FIFA has launched a formal tender inviting broadcasters and streaming platforms to bid on U.S. and Puerto Rico media rights for the 2030 and 2034 Men's World Cups. It is the first competitive, open bidding process for these rights since 2011, with proposals due November 19, 2026, and awards expected before year's end.
How the Bidding Structure Works
Companies can bid solely on the 2030 tournament - hosted primarily in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco, with centennial matches in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay - or submit a combined package that also covers the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia. Notably, FIFA has not granted exclusive early-negotiation windows to incumbent rights holders Fox Sports and Telemundo, meaning they must compete on equal terms with ESPN, NBCUniversal, and streaming giants Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube. FIFA has signaled it would prefer to sell English- and Spanish-language rights to a single buyer to simplify production and cross-platform coordination, though it has left the door open to splitting the package among multiple partners.
A Scheduling Puzzle for 2034
Valuing the 2034 rights is complicated by uncertainty over when that tournament will actually take place. FIFA chief business officer Romy Gai said the organization is "concretely considering" moving the Saudi Arabia-hosted event out of its traditional June-July slot to avoid extreme heat, following the model set by Qatar in 2022, which shifted to November-December. But that window creates its own problems: Ramadan is projected to run from roughly November 12 to December 10 in 2034, overlapping heavily with a standard late-year tournament calendar. As a result, industry observers suggest FIFA may push the event into early 2035 instead. Any move away from the traditional summer slot would also force U.S. rights holders to schedule World Cup coverage against the NFL, college football, the NBA, and the NHL - a far more crowded and competitive broadcast landscape than the typically quieter summer months.
Revenue Targets and Free-to-Air Requirements
FIFA is pushing for substantial growth over the combined $950 million that Fox Sports and Telemundo paid for 2026 cycle rights. For the 2027-2030 commercial cycle, the organization has budgeted for a 15% increase in global media rights revenue - about $800 million more - targeting a total of $6.1 billion. Despite the appeal of exclusive streaming deals, FIFA has built in a consumer-protection requirement: whichever platform secures exclusive rights must still make select marquee matches available on unencrypted, free-to-air television, preserving broad public access to the tournament's biggest games.