Publitaliathe dealership of Mediasethe said it months ago: the 2026 World Cup in Canada, the USA and Mexico is of no interest to us. Not so much for questions of whether Italy is qualified or not (everything will be decided in this week’s play-offs, between 26 and 31 March), but for reasons of time zone, which make the World Cup not very relevant for European audiences, with many matches taking place late at night.
And it is no coincidence that Publitalia, which collects advertising for all Serie A football matches broadcast on Daznhas instead left the streaming platform alone for the 2026 World Cup. In fact, the sports over the top will have to deal with its own internal structure of the collection for all 104 matches, exclusively pay on Dazn, trying to compete with Rai advertising which will instead follow the advertising revenue for all 35 free-to-air matches broadcast from Viale Mazzini.
A World Cup that doesn’t warm hearts
Regardless of time zone issues (for Europe it is unfavorable, but can instead facilitate large audiences in other areas of the world), the World Cup in Canada, USA and Mexico does not seem to warm hearts in general from a commercial point of view. And this is certified by the estimates of Warc Media (Warc stands for World advertising research center), according to which the Fifa event will not give a great boost to global advertising investments in 2026, especially on traditional media, despite the fact that for the first time the format includes 48 teams on the pitch and 24 matches more than usual.
As he explains Alex Brownsellhead of content at Warc Media, in fact, «the World Cup will introduce approximately 10.5 billion dollars of advertising into the market, but the investments will be divided on several fronts, as brands will want to interact with fans and enthusiasts on multiple points of contact. Not only through the TV broadcasters who, having sold out, bought the audiovisual rights, but also with all the platforms that will take advantage of the conversations relating to the World Cup without paying a dollar for the rights: from content from creators to podcasts, all touch points capable of transforming conversations about the matches into powerful opportunities for connection and impact”.
It is estimated that the audiences will be the largest ever
In Europe less than half (42.3%) of matches will take place during daylight hours, which drops to just over a third (34.6%) in China. And precisely these problems regarding live matches could offer, as mentioned, new opportunities for non-rights holders to capitalize on content dedicated to the World Cup, such as highlights and comments, via podcasts, social media and dedicated digital universes.
However, let’s look at the numbers from the Warc Media analysis: the audiences of the 2026 World Cup are expected to be the largest ever, with a boost from the event to the global gross domestic product of almost 41 billion dollars. As mentioned, the increase in advertising will be around 10.5 billion dollars, with a slight increase, +1.1% compared to that of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Much lower, however, compared to the boost received thanks to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where the event had increased global advertising investments by 12.6 billion dollars.
FIFA partner TikTok will show behind-the-scenes footage
Past editions of the football World Cup have had almost no impact on the US advertising market, where soccer has to compete with many other, perhaps more popular, sports. Just to give an example, the football World Cup led to a maximum increase in advertising investments in the USA in the order of +0.4%/+1% per year. In Mexico and Canada the football World Cup has never had any impact on the growth of investments in advertising. And in 2026 Warc Media estimates a +4% for Mexico, a positive but not exceptional figure for a nation hosting the World Cup.
The fact is that the digital universe has created a fragmentation of audiences and a constant decline in audiences for linear TV. The 2022 World Cup in Qatar, for example, reached 2.87 billion people for at least one minute, with linear TV ratings decreasing by 12% compared to the 2018 World Cup.
And, as already underlined, for the 2026 World Cup the focus will also shift from the matches to the conversations surrounding them: TikTok has become a partner of FIFA and will show behind-the-scenes footage; YouTubealso a privileged platform, will stream the matches live thanks to agreements with various media partners; platforms like NetflixFinally, they will aim to monetize conversations about matches through vodcasts (video podcasts).
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