While Fox Corp. announced it was buying Roku for $22
billion -- a major shock to many industry professionals -- perhaps the long-term consequence comes in readdressing the whole idea of it as an old-style "vertical" media company when it comes to
distribution and content.
We all know about Roku’s rapid growth when it comes to viewing and advertising revenue on its platform. But its business revolves around an increasing
benefit from subscription revenues -- ad-free and otherwise -- that may yield a more in-depth view.
Antenna estimates that the number of consumers buying U.S. subscriptions through
all of Roku's entry points, including Roku Apps or The Roku Channel, have increased rapidly -- up 40% versus overall U.S. subscription growth of 16%.
As of May 2026, Roku
accounted for 24.4 million subscriptions -- a 4.5% share of the whole market, or roughly 540 million to total 550 million total active U.S. subscriptions.
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What does this mean
for Fox Corp.? It gives it a strong position in the streaming marketplace -- of a different sort than, say, pulling in new viewing and advertising revenue from its own Fox One streaming platform.
For sure, Roku has seen its own major growth in advertising for its platform -- which includes securing ad-share revenues from streaming platforms as part of its carriage deals.
Analysts estimate Roku takes roughly a 20% to 40% cut of subscription fees when users sign up for services directly through its operating system. Overall, 2025 "platform" revenue at
Roku -- advertising and subscriptions -- amounted to $4.15 billion.
The fact that Fox Corp. looks to have a significant position in the distribution-revenue business makes it more of
a disappearing media-style distribution fee/TV network content company.
Think Comcast Corp. (cable operations, NBCUniversal), which has announced it is splitting up the
company. That said, Walt Disney is continuing in its effort to an extent -- Disney-ABC TV networks and Hulu + Live TV.
Old-school is increasingly now more new school.
Long term, we wonder
which competitors will be getting schooled?