Fox Corp. is making a dramatic move to expand its streaming footprint, unveiling with plans to buy Roku in a deal that values the streaming platform at $22 billion.
  • perishthethought@piefed.socialEnglish
    36 minutes

    The deal is expected to close in the first half of next year. It still needs approval from Fox and Roku shareholders and also regulatory approval.

    Hahaha, regulatory approval is f@ing guaranteed these days, as long as the proper fees are paid in advance. F@ck you, felon in chief. 😡😡😡

  • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4 hours

    One of the things on my FOSS wishlist is an open source alternative to Roku/GoogleOS/Apple TVos, etc. there are lots of FOSS apps on these various platforms, but those apps almost always have varying levels of quality and availability across them.

    Right now the closest you can really get is media center PC, but what I really need is something relatively plug and play I can send to family members, preconfigured.

    • CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      11 minutes

      Yeah. The closest I’ve gotten without a media center PC is using remote adb to remove all the bullshit from my Nvidia shield.

    • Grimy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      50 minutes

      Best solution would probably be a mini PC running a web app dashboard like they do with kiosks. I would tell you to get a rasp pi but they went up in price by quite a bit. You would still have to order it for them and spend a few hours tinkering and installing everything.

      • TheVoiceOfRaison@thelemmy.clubEnglish
        34 minutes

        As a family we rarely watch “on demand” or live TV. We have a mini hooked up to our TV and sail the seas for shows we want and watch them that way. We have a Roku stick in our bedroom TV and it works great, but if I get the feeling it starts to go all Project 2025 its getting ditched, but I’m in the UK so it’ll be interesting to see how it changes here.

    • lemongarlic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 hours

      Google TV is the least worst option in terms of open source optionality, Apple TV is best for privacy as is

      • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
        1 hour

        Is Apple TV hardware any good because the app is appallingly bad. Even on a gigabit network connection it will drop connectivity and lag out. If you pause for more than about 1 minute it crashes and kicks you back into the main menu. It never seems to keep track of current shows and just shows a bunch of irrelevant stuff at the top which you have to always scroll past in order to get to what you actually want.

        It makes Amazon TV look like a well polished product.

        • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1 hour

          The hardware is actually one of the better streaming boxes on the market. Good direct play support for most of the big codecs, so your Jellyfin/Plex server isn’t having to transcode things. And it was (not sure if it still is) one of the few that wasn’t completely riddled with ads.

    • Damage@feddit.itEnglish
      2 hours

      We need to develop an open, modular or all-in-one NAS with easily enabled services like Jellyfin, Navidrome, Paperless, Home assistant and so on.

      With IPv6 we could avoid having to deal with CGNAT, but that could be solved as well.

      • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.worldEnglish
        55 minutes

        People have been trying to do that for a long, long time, with various levels of success. There are a dozen options out there to try, but the scope of that kind of project huge compared to a simple streaming appliance OS.

        • Damage@feddit.itEnglish
          49 minutes

          I’d like for something like that to be sponsored by the EU

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1 hour

      Yeah, a jailbroken Roku OS would actually be fantastic. The actual TVs aren’t bad. Roku has actually figured out how to do streaming decently. It just sucks that the entire company seems to be going down the shitter, and they’re determined to drag all of their screens down with them.

      I blocked by Roku TV’s telemetry BS with my pi-hole, at least. But that won’t stop them from trying. Having a way to flash a new FOSS/jailbroken OS onto it would be ideal.

    • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      2 hours

      A FOSS alternative would likely be missing or have meh performance from many of the streamers. All the big ones use proprietary codex that are expensive annual licenses. And even then the streamer controls what various access methods are allowed to see and at what quality. I think netflix still limits web browsers to 720p, for example. And straight web access isn’t great, you want an interface that can ideally be controlled with about 6 - 8 buttons (4 directions, OK, and Back are the minimum) which might require API access to these services, which introduces more access control. Netflix (and maybe others) even have hardware installed at the ISP level that give them a lot of control over individual access as well.

      Basically for a full featured FOSS service you’d need to start with getting grants to buy to codec licenses, and then you’d need to hire people just to maintain your relationship with the streaming services to stay in their good graces while they know you’re working against their bottom line.

    • pivot_root@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 hours

      What would be amazing is if there was some way to have a fully declarative system that was integrated with a system update UI.

      You would upload the config somewhere, your family’s streaming box would see a new update is available and either prompt them to install it or install it for them overnight.

      • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3 hours

        I’ve never used it before but it sounds like you’re sorta describing NixOS? That might be an option to sorta Jerry-rig this idea together.

    • Arcden@lemmy.zipEnglish
      4 hours

      Same. I’m currently doing the mini PC media center. It’s nice but I don’t see my family doing something like that. It’s a bit too expensive and less plug and play than a $40 Roku/Chromecast unfortunately.

    • altkey (he\him)@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      4 hours

      I feel like Kodi mediacenter app is one of the main things to consider putting on it. Like, booting some Linux and instantly launchung it, so it’s UI is the main UI for user to interact with. It covers most TV usecases of mid 2010s and shines if you have a medialibrary on the network.

      But it doesn’t cover occasional web browsing, DRMed videostreaming platforms with their own apps, etc. Worse than that, if we don’t limit it to just Kodi, we’d need some UI to pick apps, swtich apps, etc, and if that’s critical, it’s probably worth it to rip an image of some WebOS, like on LG TVs, or an Android fork like on SmartTV boxes/sticks, whatever is less combatative, and methodically carve out bloat and adware, forming an image of inherently insecure/outdated OS that has the UI thing working right.

      Outside of SteamOS idk if Linux (not Android) had slick console/SmartTV-like DEs/system-wide GUIs. But since the problem is on the surface, I believe there are some who tried, or configured/themed their environment to act like it.

    • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3 hours

      KDE is able to release plasma bigscreen. That, or frankly gnome would be fine with an air mouse.

    • GalacticRobot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4 hours

      For me it’s kind of JellyFin + TailScale, but that probably isn’t going to work with less tech savvy family members or on all devices. Plex works well enough, but then again it’s the same thing that someone has to be responsible for the ‘media’ portion, and a lot of people enjoy live sports, which seems difficult through the open source things.

      • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4 hours

        Yeah JF + Tailscale in one of them $20 Walmart Google TV boxes works well enough but like, I’d love to drop the Google part entirely.

        • GalacticRobot@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3 hours

          Yeah, I just use the web interface, so I end up having a cheap PC with a keyboard/remote which works pretty well, then it doesn’t matter the TV and get’s away from Google altogether.

  • Shindo66@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 hours

    Can you imagine what it must be like to have a stake in roku when you get the news that the company is going to be sold for 22 billion? Do you just immediately nut and throw up at the same time?

  • ryper@lemmy.caEnglish
    6 hours

    This is the same Fox that owns Fox News. So now Roku’s advertising push can include a side of misinformation.

  • Soulphite@reddthat.comEnglish
    5 hours

    Welp, time to discard all things Roku in my house. I’ve already been trying to make everything “dumb” again.

    No, microwave… there’s no fucking reason you should be “phoning home”… get the fuck outta here with that shit.

    • ComradeMiao@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4 hours

      Welp, time to discard all things Roku in my house. I’ve already been trying to make everything “dumb” again.

      As if Roku is some great company beyond Fox lol

      • flying_sheep@lemmy.mlEnglish
        41 minutes

        No, more like as if this is the straw that broke the camel’s back

      • Soulphite@reddthat.comEnglish
        4 hours

        Yeah, all corporations are bad… sure. My point was the tipping point for me personally breaking away from the convience of Roku’s all-in-one streaming would be the addition of Fox’s no doubt right wing propaganda injection, even more malicious privacy invasion, and data tracking.

        I didn’t say Roku was a “great company” just because I may have a few of their devices already… we all have crap in our house from one bad company or another, no one can fully escape corporate consumerism, and if they can they wouldn’t be on here to read this, more than likely.

      • Jhex@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4 hours

        If you had to choose, would you rather:

        • a turd with flies all over it?

        • a turd that a drunk also puked on, with flies all over it?

  • adarza@piefed.caEnglish
    6 hours

    $22 billion to get the maga propaganda machine front-and-center on more screens than cable tv ever did, and timing is just right to get it all going in time for 2028.

  • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    4 hours

    KODI KODI KODI KODI KODI KODI KODI KODI KODI

    Don’t be lazy. Put some work into customizing your setup. Enjoy a better life.

    Fuck Fox and Fuck Roku. It will only get worse. My Roku is already the top blocked device in my Pihole, making thousands of telemetry requests for no good reason. Time to remove…

    • XNX@slrpnk.netEnglish
      4 hours

      It’s not about laziness. Roku is used by a ton of people who don’t know what a linux is.

      The best solution would be for an open source roku alternative that is plug and play

      • blargh513@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2 hours

        Also, can you run common streaming services on Kodi without having to fight endlessly with their countermeasures?

        I would love to dump all of this crap and just run a pc with a browser on the tv, but there is no clean interface that I could use with a remote.

      • Duranie@leminal.spaceEnglish
        2 hours

        Thank you! For a 54yo non-tech person I’m keeping my head above water, but please don’t ask me to learn a whole new something in an area that I have no skill or interest in.

        Re Fox buying Roku, it makes me want to throw up.

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6 hours

    Tons of older folks (like my Mom, grandma, my aunts) have Rokus set up to replace cable. They don’t know how to operate individual apps, but they love Roku TV (which pops up by default), and kinda just watch whatever comes in.

    So… Yeah.

    That’s not worrying at all.

    • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      4 hours

      A lot of the stuff that comes over the online TV channels is also broadcast over the air, have you considered getting them an antenna?

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3 hours

        They all have one! In the attic, with an amp. I installed them myself.

        It’s not the same as the Roku TV app though. Those channels are like older person catnip, and the duplicated ones don’t cut out unpredictably.

        It’s also understandably difficult for some folks to remember how to change TV input, rescan channels and such.

  • officermike@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6 hours

    It would certainly be a shame if some rogue Roku employee deployed an update that stripped ads and broke automatic updates for all devices right after Fox finalizes the deal but before they get anything out of it.

    • adarza@piefed.caEnglish
      5 hours

      that’s a nice idea, but when they catch-on it probably wouldn’t survive six months before breaking changes are implemented on the backend somewhere.