Fox is buying streaming platform Roku for $22 billion

Fox has entered the streaming service chat. The media company that has long relied on cable TV for its success announced this week that it’s buying Roku for $22 billion.

Roku, as in that streaming program that comes automatically installed on a lot of smart TVs (with its beloved scrolling cityscape). More than 100 million households use Roku, and it’s often a place you go before you click on the app you actually want to watch.

This is a smart play for Fox, according to Jon Giegengack, founder and head analyst at Hub Entertainment Research. Because out of all the problems that TV watchers face these days, “their biggest frustration is how complicated it is to use television,” he said.

That’s where a streaming aggregator like Roku comes in. Giegengack said his company has studied how TV watching has changed. “The No. 1 thing that they turn on first has switched from some kind of a cable box to an app inside of a smart TV.”

For 100 million households, that’s Roku. Now, Fox can sell ads to those people directly on the Roku platform. That means more money, said Peter Cohan, who teaches management practice at Babson College.

“People would then be targets on which to spend advertising, so they could bring in advertising revenue,” he said.

More on the streaming wars

• From May 2026: Raising prices is paying off for streaming platforms like Disney+

• From March 2026: Why you don’t own the digital content you buy

• From February 2026: What Paramount's Warner Bros. deal could mean for streaming

But more advertising is only part of the revenue stream.

“It's about owning sort of the home screen that lives between us and content,” said Dave Nicholson, chief advisor with the analytics group Futurum.

That gives Fox an opportunity to collect data about what users are watching, when, and it lets Fox advertise its own services, he said.

“I can be watching a YouTube video on Apple TV, and I will get a little box that will come up and that will say, ‘Hey, Formula One race is starting in 15 minutes,’” said Nicholson.

It’s a big benefit for a company that relies so much on its news and sports offerings.

On top of that, being the bridge between users and content pays well too, per Brandon Katz with the entertainment analytics company Greenlight Analytics.

“Suddenly, I want to watch Netflix, and I have a Roku device. Well, Fox is taking a bite out of that subscription and advertising revenue, and all the other streamers and apps that you subscribe through your Roku app, as well,” he said.

Katz added that Fox ceded the content creation race to the likes of Disney and Netflix years ago. But claiming this gatekeeper role — Katz called that move a homerun for Fox.