Netflix, Disney, and Alphabet's YouTube are each preparing to challenge Fox for the U.S. broadcast rights to the 2030 and 2034 FIFA World Cup, with media executives internally budgeting between $1.5 billion and $2 billion per tournament, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the talks are private.
Formal discussions between FIFA and potential media partners are expected to begin within the next three months, the people said.
The negotiations come as this year's tournament — co-hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada — has generated viewership figures that rival NFL playoff games. Last week's U.S. victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina averaged more than 26 million viewers on Fox, making it the most-watched soccer telecast in English-language history, according to Fox Sports. An additional 9.8 million viewers watched on either Telemundo or Peacock. Combined English- and Spanish-language audiences for Monday's U.S.-Belgium match averaged 47.9 million viewers, according to estimates from AdImpact.
One structural change could significantly reshape the bidding landscape. FIFA has signaled to media companies during preliminary talks, which began earlier this year, that English- and Spanish-language U.S. rights are likely to be sold together as a single package — a departure from the arrangement used for the current tournament, the people said.
For this year's World Cup, Fox paid $485 million for English-language rights, according to The Athletic, while NBCUniversal's Telemundo paid $600 million for Spanish-language rights, according to people familiar with the matter. Those deals were originally struck in 2011 and extended through 2026 four years later.
Bundling the two language rights into one package could push bid prices higher by consolidating a larger audience into a single deal, while also eliminating competitive tension between broadcasters airing the same games in different languages. Telemundo's Peacock streaming service, which charges $10.99 per month compared with Fox's Fox One at $19.99 per month, has at times drawn English-speaking audiences away from Fox's coverage — a friction that a unified rights package would resolve.
If rights are priced near $2 billion, NBCUniversal is not likely to compete for them, according to people familiar with the matter. The company already spends billions annually on NFL "Sunday Night Football" and NBA basketball rights, and Comcast announced last month it intends to spin out NBCUniversal. An NBC spokesperson declined to comment.
Amazon, which holds UEFA Champions League rights in the United Kingdom, and Apple, which owns global MLS rights, could also enter bidding, further intensifying competition for the package, the people said.
FIFA has already shown a degree of comfort with streaming platforms, having awarded Netflix rights to the Women's World Cup in 2027 and 2031. Disney, for its part, could offer FIFA distribution across both streaming and its traditional broadcast properties — ESPN and ABC — a combination that may appeal to the governing body as it weighs reach alongside rights fees.
The next two tournaments present a scheduling complication, however. The 2030 World Cup will be held across Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, which carry a five-to-six-hour time difference from the U.S. Eastern time zone. The 2034 edition is set for Saudi Arabia, where the gap is wider still — a factor that could temper U.S. viewership compared with this year's home tournament.
Spokespeople for FIFA, Netflix, YouTube, and Disney all declined to comment.
With formal negotiations still months away and current tournament ratings continuing to climb, the final price for the next cycle of rights will likely reflect the elevated benchmark set by this summer's record-breaking viewership.
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