NEW DELHI, India — When Argentina’s Gonzalo Montiel converted a penalty to seal his country’s third World Cup title at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in December 2022, Lionel Messi fan Vishwas Banerjee heartily celebrated the Albiceleste’s victory in Bangalore, the soccer-mad city in southeastern India.
Unable to contain her excitement, Banerjee screamed and threw down her shirt while watching the match on a big screen at an intersection near midnight.
“It was one of the best nights, watching Messi lift the World Cup,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Everyone went crazy. We danced in the streets,” Banerjee said, recalling the excitement she felt in a cricket-mad country more than 3,000 kilometers away.
Messi is expected to sing his World Cup swan song at the upcoming tournament in North America, but soccer fans in India, the world’s most populous country, are likely to miss out on the chance to watch the biggest sporting event.
With just over three weeks left until the tournament kicks off in Mexico, organizers FIFA have yet to find a buyer to broadcast its most coveted production in India.
Here’s what we know about the World Cup broadcast rights crisis in the South Asian country.
How many people will watch the FIFA World Cup in India?
When the World Cup was held in Qatar nearly four years ago, India was only behind China in terms of overall attendance, with more than 745 million fans following the match across all media platforms in the country, according to figures released by FIFA.
In terms of TV viewership, India ranked among the top 10 countries in the World Cup, ahead of Germany, France and England, with an audience of approximately 84 million.
India has also seen a significant increase in digital viewership. The finals alone attracted an unprecedented 32 million viewers to Reliance’s JioCinema (subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service), generating 40 billion minutes of viewing time on the tournament platform.
Reliance’s Jio paid $60 million for the rights to broadcast the tournament in 2022, while Sony Sports secured the rights to broadcast the 2014 and 2018 FIFA World Cups and the Euro 2016 Championship for about $90 million in 2013.
So when FIFA began selling media rights for the 2026 tournament and the 2027 Women’s Cup, it expected a large turnout at an estimated price of $100 million.
But with 23 days until the tournament and the asking price reportedly slashed, FIFA is still struggling to find a buyer in one of its biggest markets.
Why is there no buyer for the 2026 World Cup in India?
Experts say the kick-off time for most matches is the biggest concern for Indian broadcasters.
Since the tournament will be held in the US, Canada and Mexico, many matches will be played at odd hours for Indian audiences, and there is a 10-12 hour time difference between the host city and the South Asian country.
Of the 104 World Cup matches, only 14 will start before midnight for Indian fans.
The final will be held on July 19th in New Jersey, starting at 12:30am (7pm GMT) in India. By comparison, 98.4 percent of matches at the 2018 World Cup started before midnight, and 82.5 percent at the upcoming Qatar tournament.
Karan Taurani, executive vice president at investment firm Elara Capital, considers television a “struggling” medium in India.
“When you organize a sporting event of this kind, the monetization and the huge amount of fundraising is effectively mostly digital,” Taurani told Al Jazeera. “That’s a big reason why no one is interested in the FIFA World Cup.”
Mr. Taurani explained that cricket leads the sports economic market in India.
“Only a small portion of those who watch the Indian Premier League (IPL) will watch the FIFA World Cup,” he said, adding that even fewer people tune in to watch matches after midnight.
For broadcasters and advertisers, Taurani explained, these factors shrink the target audience.
He also pointed out that the recent ban on fantasy real money betting apps by the Indian government has reduced the macro form of money in the sports entertainment industry.
The World Cup begins 10 days after the IPL 2026 cricket final. Cricket is one of the most-watched sporting events in India, and the event on which major prime-time advertisers focus the majority of their annual sports spend.
The price of soccer streaming in India is going down anyway. The rights to the English Premier League were sold for $145 million for three seasons from 2013 to 2016, and $65 million from 2025 to 2028. India does not have key players in La Liga matches.
FIFA appears to be growing concerned that a lack of broadcaster interest in India could undermine both its revenue and its long-term goal of growing soccer in one of the world’s biggest media markets.
In the capital, New Delhi, the High Court is hearing arguments over the lack of a contract to broadcast the tournament, demanding responses from India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and India’s state-run public television broadcaster Doordarshan.
“Without timely judicial intervention by this court, the petitioner and millions of Indian citizens will be irrevocably deprived of their fundamental rights without any adequate alternative remedy,” the petitioner, a lawyer and soccer fan, said in the petition.
He argues that missing out on the tournament violates his constitutionally protected free speech rights.
“It is important to note that by denying access to the information in question or failing to take the necessary steps to broadcast the FIFA World Cup, the respondents are in direct violation of the appellants’ fundamental right to obtain and receive information, which is an integral part of the freedom of speech and expression under the Constitution,” the appellants argued in their petition.
There is still hope and time for Indian soccer fans, as the Chinese state broadcaster last week signed a deal with FIFA for the second half of the World Cup. However, if no deal is struck, all eyes will be on Doordarshan, whose last appearance in the tournament was in 1998.
The excitement of the Soccer World Cup gradually erodes due to the continued uncertainty. “It breaks my heart that there is no reliable way to watch the World Cup this year,” said Banerjee, a Messi fan who lives in Kolkata.
“But in any case, we are going to listen to the pirated stream,” he added. “No one can stop it.”
