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The Fifa World Cup is the planet’s biggest cultural event. Even taking into account Fifa’s debatable audience measurement methodology, it attracts the attention of billions of people around the world every four years.
The competition has always been an unparalleled opportunity for the world’s broadcasters to attract audiences, advertisers and subscriptions. But it is even more valuable in a challenging media landscape in which massive live audiences are in short supply.
For a whole month, rights owners have the single most desirable piece of content on the planet and a chance to associate themselves with moments of national and global importance.
But the scale of the 2026 edition in North America presents unprecedented challenges for the media, especially when fan expectations and behaviours are evolving at a rapid pace.
Four years ago, broadcasters enjoyed the most compact tournament in history. This time round, they face the biggest, most geographically dispersed edition to date.
The expanded 2026 World Cup will feature 48 teams competing in 104 matches, stretching across 16 cities in three countries, spanning four time zones and a maximum distance of 2,800 miles.
To meet viewer demands and make the most of their investment, broadcasters must produce more live coverage, digital content, and ancillary programming than ever before. They must do this whilst also coping with the demands of a multi-country environment and maintaining high standards that befit such a major event that means so much to so many people.
For many rights owners, the 2026 World Cup may prove to be the most ambitious live sports production undertaking in their history.
Up to 45 cameras will be used at each match, with dedicated filming crews assigned to all 16 venues (Image credit: Getty Images)
AI, 5G and production at scale
But at least they won’t have to worry about capturing the matches themselves. Host Broadcasting Services (HBS) will once again produce and distribute live video feeds of every game, a role it has held since 2002. It will be based at the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Dallas, which previously hosted the facility during the 1994 World Cup.
Nearly 200 broadcasters will use the IBC to produce programming and edit highlights for viewers back home. The centre also houses the tournament’s Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system, live replay production and stadium screen content operation.
To reduce travel, dedicated filming crews have been assigned to all 16 venues, while a London-based postproduction hub will support the operation, replicating the model employed during the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Up to 45 cameras will be used at each match, including referee-worn body cameras designed to give viewers an on-field perspective of the action.
Lenovo’s AI-powered stabilisation software will process the footage in real time, while additional motion and player-tracking cameras will expand coverage from the round of 32 onwards. Workflows will be supported by Verizon’s 5G technology, providing the bandwidth and speed necessary to enable near real-time transmission of referee camera footage.
The IBC in Dallas will house production and editing staff from nearly 200 broadcasters (Image credit: Getty Images)
Fox’s big World Cup bet
The task of turning these feeds into compelling programming falls to Fifa’s media partners.
All eyes will be on US domestic English language broadcaster Fox to see how it can make the most of a once-in-a-generation soccer opportunity in a market that hasn’t always been so receptive to this most global of sports properties.
That it should make a profit is not in doubt. Fox won the rights for a relatively cut-price US$485 million before the US was confirmed as co-host, with Fifa reportedly keen to avoid the prospect of litigation over the decision to shift the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from summer to winter.
That move meant Fox had to compete with the National Football League (NBA), college football and National Basketball Association (NBA) for viewers. Indeed, some analysts estimate the value of the rights would have been between US$1 billion and US$1.5 billion on the open market.
Whereas American viewership previous World Cups have been hampered by time differences, a lack of visibility or public antipathy, the 2026 edition will benefit from the long-term growth in soccer in the US and heightened interest in a home World Cup among casual viewers.
Fox hopes increasing American interest in soccer will boost viewership for a home World Cup (Image credit: Getty Images)
To maximise its investment, Fox plans 340 hours of coverage, 100 more than four years ago, with 70 of the 104 matches airing on its main network. The remaining 34 fixtures will be broadcast on its FS1 cable channel, with every single match on its recently-launched Fox One direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform and selected games on its Tubi free ad-supported television (FAST) service.
Fox sees the tournament as a major test of its DTC strategy and is adding a range of technical and personalisation capabilities ahead of kick-off.
“It’s going to be huge, more than the entire NFL season,” Pete Distad, chief executive of DTC at Fox, tells SportsPro New York. “The pressure placed on our digital and broadcast operations teams is massive because we’ve got high expectations in terms of the reliability and latency. I hope it creates concern from a capacity perspective and I suspect it will.”
Fox and Telemundo, which holds the US Spanish-language rights, project a combined US$850 million in advertising revenue, underlining the tournament’s value to broadcasters, streaming platforms, and global advertisers alike.
On-site versus remote production
In Europe, the World Cup has always been a big event, with legislation in many countries protecting free-to-air (FTA) coverage on public service broadcasters (PSB). This ensures blanket coverage and huge audiences, however it does limit the amount Fifa can generate in media rights revenue.
An expanded World Cup should amplify the benefits for broadcasters, and potentially allow Fifa to secure additional income, but European broadcasters are divided in how they plan to tackle the tournament’s complexity.
The BBC and ITV will once again share the rights to the World Cup in the UK but the BBC will produce its coverage from Salford from the quarter finals onwards.
Former BBC anchor Gary Lineker, who will be in New York with his The Rest Is Football podcast, has poked fun at the decision. However current presenter Gabby Logan has defended the move, arguing it makes sense as a cost-saving and sustainability measure.
This is in contrast to ITV which is splitting production between the US and UK. Live coverage will emanate from a New York studio for the duration of the tournament, while key production functions will remain in London.
Paul McNamara, executive director and producer at ITV Sport, tells SportsPro that it plans to give “the greatest show on earth the respect it deserves”.
“It’s a tried and tested model for us – we obviously want to have our presenters on site who can tell the audience about the heat,” he says.
“It’s important for us to cover how America and New York are feeling about the World Cup, which we can do from there. If you’re in England, you can’t really take your viewers with you.
“But the wonders of technology – the infrastructure, graphics, editing, VTs – can all be made back in London, because that just runs over fibre. A VT could come from thousands of miles away – it makes no difference speed-wise.”
Our home in Brooklyn for the #FIFAWorldCup 🤩 pic.twitter.com/ULSZVjuyLt
— ITV Sport (@ITVSport) June 10, 2026
Pan-national broadcasters
Beyond the US and UK, Fifa has secured broadcast deals in more than 175 territories, relying on local partners to tailor coverage for different audiences. Some will cover multiple markets, including DAZN, which has the rights in Italy, Japan and Spain.
DAZN plans to draw upon the experience of covering last year’s Fifa Club World Cup and will combine centralised production with market-specific programming. However, despite playing a more limited role for the World Cup, it acknowledges the expanded tournament format, three host nations and potential weather disruptions presents new operational challenges.
“We have a central editorial guidance for the markets to receive the best moments of the tournament and to do not miss anything, but there are also local stories that will be captured by dedicated cameras,” Quim Domenech, DAZN’s executive vice president for global content and editorial tells SportsPro.
BeIN Sports is preparing a similarly ambitious operation for viewers in the MENA region and France. The broadcaster will air all 104 matches across seven linear channels and two OTT platforms with Arabic, English and French commentary.
Instead of operating from the IBC, BeIN will base production in Doha while deploying reporters across the host cities. Four new studios equipped with virtual and augmented reality technology will support up to 17 hours of daily live coverage.
Duncan Walkinshaw, BeIN’s director of programmes, describes the scale of its broadcast operation as “unprecedented” for the region.
“Rather than following individual teams, our reporters will be strategically deployed across the host cities to maximise access and coverage,” Walkinshaw tells SportsPro.
“Our technology is set up to move seamlessly between New York, Mexico City and Vancouver and back to our broadcast centre in Doha, where our four new studios, dedicated commentary facilities and extensive editing and highlights operations support the production.”
BeIN Sports has built four new studios in Doha to support up to 17 hours of live coverage (Image credit: BeIN Sports)
New routes of monetisation
One of the biggest changes for broadcasters is the introduction of mandatory three-minute hydration breaks during each half, a measure designed to aid player welfare during expected high temperatures.
However, Fifa is permitting broadcasters to air advertising during this time as a means to generate revenue and perhaps increase the value of its media rights in the future.
Partners are split on whether to exercise this freedom. Fox will show adverts in the US, while DAZN will do so on a market-by-market basis depending on demand. The BBC, which cannot air commercial content, will stick with the stadium feed but so will ITV, which generates most of its income from advertising.
Having already sold out its inventory, ITV is expecting record World Cup revenues and does not see the need for additional in-game monetisation that would potentially upset viewers.
“We will go to our reporters in the stadiums and if it’s an England or Scotland match, we’ll have people on the ground who can see things that the cameras can’t see,” Stuart Smith, programme editor at ITV Sport, explains to SportsPro. “We’ll never leave the stadium feed – it gives us an opportunity to analyse things we might not have the chance to usually.”
Hydration breaks will provide broadcasters with additional advertising opportunities to generate further revenue (Image credit: Getty Images)
Expanding reach on digital and social
But in the digital era of consumption, the live game is only part of the equation and broadcasters must also ensure their coverage reaches increasingly fragmented audiences. Digital platforms will also be especially important for European audiences given many matches will take place overnight.
In a bid to give media partners greater flexibility to monetise their matches, and to generate revenue from social platforms that profit from the tournament without rights, Fifa has signed its first “preferred platform” deals with TikTok and YouTube.
These arrangements formalise existing ad hoc practices. Both platforms will work with broadcast partners to distribute official clips, while also enabling creators to produce platform-specific content tailored to their audiences.
Broadcasters will also be able to stream up to ten minutes of each match on TikTok and YouTube, with select games available in full on YouTube. The BBC will, for example, stream the opening ten minutes of key fixtures across both platforms, hoping to drive younger audiences towards its coverage.
“Anytime anyone watches any piece of sporting content, they’re 42 per cent more likely to tune in [to live games],” Rollo Goldstaub, global head of sport at TikTok, tells SportsPro. “We’ve now even strengthened this with direct ways to link out, so there’s much more trackable, clickable and real action.
“With this partnership, TikTok becomes a destination for the World Cup in its own right. On the content side, what we can achieve together with Fifa as an organisation is drastically improved.”
Fifa, its broadcasters and its digital partners are all ready to deliver the biggest, most complex World Cup in history. But it does raise the question – just how much soccer can fans consume in such a condensed window?
“What people don’t really realise yet is how many games are actually in this World Cup – on days with four they’ll realise there’s basically 12 hours of football on each day,” says Smith. “The challenges are really great from that, to keep people interested and not let viewership fatigue set in. It will be really difficult to keep track of four time zones.”
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