Time proactive
VTV's completion of FIFA World Cup 2026 copyright negotiations quite early shows a different approach compared to many previous editions. This unit has prepared in advance, creating room to develop content plans and allocate resources.
The 2026 World Cup has an expanded scale to 48 teams, with a total of 104 matches held in the US, Canada and Mexico. The sharp increase in the number of matches forces the copyright holder to carefully calculate the broadcast schedule, channel division as well as operating methods on digital platforms to meet diverse viewing needs.
Commentator Quang Tung assessed: "Actually, VTV has had copyrights from quite a long time ago, about a few months ago".
According to commentator Quang Tung, early ownership of the 2026 World Cup copyright is not only meaningful in terms of time, but also helps the broadcasting unit to be proactive in content structure, communication strategy and audience approach on many different platforms.
From the perspective of deployment capacity, Mr. Tung believes that the current system is capable of meeting production requirements: "With the standards and class of a national television station, this is still the unit with the best content production quality. From VTV to VTV's member units, there are sufficient resources to have the best products to serve viewers at this World Cup.
Exploitation problem
The copyright value of FIFA World Cup 2026 is high, leading to large production, operation and personnel costs. Not only stopping at broadcasting, the copyright holder must ensure a balance between input costs and revenue from advertising, sponsorship and content exploitation forms.
Commentator Quang Tung analyzed: "Organizing production to effectively exploit, both bringing the best product to consumers, to fans, as well as effectively exploiting to avoid leading to losses is what needs to be done. The spending is very large, not to mention the accompanying production costs are also very high. To exploit effectively and avoid losses is a problem that always needs to be posed to the broadcaster.
Challenges are always big because at least from the perspective of exploitation, with such a large copyright value, how to attract sponsorship sources, how to exploit business to ensure not losing money, not being disadvantaged in this story is not simple, especially in the context of economic difficulties. Businesses that can participate in sponsorship are still facing certain difficulties.
Besides the commercial problem, the problem of illegal viewing continues to be a factor directly affecting copyright values. Illegal broadcasting platforms disperse viewers, making it difficult for copyright holders to optimize advertising revenue and sponsorship. This is a situation that has lasted through many previous World Cups.
Commentator Quang Tung said: "This is a difficult issue, but I think that in the trend that functional agencies in Vietnam are implementing measures to prevent copyright infringement situations, in the 2026 World Cup, everything may go in a positive direction, that is, it will be limited. FIFA's products are also very strictly protected according to their conditions, so there are many ways to implement them effectively. As for how to specifically do it, of course, those involved will be clearer than us. However, my feeling is that this story may be done well.
The problem of exploiting the copyright of the 2026 World Cup is not only in terms of cost and content, but also depends on the ability to limit illegal viewing to preserve commercial value. This is a factor that can directly determine the final effectiveness of the copyright package.
VTV is the only unit in Vietnam that owns public broadcast rights, and is also allowed to directly organize or grant rights to partners to deploy centralized football viewing points such as fan zones, restaurants, cinemas or public spaces. Currently, this unit is also testing a number of models combining football viewing with performance activities, targeting young audiences.
