Fox Sports, ESPN, and Netflix have begun informal positioning for U.S. broadcast rights to the 2030 FIFA World Cup, according to three people familiar with early conversations, after the 2026 tournament on North American soil generated an estimated $8 billion in total revenue and proved streaming-native viewing windows can coexist with linear primetime.
FIFA has not yet issued a formal Request for Proposal, but the three media companies have already held exploratory meetings with Zurich in recent weeks, two of the people said. Fox currently holds English-language rights through 2026 under a deal signed in 2011 for approximately $400 million. Telemundo holds Spanish-language rights in a separate package. The 2030 rights are expected to command at least $2 billion for combined English and Spanish packages, reflecting both the U.S. co-hosting bump in 2026 and soccer's demographic tilt toward younger, higher-income viewers advertisers pay premium CPMs to reach.
The timing matters because the commercial success of 2026 exceeded internal FIFA projections by roughly 18 percent, driven by sellout crowds across all 104 matches and a U.S. viewership average of 11.2 million per match during the knockout rounds, per Nielsen. That figure includes both linear and authenticated streaming, a measurement baseline FIFA is expected to formalize in the next rights cycle to avoid the attribution fights that plagued Euro 2024 and the last two Olympics. Netflix's involvement represents the first time a pure-streaming platform has credibly pursued a men's World Cup package; the company declined to bid on 2026 rights in 2011 but has since signed live sports deals for NFL Christmas games, WWE Raw, and a nascent European soccer slate that includes Champions League rights in Brazil.
For Fox, retaining the property is existential. Soccer programming accounted for 31 percent of the network's total advertising revenue in 2026, up from 19 percent in 2022, and losing the World Cup would create a $600 million annual revenue hole the company would struggle to backfill without another anchor sports property. ESPN faces a different calculation: the network is in year two of a managed decline in linear subscribers—down 8.4 million households since January 2025—but its direct-to-consumer ESPN+ platform added 4.1 million subscribers during the 2026 World Cup window, the largest net-add month in the service's history. Parent company Disney has told investors it expects standalone streaming profitability by fiscal 2028, and a marquee global event that plays across both linear and DTC could accelerate that timeline.
Netflix's bid, if it materializes, would test FIFA's willingness to grant exclusive rights to a platform without a legacy sports production infrastructure. The company has quietly built a live-event operations team in Los Angeles over the past 18 months, hiring 37 staffers from ESPN, DAZN, and Turner, but has not yet produced a multi-week tournament with more than 12 concurrent venues. One sponsor executive, speaking anonymously because his company advertises with both FIFA and Netflix, said the streamer's lack of a traditional ad-sales team creates complexity for brands that rely on make-goods and audience guarantees.
What to watch: FIFA typically begins formal rights negotiations 18 to 24 months before the tournament, which would place the auction window in late 2028. Fox will also be negotiating to retain its 2027 Women's World Cup rights, a package that could be bundled or split depending on whether Telemundo and Peacock make a joint bid. Netflix's next live sports event, a tennis exhibition in Indian Wells this November, will serve as an informal audition for production scale.
The 2030 tournament is scheduled for Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Spain, Portugal, and Morocco—a six-country format that creates logistical challenges for broadcasters but also offers four distinct time zones for live windows. The U.S. rights winner will almost certainly simulcast in Spanish, either through a sister network or a sublicense, rendering the Telemundo question moot if ESPN or Fox wins outright.
The takeaway
Fox, ESPN, and Netflix are positioning for 2030 U.S. World Cup rights worth an estimated **$2B+**, up from **$400M** in 2011, as FIFA prepares to auction after 2026's **$8B** revenue haul.
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