Fox to Pay $22 Billion
in Roku Purchase

| published June 15, 2026 |

By Thursday Review staff

In a massive deal announced Monday, media giant Fox Corporation will buy Roku for $22 billion, giving Fox a roughly 73% stake in Roku in a agreement which will include both cash and stock.

Roku is a leading streaming service now used by some 100 million homes in North America, and cable and TV giant Fox hopes to take advantage of those homes which use Roku as their primary entertainment platform.

The deal is profitable for investors in Roku since the proposed merger includes a $96 offer for each share of stock and approximately 0.97 Class A shares of Fox.

Fox’s buyout of Roku was, in CEO Lachlan Murdoch’s words, a “defining moment” for Fox. Murdoch said that the deal would be an inherently positive merger of Fox’s powerful entertainment catalog and line-up, with Roku’s “preeminent streaming” platform. The deal was also the first major business play by Fox after a long and complex internal fight and family legal battle for control of the company after founder Rupert Murdoch (Lachlan’s father) became chairman emeritus, and after the company rebranded from its predecessor names: News Corp and 20th Century Fox. In 2019 Fox sold off some of its film and television studios to Disney for $71 billion.

Roku has been one of the early pioneers of streaming services for television and movies, and it was Roku that made it possible for companies like Netflix and You Tube—as well as the hundreds of other streaming networks and programming platforms—to reach millions of American homes.

From its earliest days, Roku was poised to exploit the rampant cord-cutting as many consumers exited the traditional cable only access model and began using streaming services. Roku also worked carefully to stay abreast of changes in smart TV technologies.

The Fox offer of $22 billion to gain control of Roku is part of an ongoing merger trend as the major companies vie for dominance in a rapidly-evolving and shifting TV and entertainment market. Just last week federal agencies cleared the way for Paramount-Skydance to complete its buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery, a $110 billion deal which would be the largest of its kind in U.S. history. The sale of Warner Bros. Discovery has been a source of contention at CBS and CBS News, where there are concerns that the new parents of CBS are weighing-in heavily on news content in an attempt to shape reporting into something more favorable of President Donald Trump.

According to some business analysts, Fox’s buyout of Roku will increase Fox’s existing debts by about $8.3 billion, though many of those same analysts agree Fox will quickly reap the rewards of Roku’s powerful streaming services. On the Monday of the announcement, Fox stock dropped by about 15%, though this was seen as a probable short-term response to the debt.

According to press releases by both companies, board support for the merger was unanimous. Fox already owns the Fox broadcast network and its programming, along with top-rated Fox News and cable channel Fox Business, along with significant rights to Major League Baseball, college sports, and Fox’s share of NFL broadcast rights. Fox also owns streaming channel Tubi, TMZ, Big Ten Network, and principal or outright ownership of 28 local Fox television stations (including KTTV in Los Angeles, WTTG in Washington, D.C., WNYW in New York City, and WOFL in Orlando-Daytona.

The Fox buyout of Roku is also indicative of the deeper goals of both sides of the equation: Fox wants viewers and access to more homes; Roku is embracing ad-supported programming and slowly walking away from the original streaming model of pay-per-service. Ad-supported streaming has become the more greatly-desired outcome for all the major players.


Related Thursday Review articles:

Scott Pelley Out of CBS Evening News Post; Thursday Review staff; Thursday Review; June 19, 2017.

Washington Post to Cut 300 Staffers; By R. Alan Clanton, Thursday Review editor; February 4, 2026.