By David Owen
February 12 – FIFA has completed deals selling media rights for the 2026 World Cup in the key United States and Canadian markets. The deals give exclusive broadcast rights to FIFA competitions between 2023 and 2026 in the US to Rupert Murdoch’s Fox and NBCUniversal’s Telemundo, and in Canada to CTV/TSN.
Prices were not disclosed; the rights seem likely, however, to have fetched significantly more than corresponding deals covering previous cycles. This is for two reasons: the strong viewing figures in the US registered by last summer’s World Cup in Brazil; and the distinct possibility that the US might emerge as the host of the 2026 tournament.
FIFA’s accounts show that revenue from television broadcasting contracts covering North America and the Caribbean in the first three years of the 2011-14 cycle totalled some $186 million, leaving them on course to reach about $250 million once 2014, the cycle’s final year, is added in. It seems logical to assume that the US market accounts for the lion’s share of this figure.
FIFA has disclosed that the 2014 World Cup match between the USA and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal was the “most watched football match ever on US TV”, achieving a combined audience of 24.7 million. With in-home viewer reach in the USA put at 94.5 million for the 2010 tournament, it seems highly likely that this measure will have exceeded 100 million for Brazil 2014.
While the hosting race for the 2026 tournament has yet to even begin, the US, which lost out to Qatar in 2022, and China are probably seen at this distance as the two likeliest destinations. The US previously hosted the World Cup in 1994, with Brazil winning for the fourth time.
FIFA’s Director of TV, Niclas Ericson, said that the latest agreements guaranteed “wide distribution” for FIFA tournaments across the US and Canada. “Together, we will be able to further promote football in North America and build on the impressive interest shown by audiences in these major territories during the 2014 FIFA World Cup,” Ericson added.
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