Hogan Lovells advises Roku on acquisition of TOH Intermediate Holdings LLC, owner of “This Old House”

Announced today, Roku’s acquisition of the “This Old House” business is inclusive of its global distribution rights and all of its subsidiary brands, including the “This Old House” and “Ask This Old House” TV programs, the show libraries, all digital assets, and the television production studio. “This Old House” and “Ask This Old House” were the two top-rated home improvement programs in the U.S. in 2020, according to Nielsen data, and have earned a total of 19 Emmy Awards and 102 nominations.

The executive team of “This Old House” will join Roku, including CEO Dan Suratt and the team behind the shows will continue creating the content that fans love. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

This announcement follows a year of robust growth for The Roku Channel, which more than doubled streaming hours and audience, reaching homes with an estimated 63 million people in the fourth quarter of 2020.

This continued growing scale has enabled more creative and expansive sourcing strategies for cost-effective content that is well-suited to an AVOD (advertising-supported video on demand) business model. The acquisition of “This Old House” complements The Roku Channel’s primary content strategy of more than 175 licensing and distribution agreements.

A Hogan Lovells team advising Roku was led by Global Head of Sports and M&A partner Matthew Eisler (Denver and New York), tax partner Mark Weinstein (New York), M&A (entertainment) partner Sheri Jeffrey (Los Angeles), IPMT partner David London (Denver), M&A senior associate Annie Kang (Los Angeles), M&A associates Samantha Seiden (Los Angeles), William Nunn (Denver) and Christiana Zgourides (Denver), IPMT associate Christian Kerr (Denver), employment partner Michael DeLarco (New York), employment associate Maria Benvenuto (New York), employee benefits & executive compensation partner Carin Carithers (Washington, D.C.), associate Nirupa Persaud (New York), M&A partner Russell Hedman (Denver), M&A senior counsel Jay Dougherty (Los Angeles), M&A senior counsel Niki Frangos Tuttle (Denver), real estate partner Lea Ann Fowler (Denver), and real estate senior associate Ted Brown (Denver).

Hogan Lovells has also recently advised its client Roku on the acquisition of exclusive global distribution rights to Quibi’s award-winning shows, a transaction that will make the content available for free on an ad-supported basis in 2021 to all Roku users.