In the United States, the search for television rights extends until the 2022 World Cup. In previous years, ESPN has held on to the rights.
ESPN was at the center of some of the most memorable moments in recent World Cup history. In 2014, Mario Gotze’s goal against Argentina in extra time gave Germany the World Cup. Eight years earlier, ESPN broadcast Zinedine Zidane’s header against Italy in the final. ESPN had the rights beginning in 1994, when the World Cup first came to the United States.
However, ESPN does not have the television rights to the 2022 World Cup.
Instead, they belong to the provider responsible for the vast majority of international tournaments, FOX. That’s just for English language rights. Spanish audiences go through Telemundo and related platforms.
Which provider has the TV rights for the 2022 World Cup?
In its bid to acquire as many international competition rights as possible, FOX purchased the rights to the FIFA World Cup in 2011. Back then, FIFA licensed the rights to the Men’s World Cup and the Women’s World Cup. Therefore, the first World Cup to be broadcast on the FOX family of channels was the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada.
Since then, FOX broadcast the 2018 World Cup from Russia. Now, it is scheduled to broadcast the 2022 World Cup from Qatar for American audiences. FOX’s deal for World Cup rights includes the 2026 World Cup. However, ESPN is putting its name back in the ring to broadcast the 2030 World Cup.
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spanish language rights
As stated, the Spanish television rights for the 2022 World Cup belong to Telemundo. The OTA channel also uses Universo to stream games. Telemundo also uses NBC’s paid streaming platform Peacock to broadcast all 64 World Cup games.
Like FOX, Telemundo began broadcasting the World Cup in 2018, taking over from Univision and UniMás. The previous rights holder also had a tenure of more than two decades, as did ESPN.
PHOTO: IMAGO / Laci Perenyi
