With only weeks to go before the Fifa World Cup kicks off in North America, broadcasters in India and China, home to 2.8 billion people between them, are yet to secure rights to show it, raising the prospect of the world’s biggest sporting event going dark in two of its most populous countries.
The 48-team tournament starts on 11 June with Mexico playing South Africa at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City in the first of 104 matches.
The organiser, Fifa, says it has broadcasting agreements in more than 175 territories but China and India are not among them, and neither are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, or Myanmar.
In India, a joint venture between Reliance and Disney offered $20m for the tournament’s TV rights but, according to Reuters, Fifa initially sought $100m before reducing its asking price.
Sony expressed interest but did not submit a formal proposal.
In China, state broadcaster CCTV, which showed the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, was yet to strike a deal. Beijing Daily reported that Fifa initially sought about $300m for the Chinese rights before cutting the price by half, but no agreement was reached.
China accounted for 17.7 per cent of the global linear TV reach of the 2022 World Cup, with 510 million viewers, while India contributed 2.9 per cent with 84 million. Together, they accounted for nearly half of all hours of the Qatar World Cup viewed on digital and social platforms.
Though neither China or India has a team in the tournament, both countries have large and engaged football audiences. China has not qualified for this edition and India has never played at a World Cup.
The gap between what Fifa wants and what broadcasters are willing to pay comes down to a number of factors.
Most matches in North America will kick off in the middle of the night in China and India, significantly reducing their commercial value. In India, every major broadcaster is saving money to bid for rights to show the next Indian Premier League and the Women's T20 Cricket World Cup tournaments, both of which are more commercially attractive for the platforms.
If a deal is not struck, many Chinese sponsors of the World Cup will face trouble. Dairy brand Mengniu and TV maker Hisense are together pouring a reported $500m into the event. In the absence of a broadcast deal in their country, their entire marketing campaigns around the event will be undermined.
Fifa’s deal with TikTok will allow users to find streamed clips and short-form content, but that won’t replace the advertising revenue a mainstream broadcast deal generates.
Fifa declined to comment on the specifics of the issue, saying in a statement that "discussions in China and India regarding the sale of media rights for the Fifa World Cup 2026 are ongoing and must remain confidential at this stage”.