Soccer’s TV Future in Jeopardy 2026 World Cup Broadcast Rights Stalled Amid Soaring Costs

The “Moriyasu Japan” team is being cornered—off the pitch.

Negotiations for terrestrial TV broadcasting rights in Japan for the 2026 FIFA World Cup North and Central America Tournament (hereafter referred to as the World Cup), scheduled for next year, are reaching their final stages. With the number of participating countries increasing from 32 to 48, broadcasting rights fees are set to hit a record-breaking total of over 40 billion yen. This is a figure Japan’s TV networks simply can’t match, and the day when World Cup broadcasts disappear from terrestrial television is drawing near.

Under the leadership of head coach Hajime Moriyasu (56), now in his second term, Japan’s national team has even made bold declarations about seriously aiming to win the World Cup. However, despite their strength, they are caught in the dilemma of lacking popularity. The explosive popularity of past national teams was largely supported by live broadcasts during prime time on terrestrial TV. A sports department staff member from a key network laments:

“The Asian final qualifying round, the last hurdle before the World Cup, always delivers dramatic moments and would typically earn ratings in the 30% range. But this time, all the away games in the final qualifiers will not be aired on terrestrial TV—they’ll be streamed exclusively on DAZN. This is an unprecedented situation in the history of World Cup qualifiers. Still, in a way, it’s a result of a hard-fought effort. Japan Football Association president Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (48) personally negotiated with DAZN to at least ensure that the final qualifiers would be viewable.”

Japanese TV networks counter with a new setup

FIFA’s pricing for World Cup broadcasting rights has always been aggressive. For the previous Qatar tournament, FIFA reportedly presented Japan with an offer estimated at a total of 35 billion yen, which is comparable to the broadcasting rights fee for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Moreover, this fee covers all platforms, including TV, radio, internet, and mobile devices. Previously, a joint reporting organization, the “Japan Consortium,” which included NHK and commercial broadcasters, had been set up to handle these rights. However, in response to the rising broadcasting rights costs, a new system was established starting with the last tournament.

“Until now, NHK shouldered 60% of the total cost, and the remaining 40% was covered by the commercial broadcasters. However, for the Qatar tournament, despite FIFA’s 35 billion yen offer, NHK was only able to contribute 9 billion yen. In 2021, NHK cut its total spending on sports broadcasting rights by over 15 billion yen.

This led to a dire situation for terrestrial broadcasting, but to fill the gap, ABEMA signed a broadcasting rights deal with FIFA for over 20 billion yen. The remaining 6 billion yen was split between Fuji TV and TV Asahi, enabling FIFA’s 35 billion yen offer to be met, ensuring that all matches could be viewed on both terrestrial TV and streaming platforms,” explained a football association insider.

Soccer broadcasts still have power

As mentioned earlier, the 2026 World Cup will feature a record 48 countries. This is one of the reasons FIFA is setting such high broadcasting rights fees. In addition to the prize money, each country is said to have been granted more than 100 million yen as a preparation fund for the tournament. Moreover, the prize money for reaching the top 16, which was around 13 million dollars (approximately 1.87 billion yen) in the previous tournament, is expected to be scaled up further. The source of these funds is the broadcasting rights fees paid by television networks.

Both NHK and the major private broadcasters genuinely want to air the tournament live. In the March 20th World Cup final qualifier against Bahrain, which saw Moriyasu Japan’s “World Cup qualification secured in the fastest time,” the average household rating was 21.7%, with an individual rating of 14.3% (figures for the Kanto region, according to Video Research).

“Given the current popularity of the national team, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the ratings were in the 10% range or even lower. This result proved that soccer national team matches can still draw numbers (ratings) for the TV industry. In today’s TV world, only MLB games featuring Shohei Ohtani or events like the year-end Kohaku Song Battle and the New Year Hakone Ekiden are sure to break 20% in ratings,” said a director from a major TV station.

However, the current television industry simply doesn’t have the financial capacity to pay broadcasting rights fees in the hundreds of millions of yen. With the participation of ABEMA uncertain this time around, NHK is the last hope. Sports broadcasts for NHK are mostly focused on MLB, featuring Shohei Ohtani (30). Moreover, NHK has a longstanding broadcasting rights agreement with the Sumo Association, reportedly worth over 3 billion yen annually. Even if FIFA asks for more than 40 billion yen for World Cup broadcasting rights, NHK simply doesn’t have the room to pay such enormous fees at this time.

With just over a year left until the tournament begins, the outlook for live broadcasts of the World Cup on terrestrial television in Japan is looking bleak. For the 1998 France World Cup, when Japan made its debut, the broadcasting rights for Japan were 550 million yen. The growing fees demanded by FIFA every four years are the result of Japan’s ongoing compliance with FIFA’s increasingly exorbitant demands.