DOJ Closes Antitrust Probe as Fox Completes $22 Billion Roku Deal

By Elena Vasquez

Fox Corp. completed its $22 billion acquisition of Roku on Friday, hours after the Department of Justice closed its antitrust investigation into the deal, finding it "is not likely to result in harm to competition."

The closure came with strings attached. Fox made four binding commitments to the DOJ's Antitrust Division, which had opened a customary review and issued second requests for documentation to both companies in September.

"Consistent with the Division's finding that the transaction is unlikely to result in harm to competition, Fox has committed that Roku will remain an open and neutral content partner post-merger," the DOJ said in its statement.

What did Fox promise the DOJ?

The commitments run on explicit timelines. Fox pledged to:

• Carry non-Fox content on Roku for at least three years, "consistent with historical Roku practice."
• Not "discriminate against non-Fox content" in search results, and continue allowing users to reconfigure app placement on the home screen.
• Provide data products to third parties on commercially reasonable terms consistent with Roku's standard distribution agreement.
• Maintain existing contractual firewall commitments covering competitively sensitive non-Fox content data — including click, search, view and voice data — for at least three years.

The three-year clock starts now, on the day the deal closed.

Why did the DOJ walk away?

The Antitrust Division said it "analyzed whether the proposed merger may harm competition among free, ad-supported streaming providers" and "considered whether Fox might use its control of the Roku platform to disadvantage its content rivals post-merger."

The agency found the risk unsubstantial for structural reasons. "The Division concluded that the entry of free, ad-supported streaming providers would be timely, likely, and sufficient to make a substantial risk of harm to competition unlikely," it said.

The DOJ also cited self-correcting market dynamics: "because Roku relies on a broad offering of content from many providers to attract consumers, the merged firm would suffer monetary and reputational harm if it attempted to use the Roku platform to harm Fox's content rivals. If the merged firm were to degrade the Roku platform, consumers could switch to other connected TV platforms."

The division added that it will "continue to evaluate competition in the industry and may take appropriate action in light of changing facts or circumstances."

What is at stake financially?

The DOJ's logic tracks Roku's balance sheet. In the first nine months of 2026, Roku delivered 23% revenue growth, hitting $4.1 billion in sales — roughly $5.5 billion on an annualized basis. Advertising drove about 49% of that revenue; subscriptions accounted for 40%.

Discriminating against rival content would cut directly into that business. In plain terms: Roku makes most of its money from partners Fox does not own.

Who runs the combined company?

Fox has promised to run Roku as an "open ecosystem" since announcing the agreement in June 2026.

"Beginning today, our top priority for the combined company is to continue to relentlessly serve audiences and partners, while reinforcing the openness and choice that is the essence of the Roku platform," Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement Friday.

Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood joins Fox Corp. as co-chair of Fox Digital Platforms, a newly formed division housing Roku, Tubi, Fox One and Red Seat Ventures. He serves alongside Paul Cheesbrough. The deal's completion also triggers executive departures, including Roku Media president Charlie Collier and Tubi CEO Anjali Sud.

The DOJ's monitoring language leaves the door open to future action, but for now the three-year commitments are the operative constraint on how Fox runs America's most widely distributed streaming platform.