The World Football Federation (FIFA) through its commercial partner Infront Sports & Media, is offering the 2026 World Cup broadcasting rights price in the Vietnamese market at "double digits" (in millions of USD).
This figure could exceed the 15 million USD mark that Vietnam Television (VTV) and its partners paid for to own the copyright of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. In the early stages, the price was even proposed to be at 20 million USD, before there was an adjustment.
This price increase is largely due to the fact that the 2026 World Cup will be expanded, with 48 participating teams, instead of 32 as in previous editions. The number of matches has therefore increased sharply from 64 matches to more than 100 matches, leading to the cost of copyright being pushed up accordingly.
However, high prices are making it difficult for Vietnamese broadcasters to negotiate. According to some experts in the media and advertising industry, in the context of many economic difficulties, recovering capital from advertising is a big challenge. Many TV stations would have had difficulty paying such a large amount of money without support or cooperation from other units.
Some opinions say that domestic broadcasters should consider the possibility of linking to negotiate and share the cost of copyright purchase, thereby avoiding being forced to price by foreign partners. However, according to television copyright experts, this possibility still faces many barriers due to differences in business goals and benefits between stakeholders.
However, this is not yet the peak of copyright negotiations. The World Cup TV copyright market in Vietnam is expected to be more vibrant from the end of 2025, closer to the tournament officially starting in the summer of 2026 in North America.
