FIFA has begun soliciting bids for rights to the 2030 World Cup; ESPN can reportedly sublicense more games within a 24-team College Football Playoff; and Fubo inks distribution deals for some regional networks televising NBA games. Plus news on CBS Sports, Comcast, Versant and Ron Duguay.
FIFA begins soliciting 2030 World Cup rights bids
FIFA announced Thursday that it has begun soliciting bids for media rights to the 2030 World Cup in the United States and Puerto Rico. The governing body has placed a deadline of Thursday, Nov. 19 for the bids, and in-person meetings between a FIFA contingent and media companies are expected to occur “around Thanksgiving,” according to Alex Sherman of CNBC. Per Sherman, FIFA plans to make a decision by the end of the year.
Companies will have the option to bid on both the 2030 and 2034 tournaments. FIFA’s preference is a single partner who can bundle the English and Spanish rights to the tournament together, although that is not a requirement, a FIFA spokesperson told Sports Media Watch. FIFA is open to multiple approaches for the media rights package, including potentially agreeing to separate linear and streaming deals, per a report by Brian Steinberg of Variety. Sherman added that FIFA would make sure “a certain number of matches are available for free” should a streamer acquire the rights.
In an interview with Richard Deitsch of Sports Business Journal earlier this year, Fox Sports president/EP Brad Zager said the company is “[a]bsolutely” interested in broadcasting the 2030 FIFA World Cup. Other companies have signaled interest in bidding for World Cup rights, including Netflix, ESPN and Amazon’s Prime Video. Netflix already secured the media rights to the 2030 World Cup in Spain and Andorra as part of a deal announced earlier this month, and it will televise the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournaments in the United States and Canada.
“We are looking for a partner who shares our commitment to innovation, who can bring every moment of the action to fans wherever and however they choose to watch, and who is committed to the next phase of football’s growth in North America,” Mattias Grafström, secretary general of FIFA, said in a statement. The 2030 World Cup will take place in Morocco, Portugal and Spain, while the 2034 version will occur in Saudi Arabia. This past iteration of the tournament averaged 7.74 million viewers on Fox Sports networks (pre-match coverage included) and 6.3 million on Telemundo and Peacock, according to data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
ESPN can reportedly sublicense new CFP games
ESPN has the right to sublicense half of the 12 additional College Football Playoff games it is acquiring as part of the field’s expansion to 24 teams, Ross Dellenger of On3 reported Thursday, either by expanding its current sublicensing agreement with TNT Sports or by reaching a new deal with a single additional partner.
TNT Sports, now owned by Skydance Corporation, has been sublicensing two first-round CFP games in the expanded 12-team format for the last two seasons under a five-year deal with ESPN. That deal expands this season to include two quarterfinal matchups and a semifinal game, expanding its overall inventory to five games.
In the event that TNT Sports is not interested in additional games, ESPN could reportedly sublicense to one other additional network.
ESPN reached a “handshake agreement” last week to continue carrying the entire CFP, according to Heather Dinich of ESPN. Dinich reported that the expansion is expected to end “the lucrative Power 4 conference championship games and start the season a week earlier.” ESPN has broadcast CFP games since the competition began in 2015 after the conclusion of the Bowl Championship Series. Dellenger also reported that the CFP will not be able to expand again until 2032 at the earliest under the agreement with ESPN. The College Football Playoff last expanded from four to 12 teams ahead of the 2024-25 campaign.
Fubo inks distribution deals for some NBA RSNs
Fubo has reached distribution agreements for several of the regional networks carrying local broadcasts of the NBA this season. The teams whose regional games will now be accessible through the service are the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Oklahoma City Thunder and Orlando Magic.
The vMVPD has been carrying some of the other networks televising local NBA coverage this year, including Chicago Sports Network, Arizona’s Family Sports and the NBC Sports-branded RSNs among others. Earlier in the month, the LA Clippers announced that Fubo would distribute ClipperVision, the team-owned streaming service that relaunched with linear distribution ahead of the season.
Fubo EVP/content strategy and acquisition Todd Mathers said in a statement that the platform has more than “75% of local NBA regional sports networks” on its platform. The company also has over 50 regional sports networks in total.
Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal reported in April that Fubo reached out to teams formerly televised by Main Street Sports Group in an attempt to “create a short-term RSN” and “then campaign to be the NBA’s centralized streaming hub,” which is expected to debut ahead of next season. Fubo did not end up striking a deal with any of the teams on the market. It remains unknown if Fubo is trying to secure rights to the centralized product. Friend has reported that YouTube is in advanced talks with the league to land the package that would initially aggregate local rights for “20 to 25 teams,” potentially for more than $1 billion.
Plus: CBS Sports, Comcast, Versant, Ron Duguay
- CBS Sports acquired the U.S. Spanish-language rights to the Concacaf Champions Cup, airing all of the tournament’s matches through 2030 on Paramount+, it was announced on Thursday. The company had already landed the English-language rights to the tournament under a multiyear rights deal in July, and select games will air in English on the CBS Sports Network and CBS Sports Golazo Network throughout the tournament. The CBS Sports App will also have a selection of matches available for free in English and Spanish. CBS Sports is continuing to broadcast the Concacaf Caribbean Cup and Concacaf Central American Cup through 2030 as well.
- Comcast is “on track” to complete its separation of NBCUniversal into a separate, publicly-traded company “by the middle of next year,” company co-CEO Mike Cavanagh said on the company’s quarterly earnings call Thursday. Cavanagh: “While there is still significant work ahead, we have a clear path to completion and remain focused on creating two companies with the strategic flexibility, financial strength, and leadership to compete and grow independently.” Comcast registered $5.36 billion in revenue within its content and experiences division for the fiscal third quarter, $224 million of which was “incremental revenue from the FIFA World Cup.” Peacock also turned a profit for a second consecutive quarter with EBITDA of $261 million and remaining at 48 million subscribers (+17% YoY).
- Versant CEO Mark Lazarus said at the Axios Media Trends Live conference on Tuesday that the company is unlikely to buy cable networks owned by Skydance Corporation if they are to be put up for sale. Lazarus: “[B]uying more cable assets on a large scale would prolong our life, but not necessarily make our life better because we’d still have the secular decline.”
- Former MSG Networks studio analyst and New York Rangers C Ron Duguay passed away on Thursday at the age of 69 following a bout with cancer. Duguay played 12 NHL seasons and proceeded to join MSG Networks where he was a frequent presence on studio coverage of Rangers games for more than a decade, along with the “Hockey Night Live” and “MSG Hockey Show” programs.
