'FIFA got greedy' ― Why football fans in India may not be able to watch World Cup games on TV this year

Published 7 June 2026 · sports

The 2026 World Cup is weeks away, but one of the most populated countries in the world doesn't have a broadcasting deal. Why? Just weeks

The 2026 World Cup is weeks away, but one of the most populated countries in the world doesn't have a broadcasting deal. Why? Just weeks from the start of the 2026 World Cup, India is without a broadcasting deal. Talks are reportedly ongoing, with time zones and cost expectations clear stumbling blocks, but there is also a feeling that FIFA has misunderstood its two biggest markets. "The Indian market is a sort of a brute force market," Nandan Kamath, one of India's leading sports lawyers and a key figure in the country's sports policy, told DW. "It's the numbers rather than the willingness." Broadcasters in India rely far more on revenue than subscriptions. Viewing numbers for the tournament in Qatar were good, but they did not lead to a profit for Viacom18, the Indian media giant who owned the rights. On top of that, the premium subscriber base for most services is just too small to generate a major profit. In order for FIFA to reach the scale it wants, it will likely have to reduce its expectations. "Everyone has had to rationalize subscriptions to get scale," Kamath said, before referencing Netflix and Formula One. Both had to change their original ideas to reach the desired audience. For example, a Netflix subscription can now cost 199 rupees a month (roughly $2.50), while F1 offers a season pass for 899 rupees ($10). The Indian Premier League is the biggest cricket league in the world and is the top focus for broadcasters in India Image: Rafiq Maqbool/AP Photo/picture alliance Not a competitive market "I don't know if we've really seen the broadcast meet the market.

Normally these rights are sold where there's highly competitive people dealing with FOMO [fear of missing out], and that isn't here right now," Kamath said. With only JioStar (which absorbed Viacom18 after the Reliance-Disney merger in 2024) and Sony in the running, a competitive market for rights isn't there. And then there's cricket. "India is a sports market that has grown up on cricket," said Kamath. "Without question, the FIFA World Cup would not be in the top two rights that would get sold in India; those would be IPL and ICC rights. And it's a very unique thing for any market to not even be in the top two." If FIFA wants to break into the top two, it must look harder at the landscape. "Cricket is the perfect -supported sport, where it breaks every three or four minutes. And that is just so different from football," Kamath explained. "I don't think there's enough breaks in play to really build a convincing market." Time and place a factor Time zones are also a factor. Most the games will kick off when India is asleep. Four years ago in Qatar, the time difference to India was just two and a half hours. There's also the country's clear desire to host the Olympics, which pushes football further down the priority list. It also doesn't help that India's men's football team have never played at a World Cup before, and were knocked out in the second round of qualifying for this edition. "There is this notion that cricket is king, the Olympics is the next aspiration, and FIFA is very much an entertainment product," Kamath said.