Fox wants to take over your TV — and the tech inside it | The Verge
Overview
Tech Expand Amazon Apple Facebook Google Microsoft Samsung Business See all tech
Reviews Expand Smart Home Reviews Phone Reviews Tablet Reviews Headphone Reviews See all reviews
Details
Science Expand Space Energy Environment Health See all science
Entertainment Expand TV Shows Movies Audio See all entertainment
Policy Expand Antitrust Politics Law Security See all policy
Gadgets Expand Laptops Phones TVs Headphones Speakers Wearables See all gadgets
Verge Shopping Expand Buying Guides Deals Gift Guides See all shopping
Streaming Expand Disney HBONetflix You Tube Creators See all streaming
Transportation Expand Electric Cars Autonomous Cars Ride-sharing Scooters See all transportation
Streaming Close Streaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Streaming
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Entertainment Close Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Entertainment
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Report Close Report Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Report
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Fox wants to take over your TV — and the tech inside it
Fox’s $22 billion acquisition of Roku will come with a trove of data about what you’re watching.
Fox’s $22 billion acquisition of Roku will come with a trove of data about what you’re watching.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Fox is about to take over the TVs in more than 100 million homes worldwide. On Monday, Fox announced that it’s acquiring Roku, the streaming middleman that serves as a portal for viewers to hop into services like Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, and more. The $22 billion deal may not change Roku’s familiar purple interface, but it could put Fox in control of your data behind the screen.
During a call with investors, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said the plan is to keep the two companies separate. Fox aims to grow its business by adding Fox Sports, news content, and local stations to Roku — one of the most popular streaming device and smart TV platforms. “I would expect that we can grow our viewership in the US with a combination of Roku technology, Roku’s platform, the tremendous content that’s on the Roku channel, and the content that Fox brings to it as well,” Murdoch said.
Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood, who will have a role at the combined company after the deal closes in 2027, echoed this idea, saying that the streaming platform would feature Fox content on its homescreen, which currently shows a large marquee ad, along with a carousel filled with suggested shows and movies. “Most items on the homescreen are personalized in the sense that we decide what to show a customer based on what they’re most likely to watch, what they’re most likely to buy,” Wood told investors. “Having more properties that generate more revenue — and being able to decide when to promote them and when not to promote them — will result in overall more revenue being generated by the homescreen.”
The multibillion-dollar deal may not result in an obvious branding change for Roku, but it may raise alarm bells for the people paying attention to the recent wave of media acquisitions that have put the Trump-friendly Ellison family in charge of Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, CBS News, and, to an extent, Tik Tok. Lachlan Murdoch, who took the reins of Fox and its Trump-aligned news network last year, also owns The Wall Street Journal parent company News Corp. “In the Trump era, these deals have huge political implications that really need to be focused on,” Jeff Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a nonprofit digital rights and consumer protection organization, tells The Verge. “Perhaps people will get the message that this is not just a media deal, this is the further political alignment of US media assets into MAGA-friendly hands.”
Roku offers a limited amount of original content through The Roku Channel, its free, ad-supported streaming (FAST) service, which directly competes with Fox’s own FAST service, Tubi. Despite the similarities between both services, Murdoch told investors that one-third of Tubi viewers overlap with the people watching The Roku Channel. “Bring the two of them together, [and it] effectively triples the reach of the combined service,” Murdoch said. “It’s too early to say, but our expectation is fully to keep the services separate. They serve consumers or viewers in different ways.”
Roku has begun dabbling in paid subscriptions, too, with the acquisition of the
Roku’s solution to streaming decision fatigue is a trivia game
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Roku is now like, ‘Okay, well, now let’s go look at some content we think worked great for our platform, and we have the backing to do it,”’ Rayburn says.
As we saw with Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox may not see much pushback from federal regulators. “In the US … I don’t think there’ll be any regulatory review,” Rayburn says, while casting doubt on an inquiry from the European Union, where Roku and Fox have a smaller footprint. That hands-off approach from regulators could pave the way for the deal to close next year.
Emma Roth Close Emma Roth News Writer Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Emma Roth
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Entertainment Close Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Entertainment
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Report Close Report Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Report
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Streaming Close Streaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Streaming
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Google Earth’s flight simulator is now available in your browser
Key Takeaways
- Tech Expand Amazon Apple Facebook Google Microsoft Samsung Business See all tech
- Reviews Expand Smart Home Reviews Phone Reviews Tablet Reviews Headphone Reviews See all reviews
- Science Expand Space Energy Environment Health See all science
- Entertainment Expand TV Shows Movies Audio See all entertainment
- Policy Expand Antitrust Politics Law Security See all policy
