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FIFA faces a media rights deadlock in India, with Reliance-Disney talks stalled and legal disputes raising fears fans may miss the World Cup kickoff.
A girl watches on her mobile phone a streaming broadcast of the FIFA World Cup 2022 group G game between Brazil and Switzerland (Picture credit: AFP)
FIFA media rights officials are all set to visit India this week, with no World Cup broadcast deal yet signed because of differences over pricing, according to a report in Reuters.
Millions of football fans in India could miss out on watching the tournament because of a deadlock over broadcast rights. China Media Group, the parent company of China Central Television, reached a FIFA World Cup broadcasting agreement last week, ending a similar standoff over television rights in China.
As per the report, the media rights executives are in India, although details regarding who they are meeting and the precise agenda remain unclear.
In a statement to Reuters, FIFA said that it had bagged broadcasting agreements across more than 180 territories, while discussions in India over the sale of media rights were still ongoing and ‘must remain confidential at this stage’.
Discussions between the Reliance-Disney joint venture, India’s largest media company and FIFA haven’t progressed, while Sony Group Corporation, another major broadcaster, has opted out of the bidding process, according to reports.
The Reliance-Disney joint venture offered $20 million for the FIFA media rights, according to reports, leading to a disagreement as FIFA had sought $100 million and was later aiming for at least around $60 million.
The FIFA World Cup is all set to start on June 11, leaving only three weeks for a deal to be finalised, broadcast infrastructure to be put in place and advertising inventory to be sold.
Football has a sizeable following of about 85 million fans in India, but it still trails cricket, which commands around 492 million followers, as per a 2024 Deloitte-Google report.
Football attracted about 85 million fans in India, as per a 2024 Deloitte and Google report, but still trails cricket, which has an estimated 492 million followers. Meanwhile, a legal dispute over FIFA World Cup broadcasting rights in India has escalated to the courts, raising concerns that fans may be unable to watch football’s biggest tournament as it approaches its start in under a month.
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