The World Cup India will not see, until it does

Nine weeks from now, the world will turn towards Mexico City. Forty-eight teams, 104 matches, 39 days. Late nights that bleed into dawn, alarms set for ungodly hours, sleep and work bent around kick-off times. In India, home to roughly 305 million football fans, the glow of that spectacle still has nowhere to land.

The last time the World Cup was in North America, in 1994, India was too small a television market to measure. The country watched in pockets, on whatever signal reached them, and barely showed up in the ratings. Thirty-two years later, large enough to matter but, so far, unwilling to meet FIFA’s price. The tournament is back on the same continent, but India still does not have a broadcaster.

The silence is not for lack of suitors. In July 2025, FIFA opened its Invitation to Tender for the Indian subcontinent. When bids did not arrive, it tried to sweeten the offer, bundling 2026 and 2030 in one package, two summers sold as a single promise. By this week, as the Economic Times reported, its $100 million opening price had fallen to $35 million. No tenders followed.

Until now, India has always found a way to bring the World Cup home. TEN Sports beamed 2002 into living rooms still ruled by cricket. ESPN Star carried 2006 and 2010. Sony burnished its football identity with the 2014 and 2018 editions. Viacom18 sent 2022 free across JioCinema after paying Rs 450 crore for the rights. Broadcasters changed, platforms rose and fell, but the tournament always slipped through the door. Nine weeks before the 2026 edition, that door remains shut.

The reasons lie in a sports-broadcast market shaped by cricket, a punishing time zone and two categories of advertisers that disappeared just as FIFA came looking for a buyer.

A price no one will cross

JioStar, which accounts for more than 85% of Indian sports viewing, has offered $20 million and, by some accounts, is willing to move towards $25 million. Sony, still invested in football and late-night Champions League matches, tested a similar price in the first round. From Kolkata, Shrachi Sports Entertainment Network put $2 million (Rs 18–20 crore) on the table. Across the table, FIFA is asking for $35 million. Between those figures lies a gap neither side has agreed to close.

FIFA, JioStar and Sony did not respond to The State of Play's questions.

“FIFA may have overplayed its hand in this case. At the number they are asking, it just doesn’t make sense,” says a person aware of the negotiations.

Measured against Indian sports media contracts that run into thousands of crores, the gap is narrow. FIFA does not want to set a price it must defend in 2030. JioStar will not step far above the value the rest of the market has assigned to the rights.

If this stand-off breaks, JioStar is still the likeliest buyer. People familiar with its plans say the tournament would fill a useful gap in its calendar. The IPL ends in late May, leaving a trough in subscriptions. The World Cup, beginning June 11, offers 39 nights of live sport across that summer lull. Inside JioStar, there is talk of completing a deal before the IPL final so that World Cup promotions can run during its broadcasts. The approaching IPL final gives FIFA its clearest deadline.

The money that went missing

The 2022 rights established the price that FIFA is now struggling to repeat. Viacom18 paid a little over $60 million and lost close to $30 million on the deal, according to a person familiar with the numbers; no one, sources say, is now willing to go above $30 million for a standalone World Cup. Five months before that tournament, Viacom18 had won IPL digital rights for Rs 23,758 crore.

The World Cup, streamed free on JioCinema, became a test of whether the platform could carry a global sporting event at scale. Comscore says JioCinema’s unique visitors jumped from 2.6 million in October to 22.7 million in November. The World Cup loss was part of the cost of demonstrating that the platform could handle what the IPL would demand.

That proof now lives in JioHotstar’s more than 280 million subscribers; another World Cup is unlikely to transform that number. The strategic reason for absorbing another large loss has weakened.

Viacom18 took Indian brands like Mahindra, Amul and Byju’s to Qatar; Byju’s has since collapsed into receivership. Spartan Poker, another on-air name, shut down after India banned real-money gaming (RMG) in August 2025. India’s Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act received presidential assent on 22 August, eleven days before FIFA’s India tender deadline of 2 September. Edtech and RMG, the two most aggressive sports spenders, disappeared just as FIFA came to market.

What remains is a committed but modest pool: FMCG, banking, automotive and payments. Over 87% of the 2026 tournament’s 104 matches will air after 10 pm IST. The late-stage knockouts, likely featuring Brazil, Argentina and Portugal, could well be played when India is asleep. Football, by design, has no natural ad breaks. In an Indian market dependent on advertising, matches played around midnight or dawn offer broadcasters fewer opportunities to recover the rights fee.

In 2014, matches in Brazil started at 9:30 pm IST, with later games past midnight. Sony fell significantly short of its 125 million viewership target, and ad revenue came in at Rs 120–130 crore against a Rs 200 crore projection, according to industry estimates at the time. Four years later, Russia brought 5:30 pm and 8:30 pm kickoffs and the same broadcaster reached 117 million viewers. The friendlier timings changed the size of the audience and the value of the advertising around it.

After the 2024 T20 World Cup, held partly in the United States, Disney-Star formally raised concerns with the ICC over whether the event had justified the rights investment, citing match timings in the subcontinent as the primary problem. India won that tournament. The broadcaster was still unhappy with the economics.

A summer already spoken for

The football World Cup must also compete with cricket for the same advertising budgets. IPL 2026 runs from March to May, consuming much of the first-quarter sports spending of major brands before the World Cup begins. The Women’s T20 World Cup in England runs from June 12 to July 5, almost exactly alongside it.

are scheduled to play Pakistan on June 14 and Australia on June 28. The final is at Lord’s, two weeks before the football World Cup final. JioStar holds these rights and is already committed to selling advertising around India’s entire World Cup campaign at afternoon and evening times, on the back of India’s Women’s ODI World Cup win in 2025.

For any brand planning its June–July calendar, the cricket offers several advantages: India in a World Cup, at civilised hours, on a platform with more than 280 million subscribers. The alternative is 104 football matches, without India, mostly after 10 pm, on the same platform.

Bengal, Kerala and Goa follow Brazil, Argentina and Portugal with a devotion that turns semi-final nights into communal ritual. These fans will wake at 2 am for a knockout. But the states where that passion runs hottest cannot alone provide the national audiences that large advertisers seek, and midnight inventory for a tournament without India remains difficult to sell.

What the stand-off means for 2027

The fight over $35 million matters partly because much larger rights packages will soon enter the same market.

The IPL media rights cycle ends in 2027. ICC rights for 2028–31 will be tendered (or even renegotiated). Those packages are worth billions of dollars and will enter a market where JioStar carries Rs 25,760 crore in provisions for expected losses on sports contracts, while Sony is sublicensing rights it cannot fully monetise. Netflix and Amazon have stayed away from recent cricket-rights discussions. The next IPL cycle goes to market under those conditions.

The LA 2028 Olympics presents another version of the same problem. Most athletics finals will air between midnight and 4 am IST. The International Olympic Committee launched its India subcontinent tender in July 2025 and has not confirmed a deal. It holds one card FIFA does not: T20 cricket will return to the Olympics in Los Angeles for the first time in 128 years.

FIFA began at $100 million, bundled two tournaments and reduced its price to $35 million. A late agreement remains possible. But whether FIFA accepts India’s price, or a broadcaster finally crosses the gap, will set a benchmark before the IPL, ICC and Olympic rights come to market.