Start on Thursday
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World Cups attract millions of people to the television – not just fans. The TV rights for the 2026 and 2030 tournaments are correspondingly valuable, and sales for the German market will begin on Thursday, according to “dpa” information. ARD and ZDF are traditionally considered the first candidates.
The public broadcasters are certainly interested, but face a problem: the World Cups have become too big. “ARD and ZDF will by no means be able to acquire the rights on their own,” said ZDF director Norbert Himmler to the German Press Agency. “This is only possible with additional partners here in Germany.” But who could that be, given the largest and therefore most expensive TV rights package that the world association FIFA has ever sold in this country?
In the next two tournaments, 48 teams will play instead of the previous 32, increasing the number of games from 64 to 104. Based on the estimated prices of the most recent European Championship and World Cup tournaments, the rights for two World Cups together could cost more than half a billion euros cost. Several broadcasters in Germany were already involved in the live broadcasts of the last three major tournaments. This required complicated contract structures. This was mainly due to the coup by “Telekom”, which completely unexpectedly secured the media rights for the home European Championship in 2019.
World Cups 2026 and 2030: Confusing program for TV viewers?
It was a little confusing for the TV audience at last year’s home European Championships. “ARD” and “ZDF” broadcast 17 games each, and twelve more matches were shown on “RTL”. And “Telekom” showed all the games live, five of them exclusively and only against payment.
While “ZDF” director Himmler has signaled the fundamental interest of the public broadcasters, who have been purchasing their rights for major international events together for decades, “RTL” and “Telekom” are holding back on the question of the upcoming World Cups. Like FIFA, both do not want to comment publicly at the moment. The problem with private broadcasters like “RTL” is that expensive sports rights can hardly be refinanced. Like its competition from “ProSiebenSat.1”, the Cologne broadcasting group has long been suffering from the weakening advertising industry. And “Telekom”? It has not acquired any major sports rights since its European Championship coup around six years ago.
World Cup 2026 and 2030: Important games not behind a paywall
Given the major changes in the media market, other providers could be interested in the high-reach world championships. There have been a few surprises recently. The streaming service “DAZN” bought the global rights for the Club World Cup from FIFA at the beginning of December. And “Netflix” shortly afterwards acquired the US rights to the Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031.
What is reassuring for football fans is that at least the most important games of the 2026 and 2030 tournaments will be shown at no additional cost and will not end up behind a pay barrier. The State Media Treaty stipulates that the German team’s World Cup matches, the opening game, the semi-finals and the final must be free to air. This is guaranteed with classic TV providers such as “ARD”, “ZDF” or “RTL”, but would theoretically also be possible with a free internet offer. The sales process for the World Cup rights is likely to take several months. So FIFA launched in the UK in April and signed a deal in December. It is a contract for TV, audio and digital platforms that would also be conceivable in Germany in a similar form: the rights for the island were bought jointly by the public broadcaster “BBC” and the private provider “ITV”.