​Fox Sports appears to have gained a meaningful boost from its parent company’s acquisition of Roku, strengthening its argument to leagues such as the NFL and MLB. While Fox Corp.’s scale remains smaller than Disney’s ESPN and the major streaming platforms like Netflix, YouTube, and Prime Video, the long-standing broadcaster of NFL Sundays, the World Series, and prominent college football should be able to leverage the Roku deal to enhance its advertising business and overall distribution reach.
In an appearance on Awful Announcing’s podcast, The Play-By-Play LIVE, CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo outlined Fox’s strategy with the Roku deal and suggested that leagues themselves will need to “lean in” to more innovative distribution models that Fox could soon offer by combining its linear and cable networks with Roku Channel, Tubi, and the Fox One app. The most immediate upside, she said, lies in advertising. “Advertising is what’s really propelling so much of this,” she noted. “You’re striking these massive sports rights deals, so how do you recoup the costs? You’ll do it through advertising, not just for the Super Bowl but across the entire portfolio. I think that will be powerful for Fox as they now have a larger advertising engine operating between their own properties and Roku.”
Fox will still need to figure out how to integrate Roku Channel and Tubi within its broader Fox flywheel. “I’m curious how Tubi and the Roku Channel will work together. They each have substantial audiences, but they’re reaching different kinds of viewers,” Rizzo said. “Tubi is more on-demand, while Roku Channel tends to carry more channel-style content, which aligns with a sports experience. The sheer power of that homepage is likely to yield results. You can already see it on other platforms, and Fox is expanding the Fox One app as well. I don’t think they want to upend the traditional bundle, but they were late to recognizing the need to do something.”
Many observers point to the “Roku City” homepage on Roku devices as a key contributor to Fox’s value proposition. Rizzo agrees, though she stresses that league buy-in—especially from the NFL—will be crucial to recognizing the full value and to carving out rights elements that capitalize on it. She notes that more media and tech firms are building platforms for live sports, and early movers could be rewarded.
“I have to believe that, beyond the platform’s front-and-center presence, it’s something to bring to leagues with the question, ‘We have this new platform that draws these viewers; what can we do within our billion-dollar deals to make this more attractive and drive higher viewership?’” she said.