In India, a joint venture between Reliance and Disney offered 20 million USD to buy the broadcasting rights for the 2026 World Cup, a figure that is only a small part of the price offered by FIFA (100 million USD). This puts everything in a deadlock. Previously, at the 2022 World Cup, Reliance's independent media company won the rights for about 60 million USD.
According to international media, Sony also conducted negotiations with FIFA but also decided not to make an offer to buy the rights to the 2026 tournament in India.
In China, a country that FIFA said accounted for 49.8% of the total views on digital platforms and global social networks throughout the 2022 World Cup, there has been no breakthrough in World Cup 2026 broadcasting rights.
In previous World Cups, including 2018 and 2022, Chinese state television CCTV often won broadcasting rights very early and started broadcasting promotional and advertising content made by sponsors many weeks before the tournament took place.
China accounted for 17.7% and India accounted for 2.9% of the total global linear television viewership of the 2022 tournament. These two countries together accounted for 22.6% of the total global digital online viewership for that World Cup.
It is unusual that India and China still do not have the copyright to the 2026 World Cup when the tournament is less than 5 weeks away from starting. These are the 2 most populous countries in the world, with great market potential.
However, sources also said that the units have carefully considered whether to buy the 2026 World Cup copyright or not, especially in India. According to them, football is a quite niche sport in this country, not as crowded as cricket.
They also predict that the number of World Cup 2026 viewers in the US, Canada and Mexico will not be too large because the matches take place after midnight (India time). In addition, advertising revenue is also forecast to decrease due to the impact of the conflict in the Middle East.
To date, many Asian countries have the broadcasting rights for the 2026 World Cup such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia... Meanwhile, besides China and India, some countries such as Thailand and Malaysia still do not have units owning the tournament rights.
