This year’s broadcast deals are chaotic

 This year’s broadcast deals are chaotic

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FIFA’s global media rights for World Cup 2026 are like a kids’ rec soccer game: slow-going, messy, and featuring many players who aren’t doing what the big bosses wish they would. It’s all in the timing. In big countries where swaths of the population will be asleep or groggy when the North America-based games kick off, FIFA may be getting less money from broadcasters than it was hoping for: Last week, FIFA finally reached a broadcast deal with India, the world’s most populous country, after cutting its asking price from $100 million to $60 million. The final amount may have been lower—an Indian broadcaster that paid $60 million for the 2022 rights ultimately lost money, and that World Cup was hosted in Qatar, a much closer time zone. China, the world’s second-most-populous country, reached a late-stage deal with FIFA last month that valued the 2026 World Cup rights at $60 million—down from the $300 million FIFA reportedly originally sought there—at least in part because of the massive time difference between China and North America, the Associated Press reported. Meanwhile…the TV operator that aired the World Cup in Malaysia for more than two decades will pass the torch to a public broadcaster this year, after saying “rampant piracy” had heavily devalued the rights. Even so…FIFA expects record broadcast revenue from this World Cup, propelled by lucrative deals in North America and Europe. Also, this year’s tournament expanded to have 104 matches instead of 64, which gave FIFA more content to sell to broadcasters.