Zee embraces football again, bags World Cup rights

Panaji: FIFA has stitched an eight-year agreement with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (‘Z’) for broadcast of 39 global football events, which includes World Cup 2026, World Cup 2030 and the Women’s World Cup 2027.
The agreement, after months of uncertainty, comes just 10 days before the FIFA World Cup kicks off across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Viewers in India can now watch the world’s biggest sporting spectacle on linear television channel (Unite8 Sports) and digital platform (Zee 5), with multi-language coverage.
“The FIFA World Cup is the greatest show on earth, and we are glad to partner with ‘Z’ for the first time, to bring this global spectacle to India,” said FIFA’s chief business officer Romy Gai. “The Indian market is of strategic importance for FIFA as it displays immense potential driven by a young and passionate audience.”
Financial terms were not disclosed, but one official told TOI “FIFA is happy with the deal.”
The governing body for world football has consistently maintained that India is an important market and were in no hurry to give away the rights for throwaway prices. Reliance-Disney joint venture JioStar had shown interest, while Sony did not bid. ‘Z’ managed to convince FIFA officials that they were its best bet during a visit to the country last week.
“’Z’ is reigniting the spark to nurture the sport and motivate the youth to bring the lost glory back to our nation, by enabling access to key football action across every household across the country. We are certain that the concerted action being taken for the sport will result in India regaining its glory once again on global stages like Olympics and FIFA World Cup,” the company said in a statement on Monday.
Given that the company was the first to acquire the commercial rights of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) in 2004, the reference to Indian football’s present and past by ‘Z’ isn’t lost on anyone. Significantly, the media rights for Indian football competitions will be up for grabs in the next couple of months.
India, ranked a poor 137, were knocked out in the first round of the World Cup 2026 qualifiers. The tournament will feature 48 nations for the first time.
FIFA’s announcement means there is now a deal in place for 185 territories and comes just over two weeks after a partnership with CCTV for broadcast in China. With India also sorted, Thailand is now the only major market without a broadcaster.
According to FIFA’s global engagement and audience report for World Cup 2022 in Qatar, Asia and Oceania had 53% share of the total media engagement with India's 745.7 million second behind China. India also had the most social media followers growth, followed by Indonesia, Bangladesh and Brazil.