FIFA has reached an agreement with Zee Entertainment of India to broadcast the 2026 World Cup in this country, ending months-long negotiations.
Accordingly, Zee will take over the broadcasting rights for the 2026 and 2030 World Cups along with the 2027 Women's World Cup. These are the main events in the package of agreements that Zee has reached with FIFA lasting from 2026 to 2034.
In total, during this period, Zee will have the rights to 39 FIFA tournaments in India from the men's and women's World Cups; FIFA U20, U17, Futsal, Intercontinental Cup tournaments... The agreement also includes documentary content related to these tournaments.
Although the financial terms of the deal package - signed on June 1st - were not disclosed, international sources said FIFA had requested Zee 100 million USD, before reducing the price to 60 million USD.
This agreement helps Zee gain a foothold in the sports broadcasting market of India, where Reliance's JioStar joint venture and Disney are holding the rights from the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket league to the English Premier League.
The Indian market is of strategic importance to FIFA because it demonstrates the enormous potential driven by a young and enthusiastic audience. We believe that Zee's digital distribution and widespread broadcasting ecosystem, along with a deep understanding of local viewers and multi-platform capabilities, will play a key role in expanding football access to fans across India," the FIFA representative shared.
The 2026 World Cup takes place from June 11 to July 19 in the US, Canada and Mexico. Only 14 out of 104 World Cup matches will start before midnight Indian time.
This number is much less than the 2022 and 2018 World Cups. The late start of matches, difficulty attracting advertising is the biggest reason why some large companies are hesitant to buy World Cup 2026 rights in India before Zee participates.
Previously, Karan Taurani, Executive Vice President at investment company Elara Capital, said that television is a media medium that is "encountering difficulties" in India. He shared: "When there are sports events of this type, basically most of the money and huge profits come from digital platforms. That is the main reason why no one cares about FIFA's World Cup".
Mr. Taurani explained that cricket leads the sports economic market in India.
Only a small part of the Indian Premier League (IPL) viewers will watch the FIFA World Cup," he said, adding that even a smaller part will still watch the match after midnight.
