in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, down from $2.04 billion in the prior year quarter, primarily due to the loss of the Super Bowl. However, an additional NFL Wild Card game and continued growth of Tubi, which Fox acquired in 2020, partially offset the loss. Tubi has remained central to Fox’s growth strategy. The company also recently made a push behind Fox One, pitching the service as the home for this summer’s World Cup.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement from Forrester.
