{"id":707502,"date":"2026-06-01T09:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T09:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/707502\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T09:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T09:29:08","slug":"zee-lands-fifa-soccer-rights-for-india-covering-world-cups-to-2034","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/707502\/","title":{"rendered":"Zee Lands FIFA Soccer Rights for India, Covering World Cups to 2034"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tZee<\/a> Entertainment Enterprises has secured Indian broadcast and streaming rights to 39 FIFA soccer events spanning 2026 to 2034, including the FIFA World Cup<\/a> 2026, FIFA World Cup 2030 and FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup 2027, the company revealed Monday.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe deal, the first between Zee and FIFA, also encompasses a portfolio of age-group and futsal tournaments across both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s game, as well as documentary series tied to each property. Events covered include the FIFA Men\u2019s U-17 World Cup and FIFA Women\u2019s U-17 World Cup editions from 2026 through 2034, FIFA U-20 Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s World Cup cycles, the FIFA Futsal Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s World Cups, and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup through 2030.<\/p>\n

\n\tCoverage begins June 11 with the FIFA World Cup 2026 opener, broadcast across four newly launched linear sports channels \u2014 Unite8 Sports 1 and Unite8 Sports 1 HD in Hindi, and Unite8 Sports 2 and Unite8 Sports 2 HD in English \u2014 as well as Zee\u2019s streaming platform ZEE5.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are excited to bring one of the world\u2019s biggest sporting spectacles to Indian audiences,\u201d Punit Goenka, CEO of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, said. \u201cFootball cuts across regions and demographics, and the investments in garnering the media rights and launching dedicated sports channels reflect our clear belief in its long-term potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Indian market is of strategic importance for FIFA as it displays immense potential driven by a young and passionate audience,\u201d Romy Gai, FIFA\u2019s chief business officer, added.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe deal marks a significant development in what had been a protracted rights negotiation in India. As Variety previously reported<\/a>, FIFA had initially sought $100 million for broadcast rights covering the 2026 and 2030 tournaments before revising its ask to approximately $60 million; India\u2019s largest platform JioStar had tabled $20 million, and Sony had withdrawn from the process. Financial terms of the current deal were not disclosed.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFootball as a sport has tremendous under-leveraged potential in a country like India and we see a massive opportunity in unlocking its mass appeal for billions of viewers across the Nation,\u201d Mukund Galgali, Zee\u2019s deputy CEO and CFO, said.<\/p>\n

\n\tZee\u2019s Unite8 Sports portfolio already carries cricket, kabaddi, badminton, wrestling and combat sports alongside football. The FIFA partnership extends the company\u2019s footprint in a rights market historically dominated by cricket, with the 2026 World Cup serving as its biggest early test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zee Entertainment Enterprises has secured Indian broadcast and streaming rights to 39 FIFA soccer events spanning 2026 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,14990,561,82,93258],"class_list":["post-707502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-zee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}