It's time to dump Roku
![]()
![]()
![]()
By this time next year, Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch intends to have added Roku to his already expansive media empire. Should the acquisition go through, Fox will gain control of Roku's modest library of original programming, and the newly combined company will become "the third-largest player in U.S. television" in terms of viewing share. But the most significant thing that Murdoch buys with this deal is direct access to the 100 million households that make up Roku's user base.
It's precisely because Roku and Fox are very different kinds of companies that a merger between the two could have a major impact on our modern media landsca β¦
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 platfor β¦
Fox Corporation has agreed to buy Roku Inc. for $160 per share, an approximate enterprise value of $22 billion, the firms announced today.
The acquisition would unite Foxβs broadcast channels, including Fox, Fox News, Fox Business, and FS1, as well as its streaming businesses, including Tubi, a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) platform that Fox bought in 2020, with Rokuβs own FAST service, The Roku Channel, and Rokuβs streaming hardware business, including its streaming sticks and smart TVs. Roku says it has 100 million households using its platform.
The most valuable part of Rokuβs business isn't its hardware, which lost $19.1 million in the quarter ending March 31, 2026, but its the operating system (Roku OS) and advertising business. In that same quarter, Rokuβs advertising and subscriptions business posted a gross profit of $584.1 million, with the advertising business pulling in $371 million in revenue. The COVID-19 pandemic helped Roku become profitable in 2021, but the company didnβt see annual profitability again until 2025.


Β© Getty
![]()
Fox has announced that it's acquiring Roku outright, in a deal that values the streaming company at $22 billion. Once the deal is complete, Fox content will be promoted more heavily than before on Roku streamers and smart TVs.
The deal will see Fox's TV networks and Tubi streamer combine with Roku's network of streaming devices, smart TV software, and The Roku Channel. The companies say in a press release that by combining they'll become the third-largest player in the US TV industry by viewing share.
"This is a defining moment for Fox, and a natural extension of the deliberate and focused strategy we have been executing for nearly a decad β¦
![]()
In 2026, Marvel and Mattel are both releasing projects designed to capitalize on people's love for iconic animated heroes from their childhoods. Masters of the Universe has put a live-action He-Man on the big screen, and the second season of X-Men '97 is about to fling some of Charles Xavier's mutants into an apocalyptic future. Both projects were clearly made by people who love the source material, and they are similarly filled with nerdy Easter eggs meant to get hardcore fans hyped up. X-Men '97 and Masters of the Universe are both nostalgia plays, but the biggest difference between the two - and arguably the reason one of them hasn't been β¦
![]()
This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.
Severance. Pachinko. Silo. Ted Lasso. Over the past couple of years, a number of Apple TV shows have become hits with audiences and critics alike. And yet, compared to the size of other subscription services, Apple TV still barely makes a dent.
In Nielsen's most recent The Gauge report, Apple's service failed once again to make the top 10 list of most-used streaming services, suggesting that its audience is smaller than not just that of Netflix and Disney Plus, but also Tubi, H β¦
YouTube is reintroducing private messaging after testing new ways for users to share videos and "have conversations about them" last year. In an announcement on its official blog, YouTube says it's now starting to expand the in-app video sharing and messaging feature to users in the US and "other global regions" who are 18 or older.
The video sharing platform had previously introduced private messaging in 2017, before discontinuing it just two years later to focus on public conversations like the Instagram-like Stories feature - which it also killed in 2023. When it started testing its latest in-app messaging capabilities in November 2025, β¦
If you've uploaded a song to YouTube, Google almost certainly considers your video fair game for training its Lyria music AI, it just won't admit it right now.
A group of independent musicians is suing Google, claiming that it illegally used songs they uploaded to YouTube to train its Lyria 3 model. Google has filed a motion to dismiss the case, saying:
Their lawsuit is based on the unsupported hypothesis that Google trained on their specific works. Even accepting their untested allegations as fact, the Complaint cannot stand. Plaintiffs each granted YouTube, and Google - which provides the service-a broad license to use the uploaded con β¦
Paramount Skydance is accusing Netflix of maintaining a campaign against its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).
In a June 5 letter (PDF) addressed to Jared A. Hughes, acting section chief of the Media, Entertainment, and Communications Section of the US Department of Justice's (DOJ's) Antitrust Division, and A. Maya Kahn, a trial attorney for the Antitrust Division, and first reported on by Politico today, Paramount chief legal officer Makan Delrahim accused Netflix of trying to influence stakeholders about the merger. The letter reads:
Indeed, Netflixβs panic-level response and scorched-earth campaign to try and poison regulators and other stakeholders against the Transaction shows just how seriously Netflix takes Paramount as a scaled competitor.
The letter from Delrahim, a former assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division, is a response to a letter that The International Brotherhood of Teamsters sent to the DOJ in March. The teamsters' letter argued that Paramount and WBD's merger would threaten film and TV workers. The union, which has 1.3 million members, asked the DOJ to block the merger "unless substantial and enforceable safeguards are put in place to increase domestic production and protect jobs," per an announcement from the group.


Β© Mike Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times