Credit: Glenn Carstens-Peters via Unsplash
Fox Corporation’s $31 billion takeover of Roku, could prove a major change for the Australian advertising market, industry analysts say.
The acquisition will give the American broadcaster access to Roku's connected TV platform, The Roku Channel, and its first-party data.
“The Fox-Roku deal is quite possibly one of the biggest shake-ups in streaming we have seen in years,” client solutions director at Yango, Natalie Clark, told AdNews.
“Obviously, Roku isn’t a stranger here, so there is existing awareness for them as they re-enter the market.
“However, coming in with Fox means they’re entering with a stronger offering this time around, particularly in live sports and news, positioning themselves as a serious competitor for the likes of Kayo and Stan.
“With strong infrastructure and valuable first-party data, Roku presents an attractive opportunity for advertisers.
“If it can bring its proven US targeting and measurement capabilities to the Australian market, it could become a significant new player in the video advertising landscape.”
“From an agency perspective, our job is to follow audiences and deliver outcomes for clients. If Fox-Roku can demonstrate scale and measurement rigour in the Australian market, it will absolutely earn a place in media plans.”
Phil McDonald, CEO at BCM Group, was more skeptical.
“What Australia doesn’t need right now is another streaming service. Consumers are already suffering from extreme streaming fatigue and are getting resentful that they have to pay premium fees to access a fractured content system,” McDonald told AdNews.
“And they are now getting served all manner of advertising for the privilege.
“The barrier to entry is high in this market for a new streaming service like Fox/Roku. For one, the real content value lies in the major sporting rights like NRL, AFL, cricket, and to a lesser degree, international football and rugby.
“The NRL negotiations are running their course now, so that horse is close to bolted, and the AFL rights are locked away with Seven and Foxtel until 2031.”
Robert Ong, Managing Director, AdUnion, said the future implications of the deal lie less with streaming content and more with hardware access.
“While I can see the obvious logic behind the deal for the US market, the implications for Australia are less certain," Ong told AdNews.
“Fundamentally, Roku's strength is owning the platform, both the hardware and OS, with 100 million households, the vast majority of those being in the US.
“In Australia, established players already have a significant share and are well entrenched due to being hardware owners or large tech companies, such as Samsung, LG webOS, Google TV, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Fetch.
“While Roku has a presence here, its share is marginal, and I don't see how this acquisition materially changes the game on this front."
Ong said it was more likely Fox used Roku as a courier for boosting Tubi’s Australian presence, rather than introducing Roku streaming here.
“What is more probable is seeing whether this deal gives Tubi the content muscle and platform integration to meaningfully compete," he said.
“With the addition of Roku's original content library plus FOX's sport, news and entertainment content - this could make Tubi a more significant player in the Australian streaming landscape.
“Importantly, Foxtel/DAZN currently act as a major content licensing and distribution partner for FOX content, an arrangement built on long-term exclusivity rather than simple licensing.
“So should FOX choose to go down this path it would be an ominous sign for Binge, which only last year lost its access to HBO content and can ill afford another blow to its content proposition.
“The real story isn't whether FOX can crack the Australian CTV hardware market - it can't. It's whether a supercharged Tubi starts eating into the subscriber bases of other more established platforms.”
Ben Willee, executive director - media and data at Spinach Advertising, said the Australian approach wouldn’t hedge on streaming, but on Roku’s data capture.
“Fox's bet is that owning the customer relationship, audience data, and advertising platform could be worth more than owning another TV channel,” Willee told AdNews.
“For Australia, the immediate impact is likely to be modest because Roku is not a big player. However, the strategic message is significant.
"Retailers have shown that customer data can be valuable, and media companies are now chasing the same prize. In modern media, the profits increasingly go to whoever owns the checkout, not the people selling the products.
“It's a bit like discovering the real money in the gold rush wasn't made by the miners, but by the people selling the shovels.”
Katy Lozancic, general manager at Pearman, said the diversified data angle could create a compelling story for advertisers, “but they’ll still need to fit into pretty established viewing habits here.
“Where it could get interesting locally is whether this adds another layer of fragmentation, or actually helps simplify how people access content," she told AdNews.
“From an advertising perspective, the combination of platform data with high attention environments like sport and news is pretty powerful.
“That’s where you start to see more premium, addressable opportunities, rather than just adding more inventory into the market.”
Brady Lyon, investment director at The Media Store, said the acquisition could strengthen Fox's position in Australia’s growing "home screen" advertising market.
“We've seen substantial growth in the 'home screen' market, as brands look to drive reach and influence in an increasingly fragmented video market. An increase in audience of this size will create substantial advertiser demand for FOX overseas," Lyon told AdNews.
"A launch in Australia would be bold given the high level of smart TV ownership across the country - ACMA reported that as of June 2025, 84% of us own a smart television.
"With Roku requiring an additional device or Roku-integrated TV to be purchased, the content offering, and its appeal to Australian audiences, will be critical to gaining any traction in market.
"Previously, Hubbl failed to gain traction in market off the back of a massive marketing push, resulting in it being placed in 'maintenance mode'.
"While this isn't a fair comparison given the international content offering of Roku, it demonstrates that the initial migration of devices to match consumer streaming behaviour has already happened."
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