World Cup 2026 live on ARD, ZDF and MagentaTV – Germany games on free TV?

TV, stream and media library

World Cup broadcast: The World Cup games are shown on these TV channels

At the 2026 Football World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico, 48 teams will fight for the title in a total of 104 games for the first time. Here you will find an overview of the broadcasts on free TV and streaming providers.

Telekom has secured all media rights for the tournament. This makes MagentaTV the only provider in Germany to broadcast all 104 games of the 2026 World Cup live. 44 of these games are exclusively at Telekom streaming provider can be seen and are not shown on free TV.

The first exclusive matches have already been determined: MagentaTV will show, among other things, all group games of the Turkish national team as well as the opening game of co-favorites France against Senegal.

Even without a paid subscription, football fans can follow a large part of the tournament. The public broadcasters ARD and ZDF will broadcast a total of 60 matches live. This includes:

• The official opening game between Mexico and South Africa (June 11, 9 p.m. CEST on ZDF)
• The World Cup final (July 19, 9 p.m. CEST on ZDF)
• All games of the German national team

In addition to the live rights, ARD and ZDF have also secured comprehensive exploitation rights. This allows broadcasters to offer highlight summaries of all 104 games on all platforms and in their media libraries.

The DFB-Elf’s preliminary round games in Group E will be broadcast entirely on free TV. Here are the group stage dates:

If national coach Julian Nagelsmann’s team reaches the knockout round, the public broadcasters will split the broadcasts as follows: ZDF would show a possible round of 16 and quarter-finals, while ARD would broadcast the round of 16 and semi-finals.