With FIFA moving to a more market-led approach when it comes to broadcast rights for the World Cup 2026, the EBU has also had to adjust its approach to remain relevant to Members, as Stefan-Eric Wildemann, head of football at the organisation, explains. 

“As FIFA has changed its sales approach to become more market by market led, that’s meant some reinventing ourselves,” he explains. “We had to ask how the EBU can be relevant in a market-by-market process that has sequential acquisition processes. That means being relevant for the EBU Member, for EBU itself – but if the Member is happy, the EBU is usually happy – and also for the federation, because otherwise, why would the federation engage with the EBU for an individual territory.”

To ensure this is the case, the EBU is working with a smaller group of Members for this tournament, beginning with Kan in Israel. That’s now grown to having 12 Members and 10 territories under contract, including sub licensee deals with Saram Media in Estonia and in Ireland.

The new approach has also meant that the process has become more complex.

“The last contract was signed in 2012, a long time ago, and all of a sudden you now have a process where rights become available on the market which some broadcasters have never had the chance to acquire, so obviously commercial broadcasters took a closer look at that,” he explains. “It’s been really competitive, plus it’s a huge tournament, which also plays a role; there’s more appetite. Even in the big markets the time seems to be over when one broadcaster just says ‘yes, I’ll take it all, and I’ll take it exclusively’, so it’s been different, it’s been complicated.”

For many of the Members who are working with the EBU, it’s the servicing aspect that the organisation offers that is of particular value. Wildemann highlights the role of team Members including Orla Ann Meier, who worked at Infront and FIFA prior to the EBU and has been doing World Cup servicing since the 2002 tournament in Korea/Japan.

“A lot of information is coming from FIFA, so you have to adapt and act quickly, but she’s been able to guide and help our Members anticipate some of the issues and give that first level of servicing which then also was quite appreciated by FIFA because it keeps them away from being the first point of contact for everything.”

Indeed, the change in approach is leading to the EBU adopting a more consultancy-led mentality.

“We assist a Member with expertise and we say ‘hey, we’ll do this together’. I think this is what really made a difference and helped us to end up with these 12 Members and 10 territories for 2026. We have a slightly different rights picture for 2030, which is not complete yet, but we expect that 2030 will be a few more Members than what we have for 2026, but this is still work in progress.”

Aside from rights clearance, the EBU also works to ensure that Members, regardless of size and capacity, are able to deliver the best possible product to viewers.

“We engage with FIFA on some of the rate card services to see, particularly for smaller Members – can we package something together that the Members see the value in but that might not be affordable for each individual Member on a standalone basis,” he continues. “A good example is FIFA Max. FIFA has obviously a will to distribute their content as much as possible. Our Members have then sometimes limited production capacity, so it’s good to bring them together.”

“Even in the big markets the time seems to be over when one broadcaster just says ‘yes, I’ll take it all, and I’ll take it exclusively’, so it’s been different, it’s been complicated”

Eurovision News will have a role to play throughout the tournament, working closely with EBU Members and trusted broadcast partners across North and Latin America, including CBS, CBC and AIL, to deliver coverage from across the host countries and beyond. 

“Correspondents will go to the team-based camps, the press conferences, they’re also looking to get material from other parts of the world where there might be other correspondents, that could be Brazil or Colombia, and they act sometimes on behalf of our Members to get content in multiple languages,” Wildemann says.

Members will also have access to content on the Eurovision News Exchange portal.

“There’s a rights component to that, meaning that all non-rights or not protected material can be shared, which makes it easier for everybody,” he adds.

In terms of the relationship between the EBU and FIFA, and the value the union can bring to a tournament such as the World Cup, Wildeman says: “Overall, I think the relationship is very, very good, particularly on the women’s side. I think we are very happy with them on all of the competitions on which we partner. I don’t want to speak on FIFA’s behalf, but I think what we can bring is the professionalism that we know how to approach a tender process as well as the openness and the transparency, so we don’t act as a curtain, we connect as a facilitator.

“We can help the Member understand what FIFA is saying and we provide some information also to FIFA, the regulations around listed events, or what’s happening in certain markets, we share a lot of information.”

With FIFA expecting to generate more revenue from broadcast deals than the $3.4bn it recorded from the last outing in Qatar, the EBU’s work around right values is also of interest to Members.

“Sometimes these rights fees, and the expectations that FIFA have, are quite high, but we work a lot to verify those numbers and we can share that analysis to help make sure that the Member comes away with a fair or competitive value, because otherwise what’s the sense in the process?”

So, after a complex run up to the largest World Cup ever, what will success look like for Wildemann after the final whistle has blown at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey?

“The total audience should be very high, because now you have 104 matches, so audience is definitely something, but also, you have the night matches, so how do they do? How do the individual matches do on a market share basis, on an audience basis, for our Members, ultimately. Then, how happy are our Members with the performance of the World Cup, based on the audience, possibly also based on commercial success. These are, I think, the two largest indicators for us. I would also say, what is the level of service perceived? What is the quality perceived? Do the Members say, ‘okay, great, we really saw this paying off for us to go with EBU, we are happy with the level of spending that was provided, we are happy with the assistance that was provided’. Likewise, from a FIFA side. That qualitative sector is for me very important.”

Read more: FIFA World Cup 2026: SportsTechLive blog