Panaji: Ever since Doordarshan broadcast live the semifinals and final of the football World Cup in 1982 and Diego Maradona’s famous exploits in full for the first time from Mexico ’86, every four years fans in India have stayed up late into the night to watch the global sporting showpiece on TV.This time, however, with little over two months to go for the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada, the fate of the live telecast of the World Cup in this region hangs in the balance, with no confirmation yet of any broadcaster picking up the media rights for either this edition or the one in 2030.Last month, FIFA confirmed media rights sales in key Asian markets for the World Cup with Japan (Dentsu), Korea Republic (JTBC), Hong Kong (PCCW), Indonesia (TVRI) and Singapore (Mediacorp) on the list. Football’s governing body said it aimed to ensure that coverage of the tournament reaches the broadest possible audience through a range of platforms across the continent.The absence of two of the world’s most populous nations, India and China, among the 179 confirmed territories was hard to miss. FIFA updated the list last week on April 3. At the Qatar World Cup four years ago, China (1,161 million viewers) and India (745 million) were two of the biggest markets for FIFA. This time, FIFA’s media rights are still up for grabs.Industry sources says media rights are being too expensively priced at $40 million (approx. 370 cr). “At the price that FIFA is offering the media rights (for the subcontinent), it does not make business sense,” sources told TOI. “Only 10% of the matches kick off at prime time for TV audiences in India. There is a lot of market uncertainty (due to the war in West Asia) and money has already been committed to cricket, India’s most popular sport by some distance.”When FIFA reached out to potential partners in India last year, they were told that the rights would cost $100 million. A few months ago, that price was brought down to $65 million with companies asked to “match the fee from four years ago.” There were still no takers, prompting FIFA to slash the rates further and now seek anywhere between $35-40 million (approx. Rs 325-370 crore).According to experts, investing such a big sum on the rights does not make business sense because of the graveyard shift kick-off timings in India. Of the 104 matches, only 13 will kick off at prime time for TV audiences in India, while the rest will start between 12 midnight and 9.30 am IST due to the time difference. “In 2022, when the World Cup was played in Qatar, the timings were perfect for India, yet the broadcaster suffered losses. Currency volatility with the dollar at an all-time high (against the rupee) makes the task even more difficult,” he said.
