Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to Puck’s best new reporting. Here’s what you need to know… and stick around for more on Lachlan Murdoch’s big move in the streaming wars.

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For your awards consideration, HBO Max presents THE GILDED AGE. In Season 3, ambition and scandal collide as the Russells take their place at the head of society, while the van Rhijn household is thrown into chaos. Don't miss the series Harpers Bazar called “PERFECT TELEVISION”. THE GILDED AGE is now streaming on HBO MAX.

Meanwhile, on the pods…

And now, a little more on Fox’s serious streaming play…

HOLLYWOOD

It’s strange that it took so long for someone to buy Roku, the ubiquitous streaming-device maker whose operating system runs smart TVs in more than 100 million households globally. After all, as of March, the Roku Channel accounted for 3 percent of all connected-TV viewing in the U.S., and has since become the fastest-growing platform behind YouTube. So Lachlan Murdoch seized the opportunity: On Monday, Fox announced it was acquiring Roku in a deal valued at $22 billion, putting an end to the company’s long stretch on the streaming sidelines.

As Julia reports, Murdoch’s patience paid off. While rivals poured tens of billions into the streaming wars, Fox instead leaned on ad-supported, non-prestige assets like Tubi and Fox Nation. “We chose, and continue to choose, focus over scale for scale’s sake,” Lachlan told analysts, “deliberately sidestepping the arms race that defined—and challenged—the subscription streaming industry.” And yet, Roku is more than a streamer: Like Amazon’s Prime Video Channels, it’s a distributor for other services with significant advertising upside, which could turn Fox into a $9 billion-a-year ad player. With subscription fatigue mounting and consumers hunting for bundles, Fox may have found its path into the distribution business at exactly the right moment.

Click here to read Julia’s full story.

MEDIA

David Ellison’s search for the right executive to help Bari Weiss run her two-headed CNN–CBS News monster might require a unicorn—someone with solid television news experience, a pliable journalistic backbone, and the willingness to play the loyal number two. In other words, he needs a supersized Tom Cibrowski.

WALL STREET

With his request for a new trial now officially rejected by the Second Circuit, Sam Bankman-Fried’s dwindling hope for salvation is down to the Supreme Court or Trump. Alas, S.B.F. may be the only white-collar fraudster the president isn’t open to pardoning.

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For your awards consideration, HBO Max presents IT: WELCOME TO DERRY. Based on Stephen King’s novel IT, the new drama series expands Andy Muschietti’s vision established feature films IT and IT Chapter Two. Don't miss the series Variety called “MASTERFUL”. IT: WELCOME TO DERRY is now streaming on HBO MAX.

WASHINGTON

The biggest casualty of Trump’s Iran détente may be Benjamin Netanyahu, whose once-considerable sway in Washington has faded just as Americans’ support for Israel has fallen sharply, according to exclusive new polling for Puck.

FASHION

C.E.O. Colin Walsh inherited a beauty unicorn in retreat and is now doing the unglamorous work of turning Glossier back into a business. But can the brand that epitomized Millennial beauty survive previous management’s mistakes?

ART

While the big money has returned, auction houses are reducing estimates for cheaper works to entice buyers and minimize their losses. Now, the latest data reveals a big shift is taking place in the middle market, too.

A.I.

Ian Krietzberg and Peter get to the bottom of why Trump put the kibosh on Anthropic’s powerful new Fable model, how Dario Amodei screwed the pooch, whether the freak-out is overblown, and what it all means for the rest of us.

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