FOX and Telemundo Sign Lucrative Deals for World Cup US Rights

October 24, 2011

FIFA has signed lucrative World Cup deals worth an estimated $1.2 billion with US broadcasters FOX and NBCUniversal’s Telemundo Media for broadcasting rights.

Fox won the English-language U.S. television rights for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, outbidding incumbent ESPN and NBC for soccer’s showpiece tournament.

Fox agreed to pay around $425 million for the two-tournament package. It also secured English-language radio rights.

Fox Sports chairman David Hill, said: “We are truly honored for FIFA to award the Fox Sports Media Group these extremely important rights. The FIFA World Cup and Women’s World Cup are two of the world’s biggest competitions. It is our privilege to be entrusted with these rights in the United States from 2015 through 2022.”

Telemundo paid around $600 million for the Spanish-language deal. Telemundo, which is owned by NBC Universal, also defeated a rights holder, Univision, which had paid $325 million for the 2010-2014 package.

Spanish-language radio rights went to Futbol de Primera Radio for more than $100 million.

Fox will own the rights to all FIFA events from 2015 to 2022, including the men’s World Cup in ’18 and ’22; the women’s World Cup in ’15 and ’19; and all Under-20 and Under-17 matches.

Fox adds soccer’s biggest event to a portfolio of rights that already includes the UEFA Champions League, the English Premier League and Italy’s Serie A.

The network is expected to televise the final and some top matches on its main over-the-air network and the majority on Fox Soccer and other of its cable networks, such FX and Fox Soccer Plus.

FIFA made the decisions after the networks submitted bids at its Swiss headquarters on Wednesday and Thursday.

Spanish-language radio rights went to Futbol de Primera Radio.

FIFA earns about 90 percent of its revenue from broadcasting, sponsorship and marketing deals tied to the World Cup. The world body calculates it earned $2.4 billion in broadcast sales worldwide just for the 2010 tournament.

FIFA announced in March it already sold $1.7 billion worth of 2018-2022 broadcast rights to the Middle East and parts of Asia and Latin America. The deals were 90 percent more valuable than the same regions earned for 2010-2014, FIFA said.