Fox Corporation has agreed to buy Roku, Inc. at $160 per share — a mix of $96 in cash and 0.9693 shares of Fox Class A stock per Roku share — valuing the deal at roughly $22 billion enterprise value, according to a joint press release published June 15, 2026.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027, pending regulatory and shareholder approval. Roku will keep operating independently under Fox ownership, a structural choice intended to preserve its position as a neutral platform — a distinction that matters immediately to roughly 90 million active accounts Roku reported recently.

Lachlan Murdoch, Fox's chief executive, called the acquisition "a defining moment." That language reflects Fox's broader strategy: building a direct path between its sports and news content and the televisions where audiences increasingly watch. Fox owns the NFL broadcast rights, a major 24-hour news channel, and regional sports networks — precisely the live programming that has driven streaming signups and kept households from canceling cable. Owning the operating system (the software layer that controls what apps and channels appear on a TV) means Fox no longer has to negotiate with Roku as a separate company. It controls that relationship directly.

For Roku, the math is straightforward: $160 per share is a notable jump from where its stock had fallen during a slowdown in digital advertising and as competitors like Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, and Samsung's Tizen platform have expanded. Roku's real value to Fox lies in its platform business — the higher-profit side built on advertising revenue and content discovery fees. The hardware (the physical devices Roku sells) exists mainly to distribute that platform.

The cash-and-stock payment structure deserves attention. At roughly 60% cash and 40% Fox stock, Roku shareholders stay invested in the combined company — their interests align with whether the deal actually works out. Fox avoids straining its balance sheet with a purely cash purchase of this size. The Fox stock component also means the effective price will shift with Fox's share price between now and closing, adding some uncertainty for Roku shareholders.

This deal sits within a larger reshuffling of power in streaming and connected TV. The biggest winners are now the companies that control the whole stack: Amazon has Prime Video content, Fire TV hardware, and its own advertising platform. Google controls YouTube content, Google TV, and its ad tools. Apple has Apple TV+ shows, Apple TV hardware, and audience data. Fox is arriving late to this consolidation, but Roku is the largest independent TV operating system in the U.S. by account count — and it gives Fox access to first-party data (direct information about who watches what) that has become rare since the end of third-party cookies and Apple's privacy changes.

What Fox needs to prove is that it can keep Roku genuinely neutral. If viewers and other streaming services notice that Fox content gets special placement on Roku, or that competing news and sports offerings face obstacles, TV manufacturers will accelerate their shift to built-in operating systems they control themselves. That response would undermine the exact value Fox is paying $22 billion for. How Fox balances owning Roku while respecting its role as a platform for all content providers will be the real operational question to watch.

Regulatory approval is another variable. The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission will evaluate whether Fox's vertical integration — owning both content and the distribution layer — raises competitive concerns. No clear regulatory precedent exists yet, so the path to approval carries genuine uncertainty.

The announcement is done. The execution begins now.