Last year, Roku turned a lot of heads at Cannes with its seemingly game-changing ad deal with Amazon.
This year, it one-upped itself by finally selling – to Fox.
While Roku had been a real and rumored acquisition target for years – the speed of this deal, and the fact that it was Fox, definitely caused a few eyeballs to pop as the industry preps for its annual pilgrimage to the South of France. While we all continue to digest this one, here are some questions that come to mind:
Is this an ad tech deal, or a distribution deal? Or an ad sales deal?
Roku pulled in $4.7 billion last year. Thatโs a nice business. But on its own, itโs not a transformative one – so presumably, Fox is going to look to enhance the value of its assets. Does that mean pushing Fox shows and services more on Rokuโs home screen? Fox swears that Roku will maintain its neutrality. โBut what happens when they have a rough quarter and they are in a board meeting?โ asked Victoria Bieler, veteran media and industry analyst. โI worry they start to push their own shows or services, and make things worse for consumers.โ Bieler noted that in her view, Samsung has pushed its own FAST channels on its users – and they arenโt pleased.
Right now, Rokuโs platform monetization is where its biggest growth has been – in part because Roku owns both the tech and the data. It takes a cut from its media partners ad sales and subscription sales. Bieler thinks that Fox/Roku will emphasize selling its FAST channels, and maybe othersโ FAST inventory. โThey are all undersold.โ
Do Tubi and The Roku Channel (aff) combine brands?
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As many have noted, Tubi and the Roku channel (aff) are the clear winners in the free ad-supported race this side of YouTube. This combination will give Fox a healthy 5.2 percent of streaming, per Nielsen. While Tubi and the Roku channel have a lot of similar (old shows and movies) content – there are some distinctions. Is it worth maintaining both? Hereโs guessing Tubi wins out.
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But,…