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Roku kept its streaming engines blazing in the second quarter of 2026 with earnings that blew past Wall Street estimates.
The company reported Q2 revenue of $1.35 billion, up 22%, topping Wall Street estimates of $1.3 billion.
Net income came in at a quarterly record high of $164.2 million (vs. net income of $10.5 million a year ago), translating to diluted earnings per share of $1.08 — double what analysts were expecting. Roku’s free cash flow for the trailing 12 months was $704 million, also a record high.
The earnings report is the company’s first after Fox Corp. in mid-June announced a deal to buy Roku for $22 billion, which is expected to close in the first half of calendar year 2027. Citing the pending Fox deal, Roku said it will not host an earnings call and that it is not providing financial guidance.
“We believe our scale, platform strategy, and financial strength position Roku to continue leading the evolution of TV streaming while delivering sustainable, long-term growth,” founder, chairman and CEO Anthony Wood and CFO/COO Dan Jedda wrote in Roku’s Q2 letter to shareholders. “Our pending acquisition by Fox is an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate our vision, allowing us to scale faster and innovate more aggressively for viewers, partners and advertisers.”
Following the close of the Fox acquisition, Wood will have an ongoing role at the combined company and will join the Fox board.
For Q2, Roku’s Platform revenue increased 25%, to $1.22 billion, with gross margin of 53.0%. The top line included ad sales of $673 million (up 25%) and subscription revenue of $548 million (a 26% increase).
Total hours streamed across Roku platforms — to its base of more than 100 million households — was 37.9 billion in Q2, an increase of 7% year over year.
This April, Roku raised its full-year 2026 outlook for adjusted EBITDA to $675 million (up from $635 million previously) and projected net income of $360 million. The company expects Platform revenue to grow nearly 21% to $5.0 billion with Devices revenue of $535 million, for total net revenue of around $5.5 billion, which would be up 16% versus 2025.
On Fox Corp.’s earnings call earlier Thursday, CEO Lachlan Murdoch reiterated his rationale for the deal.
“Roku brings up streaming at scale through its open, partner-friendly platform that makes it a leading TV streaming platform in the U.S.,” Murdoch said. “Together, Fox and Roku combine premium live content, deep market relationships, scale distribution and leading platform capabilities, including subscriptions, to respond to the evolving needs of consumers and advertisers.”
Fox CFO Steve Tomsic noted that Fox expects the combined company to have a pro-forma net leverage ratio of approximately 2.8x (net debt divided by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). As such, Tomsic said, “the structure of that deal gives us an incredible amount of capital allocation flexibility so you should expect that our [stock] buyback program continues unabated through the pendency of the transaction and beyond.”
Under the terms of the deal, Fox will pay $96.00 per share in cash (about $14.2 billion) and offer 0.9693 shares of Fox Class A common stock for each Roku Class A and Class B share outstanding. Upon closing, existing Fox shareholders are expected to own approximately 73% of the combined company and legacy Roku shareholders will hold approximately 27%.
Fox Corp. had owned a 5% stake in Roku but sold that in 2020 when it bought Tubi for $440 million.
