When a senior NBCU exec told SBJ that conversations were already underway regarding the company’s interest in Spanish and English rights to the FIFA World Cup, it naturally created some waves within sports media circles.
Some of that has to do with rights not being determined yet for the 2030 tournament, and we’re less than four years away. That’s a big change from the last time a FIFA rights shift happened in 2011, when Fox and Telemundo secured rights to the 2018 and 2022 events by outbidding ESPN and Univision, who then became lame-duck broadcasters of the 2014 tourney.
But even as times, tech and consumer behavior have changed, would FIFA want all rights under one house? “It would be unlikely to see FIFA split the rights between two broadcast partners again,” said Ray Warren, the former president of Telemundo Deportes who now runs Warren Sports Advisory. “[FIFA has] learned a lot and I don’t see them splitting the rights. So if Telemundo were to acquire the [Spanish] rights, I believe NBC would have to participate.”
For the current iteration of the World Cup, reports have Fox paying around $485 million for English-language rights and Telemundo paying around $460 million for Spanish rights.
Bidders galore
Warren feels the platform that companies like Fox and NBCU should worry about the most is Netflix, as the streamer has tremendous domestic and global reach. Netflix already has rights in English and Spanish to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031, and it has brought on former Telemundo EVP/Sports Eli Velazquez to advise production.
Warren also did not want to discount Prime Video or Apple as potential landing spots for U.S. rights given their inroads in global sports. But then another question emerges on whether FIFA wants the one-stop-shop approach or prefers spreading out any risk by having multiple companies with rights.
Meanwhile, Fox Sports President Eric Shanks has publicly said his company remains interested in keeping rights to the event. Longtime sports media consultant Ed Desser feels that even with the likes of Netflix and NBCU lurking, it’s premature to write off Fox as a legit contender.
“I don’t know if they have back-end rights that put them in an advantage position for bidding next time around, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they did,” Desser said. “And don’t forget Fox … [which] has added both Tubi and Roku. So does that change the equation to some extent for them? Perhaps it does.”
Comcast-NBCU split complications?
The timing of NBCU’s claim it may also go after English World Cup rights was puzzling to some, as it was just days after Brian Roberts declared that Comcast and NBCU would be split up. That raised some questions as to whether NBCU actually would go big for a new event like the World Cup without the backing of Comcast.
But for Desser, he doesn’t see NBCU having to necessarily call in reinforcements to pursue rights like this.
“Even after a spinoff, NBCUniversal will be a significant company in the media business,” Desser said. “There’s no real reason that they would be disabled from making such a bid.”
Desser noted exclusivity for a company like NBCU would see benefits in production costs and ad sales, because a single purveyor of games means a network can charge a premium since they won’t be competing with another ad seller (network) for the same event.
