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The 2026 World Cup was a big ratings win for Fox Corporation FOXA and Comcast Corporation CMCSA, which have U.S. media rights for the once-every-four-year soccer tournament. With strong ratings and the potential for more games in the 2030 and 2034 tournaments, media and streaming giants are ready for a bidding war.
Politics could quickly become involved, with the FCC suggesting streamers need not bid.
2030, 2034 World Cup Rights
Four years from now, the 2030 World Cup will be hosted in Morocco, Portugal and Spain. Several companies could emerge victorious from the soccer tournament, including whoever gets the media rights in the U.S.
Fox and Telemundo, which is owned by Comcast, have shared the rights for English and Spanish language rights, respectively, in the United States for the last three years.
Fox paid an estimated $485 million for this year’s tournament rights, while Comcast paid $600 million for Spanish-language and streaming rights on Peacock.
Prior to Fox and Telemundo, the rights for the 2014 World Cup were split between Disney DIS and Univision.
This year’s World Cup ran from June 11 through July 19 and featured 104 matches, 40 more than the last World Cup, as the competition expanded from 32 to 48. The 2030 World Cup could feature 64 teams and 128 matches, according to ESPN.
That expanded format and strong viewership this year have bidders lining up for the rights to the next two World Cups.
CNBC reports that Disney, Netflix Inc NFLX and Alphabet Inc GOOGL owned YouTube are the likely bidders, with Apple Inc AAPL and Amazon.com Inc AMZN also potential players.
Estimates say the rights for 2030 and 2034 could be $1.5 billion to $2 billion each, with English and Spanish language rights being packaged together.
White House’s Warning
Before streamers throw their hats in the ring, they may want to listen to recent comments from Brendan Carr, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and ally of President Donald Trump.
"It’s a totally different cultural experience to have things like this for free over the air," Carr told talk show host Clay Travis.
Travis named Netflix, Amazon and ESPN as potential bidders. Carr hinted the goal was to keep the World Cup games in the U.S. available for free outside of cable or streaming.
"It brings so many more people together. It’s the top of conversation, whether social media or all the way down."
Carr said it was important to have the games available to everyone.
This might be important to remember as a Trump administration official previously warned media companies other than Paramount Skydance against bidding for Warner Bros. Discovery. This list included potential suitors like Netflix, Amazon.com, and Apple.
"The Warner board needs to think very seriously not just on the price competition but which player in the suitor pool has been successful getting a deal done," a Trump administration official previously said.
The spokesperson said specifically this meant the Ellisons, as in Paramount Skydance investors David and Larry Ellison.
Bidders thinking that they may be able to boost their cable rates or streaming figures with World Cup rights may need to think again with Carr’s warning.
Disney’s rights in 2010 saw ABC air 10 games and ESPN air the other 54, a move that would likely not fly with the White House administration going forward.
Fox aired some of the games on Fox Sports and some on the Fox broadcast channel this year.
A streamer like Netflix looking to land the rights may have to partner with or promise to air USA games on broadcast.
Netflix has the rights to the 2027 and 2031 Women’s World Cup, which means consumers won’t be able to watch the Team USA Women’s team for free in those tournaments.
2026 World Cup Success
This year’s tournament has seen media companies set records with NFL-like ratings numbers, according to Variety.
A round-of-32 knockout game between the United States and Bosnia-Herzegovina was watched by an average of 26.4 million fans in English and 9.8 million in Spanish. The game peaked at an average of 34.8 million English-language fans.
This makes the game the most-watched English-language soccer game in the United States.
For Fox and Comcast, it’s not just Team USA that is winning ratings.
“We’re seeing numbers for some of these matches that we don’t see for anything but the NFL,” Fox Sports’ president of insight and analytics Michael Mulvihill told Variety.
Over the first 72 group-stage games, the average viewership on Fox was 5.05 million per game. Even smaller country games have had strong viewership, with reports of 6 million people watching Scotland vs. Haiti and 6.2 million watching Uruguay and Cape Verde.
The championship game between Spain and Argentina has preliminary viewership of 22.6 million across Telemundo and Peacock.
Image via Shutterstock
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This article Trump's Ally Hints at Blocking Netflix, Amazon, ESPN From 2030 World Cup Rights originally appeared on Benzinga.com.
