BusinessJul 8, 2026
FIFA Is Bringing World Cup Rights Back To Market
Media War
Rhea Lobo
Discover
The biggest prize in sports broadcasting is about to get a new price tag. Fox is paying $485M to air the 2026 FIFA World Cup under a deal negotiated years ago. When those rights come back to market, the next broadcaster could pay more than $2B.
Fox's current deal traces back to a crisis FIFA created for itself. When FIFA awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, it eventually shifted the tournament from its traditional summer slot to November and December.
Fox had already paid for English-language US rights expecting a summer broadcast, according to a New York Times investigation. FIFA's solution was to extend Fox's contract through 2026 at a below-market price, rather than open the rights to competitive bidding.
Industry experts estimated the 2026 World Cup rights were worth between $1B and $1.5B, well above the $485M Fox paid.
"FIFA has left hundreds of millions of dollars on the table."
John Skipper, former ESPN president
That discounted deal was a one-time artifact of a very specific set of circumstances.
The 2026 World Cup has produced viewership numbers that are resetting every benchmark. The Round of 16 match between the US and Belgium drew a combined 47.9M viewers across English and Spanish broadcasts, according to AdImpact estimates.
A US group-stage match averaged more than 26M English-language viewers on Fox alone. Even games not involving the US are breaking records.
Those numbers explain why media executives are budgeting $1.5B to $2B per tournament for the 2030 and 2034 rights.
Netflix, Walt Disney, and Alphabet's YouTube are all actively exploring bids. Amazon and Apple could also enter the process.
Formal discussions between FIFA and media companies are expected to begin within the next three months.
For the 2026 tournament, Fox holds English-language rights and NBCUniversal's Telemundo holds Spanish-language rights. That split has created friction.
Telemundo has claimed some English-speaking viewers through its Peacock streaming platform, which charges $10.99 per month versus $19.99 for Fox's Fox One service, according to reports on the rights structure.
FIFA has signaled it intends to sell the combined English and Spanish US rights as a single package for 2030 and beyond. Bundling the two languages into one deal removes the audience-splitting problem and pushes the price higher.
Comcast's NBCUniversal is unlikely to compete at the $2B level. The company recently announced plans to spin out NBCUniversal and already carries substantial commitments for NFL and NBA rights.
The 2030 World Cup will be held across Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, a five-to-six-hour time difference from the US Eastern Time Zone.
The 2034 tournament in Saudi Arabia carries an even larger gap. Both represent a meaningful drawback compared to this year's North American host cities, according to coverage of the rights negotiations.
Despite that, bidders are not backing away from the $2B range. The 2026 ratings surge appears to have overridden the time zone concern in how executives are modeling demand.
Wall Street has so far reacted with little movement in shares of the main bidders, reflecting the uncertainty of a process that has not formally started yet.
