It’s no secret that this summer’s World Cup is going to be a cash cow for Fox Sports and Telemundo, the networks with exclusive English-language and Spanish-language broadcast rights to the event in the United States. But maybe it’ll be a surprise to some that the World Cup is projected to bring in Super Bowl-levels of ad revenue for the two networks this summer.
According to a recent report by Anthony Crupi in Sportico, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is expected to generate $850 million in advertising revenue for Fox Sports and Telemundo, up from $384.3 million eight years ago, the last time the World Cup was played in its usual summer window. Of course, the United States did not qualify for that World Cup and it was contested in Russia, an unfavorable time zone for an American audience, thus suppressing ad revenues. This year’s tournament will feature 48 teams, an expansion from the usual 32-team format, will include the United States, and be contested in North America, all of which should juice ad revenue versus historical standards.
Perhaps the most interesting comparison, however, isn’t to prior World Cups but to prior Super Bowls, which have long been the benchmark by which live sports advertising is measured. The last time Fox aired a Super Bowl in 2024, the network netted more than $800 million in gross advertising revenue.
Of course, the World Cup will feature over 100 matches compared to just one game for the Super Bowl. It’ll also take place over more than a month, and the projection cited includes ads sold on Telemundo as well. Nevertheless, the possibility that this year’s World Cup could generate Super Bowl-levels of ad revenue in the United States is an important milestone for the sport.
Helping the strength of those projections isn’t just the number of games in this year’s event, but an increase in advertising inventory. Earlier this year, reports surfaced that FIFA would allow broadcasters to sell advertising during the three-minute hydration breaks during each half of play. Previously, there were no such hydration breaks, and thus no prime mid-game ad inventory to sell outside of halftime. That will change this year, as networks leverage those new commercial opportunities.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.