New Delhi: FIFA is struggling to find buyers in India for the media rights of the 2026 and 2030 World Cups. According to The Economic Times report, the global football governing body has started the process to sell the media rights in India in July 2025, but failed to find a buyer. The 2026 World Cup is set to begin on June 11 in the USA, Mexico and Canada.
FIFA also slashed its asking price from $100 million to $35 million, officials told The Economic Times. As per the report, Jiostar have valued the media rights at around $25 million for the 2026 and 2030 editions. FIFA sold the 2022 World Cup media rights to Viacom 18 for $62 million, which was hosted by Qatar. It later got merged with Star India in November 2024 to form Jiostar.
This merger has reduced the competitive intensity in the Indian market, leaving fewer serious bidders for sports rights. Sony Pictures Network India is also very cautious in acquiring sports rights due to profitability pressures.
Dream Sports-owned Fancode and Warner Bros. Discovery-owned Eurosport might not invest in premium sports media rights, which leaves FIFA to rely on Jiostar, the Network which dominates Indian sports broadcasting through Star Sports and JioHotstar.
The global football body has also approached Zee Entertainment Enterprises, which is also aiming to launch sports channels and is the broadcaster of the International League T20 (ILT20).
Heavy spending on cricket rights
The Indian Sports channels have invested around $10 billion in Cricket rights between 2022 and 2023. The BCCI, Indian Premier League (IPL), International Cricket Council (ICC), Australia and South Africa’s media rights are owned by Jiostar, while Asian Cricket Council (ACC), England and New Zealand’s media rights are secured by Sony.
Jiostar also holds the media rights of the English Premier League (EPL) in India, while UEFA (Champions League, Europa League and Euro), Germany’s Bundesliga and Indian Super League (ISL) media rights are with Sony. FanCode is the holder of Spain’s La Liga and the Indian Super League streaming rights in India.
Football is the second most-followed sport in India with over 300 million viewers across TV and digital in 2025. But the sport is mostly popular in metro cities and regions such as the Northeast, Goa and Kerala. The 2022 FIFA World Cup final drew more than 12.1 million concurrent viewers on Jio Cinema, which later merged with Disney+Hotstar to form JioHotstar.