The world of streaming just got a big corporate makeover.
In a press release on Monday, Roku, a major streaming company, announced it would be acquired by Fox for $22 billion. The idea, per the press release, is to combine Fox's extensive media empire (which includes lots of live sports and news content) with Roku's enormous reach as a streaming platform and hardware provider.
Fox and Roku said that Roku's streaming platform, whether it's through built-in operating systems on smart TVs or external hardware, reaches 100 million households globally.
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This deal will give Fox the third-largest share of the U.S. television market, per the release.
This acquisition makes a lot of sense for Fox, as the media giant has a huge audience across live sports and news, but aside from Tubi (which it acquired in 2020), Fox's streaming footprint hasn't been especially large to this point. Many people use Roku's operating system and devices, and Fox might be able to drive viewership to things like baseball games, NASCAR races, or live news coverage using its newfound streaming reach.
However, between this deal and the still-in-flux merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, it does increasingly feel like everything is owned by a total of three or four companies.