Fox’s $22B Roku acquisition aims to expand its reach into smart TVs, advertising
- Thread starter JournalBot
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Well this is disappointing. I'll probably wait for Apple to announce the new AppleTV in September and make the switch.
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So not only will Roku TV users have ads but they'll have ads to support the new Trump super project and won't be able click away. Remember: YOU MUST CONSUME
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I guess this is the part of Fox that was NOT bought by Disney (since Fox News was mentioned and I specifically recall that was excluded from the Disney deal), and is still owned and controlled by the Murdoch family?
It might finally be time to get rid of my Roku sticks. . . They've been enshittifying for years, and now they are selling out to Fox?
I don't want to put a single penny in the Murdoch bank account or portfolio market cap.
It might finally be time to get rid of my Roku sticks. . . They've been enshittifying for years, and now they are selling out to Fox?
I don't want to put a single penny in the Murdoch bank account or portfolio market cap.
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I am finally motivated enough to figure out how to install and configure pi hole on my home network.
https://www.andrewdenty.com/blog/2022/03/13/installing-pi-hole-on-windows-11.html
I currently have a Roku device attached to each TV in my multi-generational household, and have been a largely-happy customer for over a decade. Now I need to figure out how to maintain the value from my existing hardware purchases while mitigating the negative impact of this hostile-to-me takeover, while also planning for replacement devices when the current generation starts to fail.
FFS.
https://www.andrewdenty.com/blog/2022/03/13/installing-pi-hole-on-windows-11.html
I currently have a Roku device attached to each TV in my multi-generational household, and have been a largely-happy customer for over a decade. Now I need to figure out how to maintain the value from my existing hardware purchases while mitigating the negative impact of this hostile-to-me takeover, while also planning for replacement devices when the current generation starts to fail.
FFS.
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"....continued ubiquitous distribution of Fox content..."
Yeah, that's just what we all need right now--more continued ubiquitous distribution of Fox content.
Yeah, that's just what we all need right now--more continued ubiquitous distribution of Fox content.
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Thank fuck. I was starting to think there weren't enough acquisitions in the tech space.
::vomit emoji::
::vomit emoji::
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I run pihole with Roku devices and it mostly isn't an issue. HOWEVER, piholes are unable to block ads delivered from the same ip address as a service (see Youtube) and Roku had been iterating their OS recently, as in the last month or so, and more and more ads are getting through. I am strongly considering dumping them soon.
Kind of unrelated, but: if you direct all YouTube traffic through a VPN connected to Albania, you won't see any ads, ever. Your router has to be capable of this, but it's a hack I've loved
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Yep. With Paramount Skydance and this expansion of Fox, the Nazis are getting the media control they're after.
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There won't be any actual regulatory approval because FCC Czar Carr will automatically agree to it, deeming it another way for actual truth to be censored in favor of Fox News propaganda. Shareholder approval won't mean anything because that got overridden in the WB/Netflix deal by Paramount.
Also, buyouts never increase competition or add jobs - it always reduces competition, increases costs to consumers, and loses jobs for employees. And the administration will grant it because rules don't apply to them.
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Need A Dispenser Here
Seniorius Lurkius
I run a Roku stick, and have a Pi-Hole set up.
It doesn't catch the ads on the Roku stick. Someone once explained to me the reason, but if I could be proven wrong I'd be extremely grateful.
Truth be told, I've been wanting to move away from the Roku stick for a while now. I have a HTPC in the living room, but like hell can I afford to build another PC right now just to keep the wife happily watching her shows in the craft room.
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BRB throwing my Smart TV in the trash
Its not even the Trump stuff its the fact that everything must be consolidated and i'm fucking sick of it
Its not even the Trump stuff its the fact that everything must be consolidated and i'm fucking sick of it
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Crap.. Our Roku HD has been reasonable as a "just pick from a few streaming services (incuding some Plex setups)" in the bedroom where keyboard/mouse is awkward. We have dedicated HTPCs / Gaming PCs for other TVs.. I did hook up an old laptop at one point, but it only does 4K@30Hz externally, which isn't ideal, and often requires a keyboard. And the "find your remote" feature has been useful.
Does pi hole work relatively well to block Roku / ads? I might have to do that.. I have a file server that runs 24x7 but is often unloaded (just runs Plex for a few things, Tlink software, etc). It has built-in ethernet, and a 2-port Gb card I bought a long time ago to play around with. I'm assuming a 3570K running Linux can manage to run pi-hole without too much overhead?
Does pi hole work relatively well to block Roku / ads? I might have to do that.. I have a file server that runs 24x7 but is often unloaded (just runs Plex for a few things, Tlink software, etc). It has built-in ethernet, and a 2-port Gb card I bought a long time ago to play around with. I'm assuming a 3570K running Linux can manage to run pi-hole without too much overhead?
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Resistance
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
The standard for a government authorizing any acquisition like this should be something like:
Would the results of authorizing this acquisition be a net benefit to the citizens of the country authorizing it.
Would the results of authorizing this acquisition be a net benefit to the citizens of the country authorizing it.
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Do you know what would be great for the industry? A Standard Oil breakup move by the regulators. Yea, I know, wet dream...
In a world where:
Then you have no one with deep enough pockets to distort the markets, create inefficient behemoths chasing endless growth and keep this stupid race to the bottom...
The same way as we didn't let Standard Oil own the oil well, the gas stations and the tanker trucks, we should not let vertical markets dominate the entertainment industry.
Or... you know... dismantling Amazon is also long overdue, for the same logic.
In a world where:
- studios make movies and TV shows
- ISPs maintain dumb pipes
- cable companies are cable companies
Then you have no one with deep enough pockets to distort the markets, create inefficient behemoths chasing endless growth and keep this stupid race to the bottom...
The same way as we didn't let Standard Oil own the oil well, the gas stations and the tanker trucks, we should not let vertical markets dominate the entertainment industry.
Or... you know... dismantling Amazon is also long overdue, for the same logic.
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So I guess it's only a matter of time before Roku dictates which news channels can stream on their platform. Spoiler: It probably will mostly be pro-Trump news channels.
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Does this Youtube hack break anything else? Like, if it assumes you're in Albania, does it start suggesting Albanian videos? Does google.com resolve to an albanian setup? I have a VPN service I can run on the HTPC in general, but I'm guessing it would break all our OTHER streaming suff. My family would love to get away from Youtube ads (ublock only goes so far on chrome). If there was a way to route ONLY youtube traffic, say in a VM/container with a browser, that would be good. Or maybe just switch them to using Firefox in general.. Alas, Chrome had the better streaming picture quality in the past - not sure if that's still the case..
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This is precisely what I'm waiting for as well. The only saving grace with the Roku is that my Pi-Hole blocks a ton of the Roku logging & advertising without impacting usability.
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IF you dig through some of the "secret" roku menus you eventually find a dev menu that lets you change the ad server to the dev ip address. this cuts off all real ads to the home screen and replaces them with generic fake ads
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Just cut off its internet access and plug in a used Apple TV box you buy off eBay. It'll cost you like $100 and work great.
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Being fatally allergic to commercials, since that was one of the major motivators for cutting the cord 15+ years ago, I feel fortunate that we stopped investing in a Roku device a decade or more ago.
I've never been a fan of a corporation updating my shit without my express permission and oversight. This goes all the way back to Windows 95. And Roku's were becoming more and more enshitified each year.
The worst we've ever done was have the app installed in a TV once. But it was such a PITA to use, and we're fortunate enough to have spare computers that can act as an internet tuning device, I just run those. One of the TV's is used as a monitor anyhow. The other normally isn't, but when shows are being streamed, they stream to that TV from a streaming service through a computer, and not from a device made by people who want to get more post-sale "value" from their shit.
All that said, over the short term, I don't see Fox's acquisition of Roku changing anything for us. It just helps bring the end of civilization as we know it closer faster.
I've never been a fan of a corporation updating my shit without my express permission and oversight. This goes all the way back to Windows 95. And Roku's were becoming more and more enshitified each year.
The worst we've ever done was have the app installed in a TV once. But it was such a PITA to use, and we're fortunate enough to have spare computers that can act as an internet tuning device, I just run those. One of the TV's is used as a monitor anyhow. The other normally isn't, but when shows are being streamed, they stream to that TV from a streaming service through a computer, and not from a device made by people who want to get more post-sale "value" from their shit.
All that said, over the short term, I don't see Fox's acquisition of Roku changing anything for us. It just helps bring the end of civilization as we know it closer faster.
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oh no. guess I gotta buy new boxes now. which is a bummer. hopefully appletv will be as seamless an experience as the rokutv has been
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I had the Pi-Hole blocking the Roku ads and it brought some stability issues to the OS interface. Not sure if I was too aggressively blocking things.
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I know industry consolidation has collapsed already to the point of a snake eating its own tail, but surely tiny Roku's business isn't worth losing customer accounts like Walmart, Amazon and others?
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"Individuality is fine, so long as we do it all together."-Old Ferret Face.
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Yes, that Nielsen "Media Distributor Gauge" is already obsolete as of last week when the Department of MAGA "Justice" approved Paramount (8.1%) buying Warner Bros Discovery (6.1%), making its 14.2% of all US TV usage #1. With Fox (7.2%) buying Roku (3.0%) that 10.2% is now #4, right behind Disney 10.5%. And now the board is just 12 competitors (within a cartel) not 14, until the top 9 use their increased concentration to drive the lowest tier (Scripps, Weigel, A+E, Hallmark, AMC <=1.7%ea) out of the market, or more likely into purchase by Paramount/Fox/Amazon or some other MAGA nazi propaganda corp.
A country protecting its citizens would absolutely prohibit this media concentration. Especially the vertical stacking where Fox now controls the hardware and OS that its competitors (within the cartel) must get through. But since almost half the voters in this democracy want MAGA instead of a functioning democracy, we get oligarchy instead.
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There is clearly far too much investor money chasing far too little in the way of productive investments. How is this ever supposed to make that back? We really must be way past the point where invasive data collection and targeted advertising can have any ROI.
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I had the very first Roku device when Netflix started streaming its first non-DVD content in 2008 or 2009. It was really life0changing then. Took me a while to convince my partner to cut the DirecTV cord and go all-in on streaming, but we did that around 2019, I think. Now we're just about to the timeline of Max Headroom, where a single large conglomerate controls all the media and by extension politics and commerce. It was fin while it lasted, though.
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hopefully a new appletv announcement will drive down prices on the used market. I've got 3 rokus that I would need to replace
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Why would Walmart and Amazon care if your Roku product started pushing Fox News 24/7?
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I side-graded to an Apple TV from a Roku about a year ago. It's not better in many ways, but the lack of ads and just scummy UI makes it sooo much better all around.
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All of our TVs have the network unconfigured and we use AppleTVs on all of them. Well, except for the CRT my son uses for retro gaming.
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Well, it was nice while it lasted Roku. I saw the headline earlier today about this and already have plans to bin the Roku ultra in our living room. Just trying to decided between the Nvidia Shield Pro and the Apple TV. Leaning towards the Nvidia since it seems to be more robust, customizable, and better home theater / audiophile options. I've seen the Onn (Walmart house brand) box listed as a good value option too. Seems to be trivial to jailbreak and you can install projectivy app for a custom and ad-free home screen.
The much harder replacement is going to be getting rid of my Roku Express+ (3910) model. This was the last Roku (and still supported) model that had provides composite/analog out. It also happens to be the last 480i native capable streaming device that was sold anywhere. If you're a fan of old CRTs, projectors, or similar - a Roku 3910 model is the only option outside of much inferior raspberry pi 3/4 DIY situations.
The much harder replacement is going to be getting rid of my Roku Express+ (3910) model. This was the last Roku (and still supported) model that had provides composite/analog out. It also happens to be the last 480i native capable streaming device that was sold anywhere. If you're a fan of old CRTs, projectors, or similar - a Roku 3910 model is the only option outside of much inferior raspberry pi 3/4 DIY situations.
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