Lachlan Murdoch onstage during the FOX UPFRONT 2026 presentation at New York City Center on May 11, 2026. ” width=”970″ height=”742″ data-caption=’Lachlan Murdoch onstage during the FOX UPFRONT 2026 presentation at New York City Center on May 11, 2026. <span class=”lazyload media-credit”>FOX via Getty Images</span>’>
Fox is poised to strengthen its position in the ad-supported streaming market. On Monday, the media company led by Lachlan Murdoch announced it would acquire smart TV firm Roku for $22 billion, or $160 a share (about 14 percent above Roku’s current market price) in a cash-and-stock deal. The transaction, expected to close next year, would combine Fox’s sports, news and entertainment programming and the Tubi platform with Roku’s connected TV ecosystem and the Roku Channel. The merger would create the third-largest streaming platform in the U.S., according to Market Chalemon, furthering Murdoch’s vision for Fox’s “next chapter” following the 2019 sale of its entertainment assets to Disney.
The acquisition would also give Fox access to Roku’s more than 100 million global streaming households. That reach complements Tubi’s more than 100 million monthly active users worldwide, a scale Fox has built since acquiring the platform in 2020.
In recent years, the entertainment industry has been shaped by a wave of mergers and acquisitions, from the Paramount-Skydance deal to the battle for Warner Bros. Discovery between Paramount and Netflix.
Against the backdrop of the streaming wars and the continued decline of traditional cable and pay-TV subscribers, Roku represents a strategic move for Fox to stay competitive. With direct access to first-party viewer data across more than 100 million households, Fox could deliver more personalized ads, particularly as live sports continue to grow in value. eMarketer projects that connected TV (CTV) ad spend will reach $47 billion by 2028, surpassing linear TV, while Nielsen has reported that both Roku and Tubi have surpassed services like Peacock and HBO Max in viewership.
According to both companies, Fox and Roku “are committed to continuing to operate Roku as an open, partner-friendly platform” and expect to maintain the “ubiquitous” distribution of Fox content.
“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,” Lachlan Murdoch, CEO and executive chair of Fox Corp., said in a statement.
Murdoch noted that since 2019, Fox has reoriented its business around live news and sports, alongside its 2020 acquisition of Tubi, which has grown into one of the company’s most successful streaming businesses.
He added that the combination will “transform” the company’s scale into high-growth verticals and “yield a step change” in its overall growth profile. Fox reported $3.99 billion in revenue for the January–March quarter, down from $4.37 billion a year earlier, with net income of $175 million. Despite a decline in advertising revenue, Tubi’s revenue rose 23 percent, and total viewing time increased 19 percent, driven by its catalog of creator-led titles and Tubi originals. Meanwhile, Roku reported $1.25 billion in revenue for the March quarter, up from $1.02 billion a year earlier.
Roku founder, chairman and CEO Anthony Wood, who is expected to remain involved with the combined company and join Fox’s board following the deal’s close, said he was “incredibly proud” of what his team has built, adding that combining with Fox “is an is an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate our vision, scale faster and innovate more aggressively for viewers, partners and advertisers.”
