Fox announced on Friday that it has finalized its $22 billion acquisition of Roku. The network, which announced the landmark deal in June, is designed to ramp up Fox’s presence in the streaming/FAST/OTT market.
Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku is joining the Fox board of directors as co-chair, Fox Digital Platforms, a newly formed division that includes Roku, Tubi, Fox One, Red Seat Ventures and other digital products and services across the company. He will work with Paul Cheesbrough, who is now co-chair and CEO of the division.
Fox said it expects to save $400 million within two years following the transaction close, “with additional potential revenue upside.”
“The closing of this acquisition advances the long-term strategy of Fox,” Lachlan Murdoch, executive chair and CEO of Fox Corp., said.
Fox said it will keep Roku “as a leading open ecosystem for the broader streaming industry,” something Wood emphasized in his statement.
“We started Roku more than two decades ago to give people a better way to watch TV, and that mission doesn’t change today,” Wood said. “What does change is our reach and resources. Fox has a deep respect for Roku’s culture and wholly shares our commitment to staying open to every content partner. Our teams will keep building and innovating as they always have, now with the support and capabilities of Fox behind us. I’m proud of what Roku’s employees have built, and I’m excited about what comes next.”
In April, Roku announced it now had more than 100 million customers worldwide. Right after the deal was announced in June, Horowitz Research reported that nearly four in ten U.S. streaming platform users choose Roku to stream content, outpacing top competitors Amazon Fire TV and Samsung’s Smart Hub interfaces, each of which are used by almost one in three streamers.
While networks purchasing consumer hardware companies are rare in the 21st century, this type of transaction harkens back to the days when RCA dominated broadcasting by owning both the manufacturing and distribution (aka NBC). Today, though, Roku's biggest attraction to Fox is its ubiquity, its relationship with streaming services including Disney+ and Amazon Prime, and most importantly, data.
Murdoch stressed his commitment to maintaining Roku's partnerships.
“Beginning today, our top priority for the combined company is to continue to relentlessly serve audiences and partners, while reinforcing the openness and choice that is the essence of the Roku platform,” Murdoch said. “Our shared entrepreneurial passion and clear conviction toward building the future together with our new Roku colleagues gives us great confidence in the opportunities ahead of us.”
Roku has had a healthy 2026 so far, reporting 23% revenue growth in the first nine months, with $4.1 billion in sales.
