Folarin Balogun of the United States takes a shot during the 2026 FIFA World Cup Round of 16 match between the United States and Belgium on July 6, 2026 in Seattle, Washington.
MB Media | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images
As the FIFA World Cup attracts huge audiences around the world, media companies are preparing to pay billions of dollars for the rights to the two upcoming men’s tournaments.
Netflix, disney and of the alphabet YouTube is all about challenges fox The move is aimed at acquiring U.S. broadcast rights for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups, according to people familiar with the matter.
Amazoncurrently owns the rights to the UEFA Champions League in the UK. apple, The company, which owns the global MLS rights, could also enter, further intensifying a potential bidding war for the rights.
Talks between FIFA and potential media partners are expected to begin within the next three months, said the people, who requested anonymity because the negotiations are private.
In preliminary talks that began earlier this year, FIFA warned media outlets that the U.S. English and Spanish rights were likely to be sold together, rather than separately as has been the case for past World Cups, including 2026, according to people familiar with the matter.
According to a reporter for The Athletic, Fox paid $485 million for the English language rights to this year’s tournament, which will be held in cities across North America. NBCUniversal’s Telemundo paid $600 million for the Spanish-language rights, according to people familiar with the matter.
Executives at various media companies are budgeting between $1.5 billion and $2 billion for U.S. rights to each tournament across languages, people said. FIFA last negotiated contracts with Fox and Telemundo in 2011. Four years later, FIFA extended that contract until 2026.
FIFA will not sell worldwide rights to the tournament because each country has regulations that require it to sell the World Cup over the air. However, US rights will bring a large audience and advertising opportunities and will be coveted.
Netflix, Disney and YouTube all see the World Cup as a potential big boost for their streaming services, people familiar with the matter said.
Disney could also broadcast the games on ESPN or ABC, which could be attractive to FIFA since the FOX broadcast has been seeing strong ratings this year. FIFA has already expressed interest in giving Netflix the rights to host the 2027 and 2031 Women’s World Cups.
Spokespeople for FIFA, Netflix, YouTube and Disney declined to comment.
1 pack sold
Selling the English and Spanish language rights as a single package could allow FIFA to command a higher price and increase bids from eager media partners looking for big viewership. Total TV viewership for U.S. games in recent weeks has been comparable to an NFL playoff game.
Packaging language rights could also help resolve tensions between rival media companies broadcasting the same games.
Telemundo only bought the rights to the Spanish-language version through 2026, but claimed an unknown English-speaking population watching games in the United States through its Peacock streaming service, weakening Fox’s World Cup reach.
Peacock costs just $10.99 per month, while Fox’s streaming service, Fox One, costs $19.99 per month.
Telemundo also signed actor Owen Wilson, who is also known to be both Latino and Spanish-speaking, to be the spokesperson for its Spanish-language coverage of the World Cup, blurring the lines for both English- and Spanish-speaking American viewers.
If the English and Spanish versions of the game were sold together, NBCUniversal wouldn’t vie for the rights at a price tag of nearly $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. That would remove Telemundo as a potential partner.
comcast announced its intention to spin out NBCUniversal last month, further increasing investors’ focus on its financial future. NBCU already pays billions of dollars a year for the NFL’s “Sunday Night Football” and NBA basketball. An NBC spokesperson declined to comment.
Leaving the US time zone
Both the 2030 and 2034 World Cups are less attractive to U.S. TV viewers than this year’s World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The 2030 World Cup will be held in Morocco, Portugal and Spain, with a time difference of 5-6 hours from the US Eastern time zone. The 2034 World Cup will be held in Saudi Arabia, and the time difference will be even greater.
Still, prices could rise significantly due to the unusual valuations for this year’s World Cup.
The United States’ victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina last week was the most-watched English-language soccer television game in history, with an average audience of more than 26 million viewers, according to Fox Sports.
An additional 9.8 million viewers watched the game on either Telemundo or Peacock.
Even higher ratings will likely be reported for Monday night’s game between the United States and Belgium. Nielsen ratings have not been released, but AdImpact estimates that the average audience for the U.S.-Belgium game was 47.9 million viewers in both English and Spanish.
Games outside the United States also draw large audiences. More than 11 million viewers watched the Portugal-Croatia game on Fox, making it the most-watched non-final game not involving a U.S. team in U.S. history.
