Roku to be Bought by Fox

You know, the movie, “Network,” really called a lot of things decades in advance, didn’t it? Mega corporations controlling all of politics, smaller entities being swallowed up by bigger ones, and the rise of a news media that relies more on sensationalism and scaring viewers than informing them. Whenever I read certain kinds of announcements, I think of, “Network." Seeing that Fox (the chunk not owned by Disney) plans to buy Roku for 22 billion smackers definitely sparked memories of that flick. Netflix was going to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery until Paramount's unending effort to undo that and be the one who acquired WBD resulted in Netflix calling it a day and letting them do it. Now Fox can buy Roku and use it as a way to push their sports broadcasts and so-called, "Fox News," channel into more homes.

The usual claims have been made about how nothing-to-very-little will change, so everyone should just remain calm. Too often, a company finds itself acquired by another, and within a short period of time, a lot changes, despite claims that won't happen. I will forever be contrite about my post claiming Amazon buying Comixology wouldn't, "Be a big deal." I guess I should've predicted a small number of years later, Amazon would kill the service and rip out any useful parts to use in other projects like some kind of Frankenstein's monster-meets-zombie-cyborg. Perhaps I'm worrying too much, and everything will be fine. Oh, speaking of, "Fine," the beloved gaming studio Double Fine Productions, which was bought out and acquired by Microsoft in 2018/2019 or so, might be shut down. The Xbox brand went on a buying spree only to realize its metaphorical account was Hellishly overdrawn, I suppose. Big corporations, they don't have to balance a budget like regular folks!

Ned Beatty as Arthur Jensen in, "Network."

In closing, Fox plans to buy Roku, everything is going to work out fine, and the billionaires (plus, now one trillionaire) surely have the best interests of everyone else on their minds as this all happens. Right? I'd like to think everything is going to be okay with Roku, because I really like the Roku televisions and would prefer they don't suddenly all shut down and turn into a big worthless monitor screen with zero other capabilities in the future due to some other merger/sale/acquisition/whatever. To return to, "Network," Ned Beatty as Arthur Jensen put it well when he said, "The World is a Corporation."