Fox’s $22 – Roku’s scramble for strategic options moved quickly: Fox Corp. agreed to buy Roku for $22 billion, with the deal expected to close in the first half of next year. The acquisition pairs Fox’s existing streaming service Tubi with Roku’s TV platform—potentially b
For several days, Roku’s future hung in the balance. Then, within the span of a weekend, the company’s strategic search became something far more concrete: Fox Corp. agreed to acquire Roku for $22 billion, with the transaction expected to close in the first half of next year.
Roku makes the dominant streaming platform for TVs. and the question now shifts from “what happens to Roku?” to “what does Fox do with Roku?” Fox is already the owner of the free streaming service Tubi. and adding Roku would give it a much bigger footprint in television—positioning it as the third- or fourth-largest provider by audience share. depending on whether the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger is completed.
Roku’s appeal is also practical, not just brand-based. Its platform includes apps for every major streaming service. along with Roku’s own Roku Channel—described as more than 500 free channels rather than a single offering. Fox says it intends to preserve that openness. and Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood will take on an unspecified “ongoing role” in the combined operation.
In other words, the most likely near-term outcome is continuity. From the outside, the experience of using Roku may not change dramatically. But the deal would still mark a turning point for a company that, historically, was impossible for traditional media giants to build from scratch.
The backstory matters because Roku’s rise was tied to a moment of disruption in streaming itself. In the 1990s, Wood founded ReplayTV, launching a digital video recorder in 1997. ReplayTV later failed after Wood sold it in 2001.
Roku came next. In August 2003. a product briefing described a box that displayed high-quality still images—such as reproductions of fine art—on HDTVs. At the time. the number of HDTV-equipped households was in the low millions. making the business appear focused on a niche rather than the foundation of a streaming platform that would matter so much 23 years later.
Roku expanded over the following years into internet radios and hardware for driving digital signage. but the company’s trajectory wasn’t clearly set until a sharp turn: in 2007. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings commissioned Wood to design a streaming player for Netflix. which at the time was best known for DVD rentals by mail. In December 2007, the Netflix player was close to shipping, but Hastings changed course. Rather than rely solely on Netflix’s own hardware. he directed Roku to sell the player so Netflix’s streaming service could reach the devices people already used.
The product began as the Netflix Player because it was initially built to play Netflix’s sparse streaming library. It quickly gained access to Amazon video. then Hulu. HBO. Crackle. Pandora. Angry Birds. and many others. until the app lineup numbered in the hundreds. In 2012, the platform streamed a billion hours of content.
Roku’s path was never a straight line. Other startups launched their own boxes, and major technology companies like Amazon and Google entered the category. Then, eventually, many TVs came with built-in streaming—an outcome that could have made Roku’s platform feel redundant.
Yet Roku didn’t just survive. It dominated the category it helped create, largely by keeping its hardware approach disciplined. After introducing its original player at $100. Roku released cheaper and cheaper devices. eventually putting a streaming stick on the market for $30. That price made it a common impulse buy and helped turn Roku into a household name.
But cost alone wasn’t the full story. Roku helped make streaming feel consumer-friendly when the underlying technology still seemed technical and out of reach. Its user interface and its short remote were described as stronger than what TV makers created on their own. Starting in 2014, Roku offered those features for manufacturers to embed in their sets, and dozens of brands did so. Nine years later, Roku also began selling TVs under its own brand.
The business logic also evolved as ad and content monetization grew more important. Because selling inexpensive hardware is a razor-thin-margin business, Roku monetized its expanding user base in other ways. Streaming services could pay for placement on Roku’s home screen or get dedicated buttons on its remote. In 2017. Roku launched the Roku Channel. described as the U.S.’s most popular free streaming service and a platform for its ad business. When Roku customers signed up for paid services, Roku processed those transactions through Roku Payments and collected a fee.
Even as Roku grew into more than a hardware company. Wood has described it as a foundation for a services business rather than a standalone company built to sell devices forever. And Roku has not always done what’s easy for partners—sometimes in ways that tested users. Wood has said the company was willing to “slightly” degrade user satisfaction to help pay the bills for free content. He also pointed out that manufacturer partners likely weren’t thrilled that Roku sold Roku-branded TVs that competed with theirs.
Roku’s approach to exclusives has also been blunt. In discussing Roku Originals, Wood said the lineup existed at least in part because advertisers didn’t react well to a pitch framed as: “Hey, the Roku Channel has a whole bunch of reruns of Bewitched.”
The company’s willingness to adapt extends beyond TV. In 2022. Roku introduced a line of smart home products—including video doorbells and security cameras—saying it was white-labeling devices made by Wyze. with Roku providing differentiation through software and security. Roku still sells smart home gear. which signals that its brand could carry into categories that don’t directly relate to TV.
Still, even with smart home expansion, the ambition described here wasn’t a dramatic pivot. Roku’s focus remains on making streaming affordable and approachable, a strategy that helped it keep momentum while rivals treated getting video in front of viewers as a side project.
Fox’s interest, meanwhile, looks clear. Roku’s revenues remain tied to affiliate fees and other components of TV’s past. The acquisition would likely strengthen Fox’s digital broadcasting position built through Tubi when Fox acquired the platform in 2020. Whether Fox can maximize Roku’s value is the open question, in a TV world where the rules keep shifting.
For all the scale of the deal—$22 billion. with a first-half next-year closing window—there’s one reason the transaction feels consequential even before the paperwork is finished: Roku was built with a Silicon Valley kind of ingenuity that old media players typically struggle to replicate. Fox now has the chance to prove it can keep the experience that made Roku work in the first place. If it does, the deal may not look explosive to viewers.
But it would still end an era for Roku, and it would move Fox further into the center of how people watch television.
Roku Fox Corp $22 billion acquisition Anthony Wood Roku Channel Tubi streaming platform TV audience share Roku Payments Roku smart home products Wyze