FIFA, the global governing body of soccer, has initiated an invitation to tender (ITT) in France for media rights to the 2026 and 2030 World Cups. The tender process also extends to Monaco, Andorra, and French overseas territories.
The upcoming World Cup matches promise exciting developments for sports fans worldwide. The 2026 edition will be hosted by Mexico, the US, and Canada. It is set to break records with a total of 48 teams participating across a staggering 104 matches.
Meanwhile, the primary hosts for the tournament's centenary celebration in 2030 will be Morocco, Portugal, and Spain. However, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay are also set to stage three matches as part of this historic event marking a century since the inaugural World Cup.
Interested parties have until February 13 at 10 am Central European Time (CET) to submit their bids for both tenders in France. Requests can be made by contacting france-media-rights@fifa.org.
There will likely be a lot of competition for these rights this time
In France's previous dealings with FIFA media rights for the World Cup tournaments; TF1 - a public-service broadcaster - along with pay-TV giant BeIN Sports held rights to broadcast the games from Qatar's tournament in 2022. This partnership proved successful as it generated record-breaking television audiences during the finals of France vs Argentina which saw an average viewership of approximately twenty-five million across free-to-air TV channels as well as pay-TV platforms.
FIFA has been active recently regarding its media rights tenders globally. In sub-Saharan Africa two tender processes were opened covering media rights not only for men’s but also women’s world cup events scheduled respectively in years: '26 & '27. The deadline for these bids was set for December 13.
South Korea also saw FIFA opening tenders covering the same two tournaments, with potential extensions to the 2030 and 2031 editions. This process had a deadline of December 5.
In recent news, Austrian public-service broadcaster ORF secured rights to broadcast the World Cup in '26 this past November. Additionally, free-to-air Australian broadcaster SBS announced in late October that it would continue as the exclusive men’s World Cup broadcast partner through to '26.
This flurry of activity from FIFA indicates a proactive approach towards ensuring global coverage of their upcoming events and offers an exciting opportunity for media companies across France and beyond.
