$1bn TV battle for World Cup begins with three huge broadcasters to challenge record-breaking Fox

The World Cup has been a record-breaking broadcast success for Fox Sports.

Soccer fever has swept the United States in recent weeks, and despite a humbling 4-1 defeat to Belgium that ends the USMNT’s campaign at the last-16 once again, millions of viewers have been tuning in for games.

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Fox confirmed Tuesday that the US vs Belgium game set another record as the most-watched soccer telecast in US history.

The audience peaked at more than 36.8 million people between 9:15 and 9:30pm ET, just days after similar numbers witnessed the win against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32.

Fox has also reported that a massive 11.1 million viewers tuned in to the Portugal vs Croatia knockout match, which is the most viewers in English language history in the US for any World Cup game without the home nation.

Given how much interest there has been for the 2026 tournament, it seems the network landed what could be the last major broadcast rights steal.

Fox picked up the English language media rights for this summer’s World Cup at a bargain price of $485 million. NBCUniversal, which owns Telemundo, is paying $600m for Spanish language rights.

But thanks to record TV ratings, the market is going to reset, and FIFA appears in line for a massive payday.

World Cup sweepstake begins after Fox’s record-breaking summer

Front Office Sports reports that bidding for the 2030 and 2034 tournaments could start at $1 billion.

“There’s no question that FIFA is going to get a huge increase for its US rights,” Doug Perlman, chief executive of Sports Media Advisors, told the outlet.

While he didn’t put a figure on the package, a $1bn entry point would mark more than a 100 percent increase from the 2026 tournament.

“First of all, the rights fee for the current World Cup is well under market so they’ll be coming off a low base,” Perlman added.

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“Second, soccer generally and the World Cup specifically have driven tremendous value for numerous media companies.

“Fox and Telemundo will certainly want to retain the rights but lots of others, including the streamers, will go after a ‘must see’ property that can drive subscriber acquisition, retention and engagement.

“When a property becomes strategic, like the World Cup now has, that’s when you see dramatic increases.”

Veteran media advisor Daniel Cohen, the executive vice president of Octagon’s Global Media Rights Consulting division, believes FIFA could package English and Spanish language rights together for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups at $3bn, according to FOS.

However, less friendly time zones for the 2030 event, which will be hosted across Morocco, Portugal and Spain, could be a factor.

Which networks could bid for next US World Cup rights package?

Most games will likely be played around five hours ahead of East Coast time, and eight hours ahead of West Coast time, limiting the amount of primetime broadcasts in the US.

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Despite that worry, Alex Sherman of CNBC Sport reports that Netflix, Disney and YouTube are all interested in ‘challenging Fox for the US broadcast rights’ to the 2030 and 2034 World Cup.

Amazon and Apple could also enter the mix to fuel a bidding war over the packages.

Sherman reports that discussions between FIFA and potential media partners are expected to begin in the next three months.

Executives are said to be budgeting between $1.5bn and $2bn for the rights, across languages, which could be combined to ‘eliminate some tensions’ between rival media companies airing the same games.

NBCUniversal, however, may not have the money to compete for a deal if bidding rises as expected.

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