Recommendations of the Editorial team
Can you see better with the second one? At least that is not true for the start of the 2026 World Cup in Mexico, Canada and the USA. ZDF botched it on Thursday (June 11th) when it switched on seven minutes later during the opening ceremony and missed performances by stars like Danny Ocean and Lila Downs. Andrea Bocelli and singer Ejae couldn’t be heard either.
When ZDF presenter Oliver Schmidt, who later also accompanied the Mexico game against South Africa, got in touch, he almost acted as if the station had come on time. “Buen dia from the Aztec Stadium, the cathedral of Mexican football. It’s a fairground of Latin American rhythms. It’s exuberant, it’s wonderful and we see Belinda and Los Ángeles Azules.”
While the entire celebration was shown on streamer MagentaTV, there was only advertising on ZDF. Minutes earlier, ex-Freiburg coach Christian Streich had been welcomed into the gym as an expert, then there was an endlessly long commercial break. At least it went on air in time for Shakira and Burna Boy’s performance (with their World Cup song “Dai Dai”).
Statement from ZDF on the World Cup opening ceremony
ZDF has now reacted and provided an explanation for the late start. To put it mildly, it seems strange and a bit stroppy. “ZDF understands the criticism that an advertising block was broadcast during the first minutes of the opening ceremony. ZDF is required to cover part of its budget by broadcasting advertising,” the broadcaster said in a statement. It almost sounds like someone is saying: If you, dear viewers, paid more fees, we wouldn’t have to show any advertising and you could have seen the entire show.
In this context, ZDF pointed out that 20 minutes of advertising can be broadcast daily from Monday to Saturday until 8 p.m. The last commercial block ran on Thursday around 7:44 p.m. However, there is nothing in the State Broadcasting Treaty about compulsory advertising.
The question that remained unanswered by ZDF is why they didn’t put the advertising break at a different time when there was no risk of cutting off part of the opening ceremony.