Fans of the 49ers, or even those of the Kansas City Chiefs, who have been planning on watching Sunday’s Super Bowl by streaming the game on their Roku device may have to find another way to watch the year’s biggest sporting event.
That’s because Los Gatos-based Roku is set to pull all of the Fox network’s streaming apps from its platform by the end of Friday due to a carriage dispute between the two companies. And with Fox carrying the Super Bowl this year, that means that anyone wanting to stream the game via Fox on their Roku gadget won’t be able to unless the two sides caneach a peace agreement before Sunday’s kickoff.
Roku is one of the biggest providers of streaming TV services, with more than 32 million monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2019. The company began notifying its users by email late Thursday about the possibility of the Fox apps no longer working on its platform.
“We offered Fox an extension so that Roku can continue to bring a large and valuable audience to Fox, but Fox declined,” a Roku spokeperson said. “If an agreement is not reached, we will be forced to remove Fox channels from the Roku platform. We will no longer have the legal right to distribute their content.”
The seven Fox-affiliated apps that are in danger of no longer working on Roku devices, including TVs with the Roku streaming technology built in, are Fox Now, Fox Sports, Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Soccer, Fox Nation and Big Ten Network.
For Roku users, this doesn’t mean they can’t use their Roku device to stream the Super Bowl, but they will have to subsribe to another streaming service in order to do so. Roku told its users that it will be possible to watch the game via the apps for YouTube TV, Hulu+ Live TV, Fubo TV and SlingTV,. Each of those services require a paid subscription, but many also offer a free initial trial period.
Roku also said that Comcast cable subscribers can watch the Super Bowl on the Xfinity app on their Roku devices, and its users will be able to watch the game on the official NFL app, as long as Fox doesn’t block that app’s access to the broadcast.
The possibility that Roku would lose it Fox apps ahead of the Super Bowl weighed on investors’ minds Friday, as Roku’s shares fell by 7.4%, to close at $120.95.
