By Anthony Crupi
Sports Media Reporter
With exactly two years to go before the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in North America, Fox Sports has officially begun selling inventory in and around the summer blockbuster.
“As the sales cycle for the World Cup begins, we’ll be engaging with FIFA partners that are currently supporting the event,” Mike Petruzzi, senior vp, Fox Sports ad sales, said. “That process will kick off in a 70-day exclusive window, and from there we’ll begin to engage with other partners that have either supported the FIFA World Cup events with us in the past or other new partners that come to the table over the summer as FIFA continues to add to their roster of clients.”
The FIFA backers expected to be among the first brands to negotiate with Fox for ad units in the men’s tourney include Adidas, Coca-Cola, Visa, Hyundai/Kia, Budweiser and McDonald’s. Marketers who aren’t currently aligned with FIFA may begin shopping for units once the exclusive window closes on Aug. 20.
Thanks to the expansion of the field from 64 to 104 matches, Fox will have roughly 63% more inventory to sell than was the case during the time-shifted 2022 World Cup in Qatar. When coupled with the obvious advantages conferred by staging the 2026 event in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, the 40 additional broadcasts have Fox anticipating a record sales haul.
“We think demand is going to be significant,” Petruzzi said. “We obviously spend a lot of time preparing for this; it’s the one property you really get to sell this far ahead—two full calendar years out.”
Along with the relatively scant supply of in-match units, Petruzzi’s team will be engaging with FIFA partners for time in the wall of shoulder programming and studio shows the network has planned over the course of the World Cup. “We’ll have coverage from the time people wake up and sort of get their day started here in the U.S. through the highlight shows and recap shows in the evening,” Petruzzi said. “I’m sure it will be by far the most comprehensive offering we’ve ever had.”
If the stars are all aligned, 2026 will mark the first time the U.S. men’s team will play in a summer World Cup since 2014. After failing to qualify for the 2018 tourney, the U.S. bowed out of the most recent event in the Round of 16. Of course, the 2022 World Cup was pushed to November and December of that year, as conditions on the ground in Qatar did not allow for a traditional summer staging.
The combination of a strong U.S. showing in the home markets has many advertisers thinking back to the wildly successful 1994 event, which was held stateside. “We’re going back to what we know and what we love: packed streets, packed bars, people out there being very patriotic and fired up for their team,” Petruzzi said. “So, there’s a lot of excitement that’s tied to that.”
While FIFA restricts its global media partners from monkeying with the format of the matches—you won’t be seeing any half-screen ad overlays or other schemes to squeeze in marketing messages during the famously clutter-free soccer broadcasts—Fox is hoping to reprise a new wrinkle it introduced in Qatar. Fox’s introduction of the “Golden Unit”—an exclusive break that aired immediately after the anthems and before the opening kickoff—marked a rare instance where FIFA was willing to allow for something new on the advertising front. According to Petruzzi, Fox is in talks to bring the execution back in 2026, although nothing’s been confirmed.
The 2022 World Cup averaged 3.59 million viewers per match on Fox, making it the second most-watched tourney behind only the 2014 installment. Per Nielsen, 22% of Fox’s impressions were served up in out-of-home venues. The network’s coverage of the Dec. 18 Argentina-France final averaged 16.8 million viewers, topping the 15.5 million fans who tuned in for the England-U.S. Group Stage match on Nov. 25.
This summer will serve as a sort of dry run for ’26, as Fox will televise a pair of major international soccer events with its inaugural coverage of the UEFA Euros and an expanded edition of Copa America. From June 14 to July 14, Fox Sports will air 78 matches across the two tourneys, a juggernaut that works out to seven hours of live soccer coverage per day.
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