World Cup broadcast hopes boosted in India as Zee Entertainment in talks

Broadcasting rights for FIFA-world-cup-2026" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="1548" data-entity-type="event">FIFA World Cup 2026 in India have been at a deadlock only weeks ahead of June 11 kickoff.India’s Zee Entertainment is in talks with FIFA to stream and broadcast the 2026 World Cup in the country, the ⁠company said in a statement.The announcement on Tuesday, which provided no financial details, comes ⁠as talks between a Reliance-disney-joint-venture" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="134540" data-entity-type="organization">Reliance-Disney joint venture and the football body are at a deadlock, just weeks before the tournament kicks off on June 11.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4France’s Kouame becomes youngest male Grand Slam match-winner in 17 yearslist 2 of 4US Supreme court rejects NFL attempt to move racism case to arbitrationlist 3 of 4Medvedev shocked by wildcard Walton in French Open first roundlist 4 of 4Monfils wants to emulate Ronaldo and LeBron despite French Open defeatend of listFIFA, which had initially sought $100m for broadcast rights for the 2026 and 2030 World Cups in India, was last looking for no less than about $60m, the news agency Reuters had reported.The expected amount still far exceeds the $20m offered by Reliance-Disney, led by ⁠billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance.Sony also held talks but decided not to make an offer for FIFA rights for India.⁠FIFA has concluded agreements with broadcasters in more than 180 territories ⁠globally, it said previously.Zee ⁠Entertainment disclosed its talks with FIFA as part of its launch of Unite8 Sports, a dedicated portfolio of sports channels ‌to strengthen its sports offerings to consumers.India accounted for 2.9 percent of the global linear TV ‌reach ‌of the Qatar World Cup in 2022, trailing only China in overall engagement figures, with more than 745 million fans following the action across all media platforms in the country, according to figures released by FIFA.In television viewing numbers, India was among the top 10 countries – ahead of World Cup participants Germany, France and England – with nearly 84 million viewers.