FIFA ready to slash World Cup TV rights price in China; no update on India yet: Report

With less than a month left for the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the world football governing body is reportedly making fresh moves to finalise a broadcasting deal in China. However, there is still no update regarding the unsold television rights in India.

Billions of football fans in China and India were left confused and shocked after it emerged that FIFA had still not finalised the broadcasting rights for the World Cup in their respective countries. These two nations alone have contributed massively to the tournament’s global viewership in past editions.

According to the South China Morning Post, senior FIFA officials are travelling to Beijing this week to hold discussions with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV over the television rights for the upcoming World Cup, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The delegation is expected to include FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafstrom and media rights director Jean-Christophe Petit. The talks are aimed at breaking the deadlock over the broadcasting fee. The report also claims that FIFA is willing to reduce its original ask of $300 million for the rights by more than 50%.

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The new figure is believed to be between $120 million and $150 million. However, the amount remains higher even after the reduction and doesn't come close to the $80 million CCTV was reportedly willing to pay earlier. Still, both sides are said to be optimistic and an announcement could arrive in the second half of May.

The report also suggests that negotiations are not only focused on the 2026 FIFA World Cup but could also include the 2030 edition. The 2030 tournament will be jointly hosted across six countries - Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

No update on India yet

Meanwhile, there is still no breakthrough in India. FIFA had earlier confirmed that discussions regarding media rights in both India and China were ongoing and confidential. It was reported that JioHotstar, which has shown interest in the World Cup rights in India, is not willing to pay more than $20 million for the 2026 rights.

Reports claim that JioHotstar incurred losses during the broadcast of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in India after paying a huge amount for the media rights that year. The match timings for the upcoming edition are expected to be even more inconvenient for Indian viewers than the Qatar edition.

Meanwhile, the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup will also be taking place during the same period with more viewer-friendly timings and active participation from the Indian team.