# Standalone Fox Channels being dropped from Roku on 1/31/2020



## glrush (Jun 29, 2002)

I received an e-mail from Roku this afternoon saying all standalone Fox channels would be dropped from Roku on 1/31/2020. The link below shows a copy of the e-mail. 3 days before the Super Bowl is not the best time to be announcing this especially when you have been saying you can stream in 4K via Roku.

All Fox channels leaving Roku devices on January 31, 2020 | Streaming Clarity


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## AngryManMLS (Jan 30, 2014)

So what if one already has the Fox Sports app on their Roku? Will it still work come Sunday?


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Wow. I'd been expecting something, but I'm not sure it was this. In March 2019 a deal was completed in which 21st Century Fox shareholders agreed to sell most of its key assets (including 20th Century Fox, 20th Television, and FX Networks) to The Walt Disney Company for $71.3 billion. 

The sale did not include the Fox Broadcasting Company and television stations or the Fox Sports, Fox News, and Fox Business cable channels, which were to be maintained as "New Fox." 

Since then Fox acknowledged that it was placing a larger emphasis on its sports programming iincluding the acquisitions of the NFL's Thursday Night Football package. rights to the FIFA World Cup, and a five year contract for WWE SmackDown.

It sounds like they are restructuring their sports broadcasting and streaming. Maybe we'll learn about it during the Super Bowl?


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Since Fox's statement below reads like statements from a network in a price war with a cable or satellite company, one has to wonder if this is the beginning:

"Earlier today Roku notified their users they intend to remove FOX apps, including FOX Sports, FOX NOW, FOX News, and FOX Nation. We're as surprised - and disappointed - as you! Only Roku can remove our apps from your device, and we've not asked them to do that. Be assured, if there's a disruption, it will be Roku's decision alone. While we work to continue our relationship with Roku, we are happy to keep our apps available to you, and we regret Roku has chosen to threaten your access solely to improve its own business interests."​


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## bflora (Nov 6, 2007)

phrelin said:


> Since Fox's statement below reads like statements from a network in a price war with a cable or satellite company, one has to wonder if this is the beginning:
> 
> "Earlier today Roku notified their users they intend to remove FOX apps, including FOX Sports, FOX NOW, FOX News, and FOX Nation. We're as surprised - and disappointed - as you! Only Roku can remove our apps from your device, and we've not asked them to do that. Be assured, if there's a disruption, it will be Roku's decision alone. While we work to continue our relationship with Roku, we are happy to keep our apps available to you, and we regret Roku has chosen to threaten your access solely to improve its own business interests."​


Mine are still working on ROKU.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

> "Earlier today Roku notified their users they intend to remove FOX apps, including FOX Sports, FOX NOW, FOX News, and FOX Nation. We're as surprised - and disappointed - as you! Only Roku can remove our apps from your device, and we've not asked them to do that. Be assured, if there's a disruption, it will be Roku's decision alone. While we work to continue our relationship with Roku, we are happy to keep our apps available to you, and we regret Roku has chosen to threaten your access solely to improve its own business interests."


That sounds similar to the announcements made when other providers "drop" channels. We have seen similar wording even in cases where we know that the channels are carried under contract and when the contract expires the permission to carry the channels expires. I expect that there is some contract to provide the app that expired.

On Roku was a separate paid subscription or cable subscriber authentication needed to watch the Fox channels or were they free on any Roku?


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## glrush (Jun 29, 2002)

James Long said:


> That sounds similar to the announcements made when other providers "drop" channels. We have seen similar wording even in cases where we know that the channels are carried under contract and when the contract expires the permission to carry the channels expires. I expect that there is some contract to provide the app that expired.
> 
> On Roku was a separate paid subscription or cable subscriber authentication needed to watch the Fox channels or were they free on any Roku?


I have 2 TCL TV's with ROKU and use my DirecTV credentials to watch Fox Sports since I do not have DirecTV hooked up to them directly. I also have a Roku stick hooked up to my home theatre TV (LG OLED ) that I was looking forward to watching the game in 4K and HDR. I can get the game using an OTA and using DirecTV but I did want to see the game in 4K. First world problem I will freely admit, but I will be a little bit bummed if I cannot watch it in 4K.


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## makaiguy (Sep 24, 2007)

glrush said:


> I received an e-mail from Roku this afternoon saying all standalone Fox channels would be dropped from Roku on 1/31/2020.


The dispute is settled. Email received last night:


> Dear Roku Customer,
> We are delighted that we reached an agreement to distribute FOX channels on the Roku platform. This Sunday, you can stream the Super Bowl for free through FOX Now and FOX Sports as well as the NFL channel.
> 
> We hope you enjoy the game!
> ...


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

James Long said:


> On Roku was a separate paid subscription or cable subscriber authentication needed to watch the Fox channels or were they free on any Roku?


I had to do a DIRECTV subscriber authentication to get mine to install.


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## evotz (Jan 23, 2014)

All of this kind of raises more questions than it answers for me.

So do app publishers (like Fox) have to pay Roku in order for their apps (like FoxNow) to appear in the Roku library?

Does Roku charge different amounts for different publishers? Otherwise... how do some of the utterly stupid "apps" get published on Roku?

If there is no charge, then how does Roku push Fox off of the Roku library? Wouldn't that appear to be a decision made by Fox to remove their app from Roku's library?

If the charge is the same for all publishers, then it would seem to me that Fox believed that they should be included on Roku for free or at least a lesser charge.

If Fox is charging Roku for access to their FoxNow app... how is Roku getting any money out of this? Since there's not a subscription service we pay to Roku for the privilege of having access to these apps (other than buying the Roku device). End-users have to have a subscriptions to cable/satellite in order to authenticate onto this platforms to watch content on the FoxNow and other apps.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Roku, Amazon, Samsung, etc., have "apps" much like cable/satellite service providers have channels.

Last fall Amazon.com Inc. and Walt Disney Co. were at loggerheads over terms for carrying the entertainment giant's apps in Amazon's Fire TV devices before they reached a deal in November. Amazon was pushing for the right to sell a substantial percentage of the ad space on Disney apps.

Back around 2010 Fox decided that the typical $2.00 for retransmission-rights which is passed on to viewers really ought to be $5.00. There were disputes galore (i.e. Dish Retrans Dispute with Fox over 50% Hike (Channels Off 10-1-2010) ).

Disney has a tendency to tie the ESPN and Disney channels at a high cost to the retransmission-rights for local ABC channels.

Neither of these companies care about the "working-clase" when it comes to pricing. So when I first read about this, I wondered what the financial issues are.

I have no idea how Roku makes money, but I do know how Fox makes money.

EDIT - From Roku's last quarterly statement:

The Company is organized into two reportable segments as follows:

_Platform_-Consists primarily of fees received from advertising sales, subscription and transaction revenue shares, sales of branded channel buttons on remote controls and licensing arrangements with TV brands and service operators. The Company's first-party video ad inventory includes The Roku Channel, native display ads on home screens and screen savers as well as ad inventory obtained through content publisher agreements. To supplement supply, the Company can re-sell video inventory purchased from content publishers and, to a lesser extent, directly sell third-party inventory on a revenue share basis.

_Player_-Consists primarily of net sales of streaming media players and accessories through retailers and distributors, as well as directly to customers through the Company's website.

On October 22, 2019, the Company announced that it had entered into an agreement and plan of merger to purchase Boston-based dataxu, Inc., a demandside platform (DSP) company that enables marketers to plan and buy video advertising campaigns, for aggregate consideration of approximately $150.0 million consisting of equal parts cash and shares of the Company's Class A Common Stock. The acquisition was consummated on November 8, 2019.​
It's hard to determine from the financials what their goal is, but I have a feeling they are looking hard at the cable TV model. In turn, I expect that the traditional TV nets are probably going to view them that way. On the other hand, I suppose the big content companies could start to sell their own devices so that we will have to have a number of gadgets hooked to our TV's, each with its own interface to learn....


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## 1948GG (Aug 4, 2007)

After all the roku nonsense, it's back working but no 4k for the superbowl, this after working just fine for several previous games. Thanks roku/fox for messing things up.


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