[Saba Sports News] British media outlets report that a host of media giants are gearing up to bid for U.S. broadcast rights to the 2030 and 2034 FIFA World Cups, looking to dislodge Fox from its current market position as the rights holder. Netflix, The Walt Disney Company and YouTube, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., have all signalled clear interest in submitting bids, while Amazon and Apple may also join the fray. Sources state formal negotiations between FIFA and prospective media partners are expected to kick off within the next three months. During preliminary outreach earlier this year, FIFA informed media firms that English-language and Spanish-language broadcast rights for the U.S. market will most likely be sold as a single bundled package, rather than tendered separately as seen with the 2026 tournament and all prior editions. This policy shift is designed to strengthen FIFA’s negotiating leverage, drive up total bidding values, and mitigate conflicts that arise when different broadcasters air the same matches simultaneously. Executives from each media group are drawing up bid budgets ranging from $1.5 billion to $2 billion per tournament to cover the combined English and Spanish U.S. broadcast rights.
The editor believes that Fox currently holds the English-language U.S. broadcast rights for the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a payment of 485 million US dollars, while Telemundo, owned by NBCUniversal, owns the Spanish-language rights for the same tournament. This new round of bidding for broadcast rights will reshape the existing market landscape and spark fierce competition across the media industry.