Fox has bid for Roku an amount that its catalogue and profit cannot explain. According to the announcement, it will pay about $22 billion. It gains the operating system of the TV, a direct relationship with viewers and their data, meaning advertising infrastructure it could never have built itself.
“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,” said Lachlan Murdoch, executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation, according to Variety.
Terms of the deal
Fox is offering $160 per Roku share, consisting of $96 in cash and 0.9693 of a Class A Fox share for each Roku share. According to Variety, the cash component of the deal amounts to roughly $14.2 billion. After closing, Fox’s existing shareholders will own about 73% of the combined company, and Roku’s shareholders about 27%.
For the cash portion, Fox has secured $12 billion of fully underwritten bridge financing. After closing, the combined company’s net debt is expected to reach about 2.8 times adjusted EBITDA, and Fox expects around $400 million in annual cost synergies. Both boards approved the deal unanimously. Closing is expected in the first half of 2027, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.
What Fox is paying for
Roku is not a content company in itself. Its value lies in the operating system that runs on TVs and streaming devices, and in the direct relationship with the viewer. According to Fox, the platform reaches more than 100 million streaming households globally and more than half of US broadband households. Each of them generates first-party data about what is watched and when.
Combining Tubi, which Fox owns, with The Roku Channel will create one of the largest free, ad-supported streaming television services (FAST) in the United States. The combined company would rank third in US television by audience share.
Roku reported revenue of $4.74 billion for 2025, up 15% year on year, according to Variety, but its profit remains thin. The price of the deal is not set by the income statement. It is set by the data and control over the entry screen.
“I'm incredibly proud of what our team has built, and the combination with FOX is an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate our vision, scale faster and innovate more aggressively for viewers, partners and advertisers,” said Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku, according to Variety. Advertisers come last in that sentence, yet they are the reason the deal makes sense.
Amazon, The Trade Desk and control of the screen
Amazon has already shown this logic in the market. It owns the Fire TV operating system, the Prime Video service and an advertising platform, and it links them with data on purchases and viewing. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Amazon increased its advertising revenue by 22% year on year, and it uses full control of the screen and the data to advertise across its services. A standalone advertising platform cannot catch up with that advantage.
The Trade Desk is defending this position. In November 2024 it introduced its own TV operating system, Ventura, which works independently of content ownership and competes directly with platforms such as Roku or Fire TV. “This innovation has to come in the OS, and it has to come from a company that brings the objectivity of not owning any streaming TV content,” said Jeff Green, CEO and founder of The Trade Desk.
By acquiring Roku, Fox is taking exactly the opposite position to that thesis. It will own content, the operating system and the data at the same time.
Impact on the European advertising market
For a European advertiser, this deal is not a distant American story. Tubi launched its UK version in July 2024 and, in its first year and a half, expanded its catalogue to almost 75,000 films and episodes.
In a press release dated 5 February 2026, Tubi says its UK arm recorded the fastest catalogue growth in 2025 of any free, ad-supported streaming platform in Europe. “Tubi's free and premium library is reaching incremental, younger audiences and proving there is strong demand for an ad-supported model in this highly competitive market,” said Ross Appleton, director of Tubi UK.
Under the combined company, Europe’s FAST ad inventory and American first-party data would come under one roof. For a media director buying CTV advertising, the map of suppliers changes. Alongside Amazon, Google and platforms such as Samsung or LG, another large seller of advertising with its own screen and data is joining the field.
Until the deal passes US regulatory approval, Roku remains a separate company, and Fox promises to run it as an open platform for partners. How open the company will remain to competing advertisers, once it owns content, the screen and viewer data, will only become clear once it is operating after closing.
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