October 23: FIFA opens bidding for US media rights to the 2030 World Cup, with bidders also having the 2034 tournament as an option.
Broadcasters and streaming platforms have until Nov. 19 to submit proposals covering the United States and Puerto Rico, opening a rights cycle previously dominated by English-language Fox and Spanish-language Telemundo.
FIFA says the expanded 2026 World Cup averaged 13.5 million US viewers across linear and streaming platforms across its 104 matches, a 166% increase over Qatar 2022.
Among those numbers, each U.S. national team game drew more than 20 million, while the final averaged 63 million viewers, the largest U.S. audience ever recorded for a soccer match.
This gives FIFA more leverage as it returns to the market, although the next two tournaments present a different broadcast proposition.
The 2030 World Cup will focus on Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with three centenary matches in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Saudi Arabia will then host in 2034. Both will inevitably produce start times less accommodating to American audiences than a tournament largely played on home soil.
US viewing figures are likely to drop over the next two tournaments due to this time zone issue, but that’s a reality FIFA wants to overlook by bundling the two packages together and capitalizing on its American momentum.
FIFA also seems willing to widen the field. Its tender specifically invites broadcasters and streaming platforms and says it is open to “innovative approaches” to reach larger audiences.
This could put some of the biggest digital platforms up for grabs. Industry reports earlier this year identified ESPN, Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime Video along with Fox and Telemundo as headliners to look into the next cycle.
The potential value is a bit unclear. The 2026 World Cup with its mandatory hydration breaks turned a game of two halves into one of four quarters. This, in turn, created new in-game ad inventory that gave Fox and the advertising windfall between $250 and $330 million. FIFA has not publicly confirmed whether hydration breaks will be mandatory in 2030.
Estimates have put the value of the rights to the two tournaments at $4 billion. FIFA has not said whether it intends to pool the English and Spanish rights or split the packages, and the tender leaves open the possibility of appointing more than one rights holder.
Secretary General Mattias Grafström said FIFA was looking for a partner capable of reaching fans “wherever and how they want to watch”.
Fox and Telemundo staged the last three men’s World Cups in the United States, but the next round comes with a more crowded broadcast market and a 2026 audience figure that FIFA will want to turn into a sizeable boost to rights revenue. Money is the unwavering incentive for the world governing body.
Bids must be submitted by noon EST on November 19th.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at harry.ewing@insideworldfootball.com
