Fox utilized full-screen commercial breaks for the first two hydration breaks of the 2026 World Cup, and it led to the network missing a small portion of the second half of the opener between Mexico and South Africa on Thursday.
Fox Sports still plans to use a hybrid, picture-in-picture approach for the breaks throughout the tournament, but on Thursday that wasn’t the case. In the first half, the first break “Powered by Powerade” came around the 24:20 mark, and Fox cut to a full-screen break for 2 minutes. There were ads for AT&T, Lowe’s, Michelob Ultra and FanDuel, as well as what appeared to be a 30-second house ad promoting the USMNT’s match against Paraguay on Friday night.
The issue came in the second half with the second hydration break. Though Mexico was leading a one-sided affair 2-0, Fox’s 2-minute break ran long, and when it returned, the match had already started back, albeit only a handful of seconds before.
The Athletic, citing sources, reported that the mishap actually broke a World Cup rule, which reportedly says that the broadcaster must return to the match feed at least 30 seconds before play resumed. Telemundo did not cut to a full commercial for the hydration breaks, as SBJ reported last week, and used on-screen graphic ads during the allotted time period.
We DO NOT cut to commercials during the hydration break. Join us for uninterrupted football on @Telemundo and @TelemundoSports https://t.co/rM9C9QLw9s
— Alejandro Berry (@alejandroberry) June 11, 2026
At halftime, Fox spent nearly 10 minutes in a full commercial break while mixing in highlights and analysis. The lengthiest ad of the first match appeared to be a 60-second spot for Lays.
In addition to full-screen commercial breaks, Fox had two scorebug ads that ran during the match: one in each half. Verizon had a scorebug drop-down logo for a full three minutes early in the first half. Visa, meanwhile, had its own three-minute scorebug ad just a few minutes into the second half.
Meanwhile, FS1 also utilized full-screen commercials for the hydrations breaks in the second match of the day between Korea and Czechia on Thursday night. FS1 did not miss any game action for the second match.
SBJ tracked Thursday’s World Cup ads on Charlotte-based WJZY.
