The world most watched sports event “FIFA World Cup” takes place this summer in Russia in June-July 2018. Widely known as the biggest tournament in world football its also not only the most watched but with the biggest prize money at stake. 2014 World Cup in Brazil had larger viewing numbers than even the Olympics and we can expect similar results this time around. We take a look at all the tv channels broadcasting FIFA World Cup matches in different parts of the world.
FIFA has promised very extensive coverage details for this year’s world cup with greater emphasis on “terrestrial tv” with free coverage. FIFA sold the broadcasting rights international at a very healthy price and this will be the biggest international football TV rights deal of any competition where FIFA is set to generate around $1.85bn (£1.15bn) for the cycle of 2018 to 2022. Majority of the money comes from World Cup rights.
Below is the list of TV Channels broadcasting FIFA World Cup live/repeat/replay in different parts of the world. Around 200 territories across the world will broadcast FIFA matches at some point during the tournament.
| COUNTRY | TV CHANNELS |
| United Kingdom | BBC, ITV (both networks set to share 2018 world coverage in the UK) |
| Ireland | RTE (exclusive coverage rights for all world cup matches on TV, Radio and online) |
| Australia | SBS, Optus Sport (Australia matches on SBS while other matches on SBS’s subscription channel Optus) |
| New Zealand | Sky Sport (exclusively on SkySports, all matches live, repeat and highlights) |
| Oceania Countries | Sky Pacific (Sky NZ will also provide coverage to adjacent iceland countries.) |
| France | TF1, beIN Sports (France matches on TF1 while other games on beIN Sports) |
| USA | FoxSports (exclusive English rights in the US), Telemundo (Spanish coverage) |
| Canada | CTV, RDS, TSN |
| Mexico | Televisa, TV Azteca, SKY México |
| Costa Rica | Teletica, Sky, Movistar |
| Panama | Sky, Movistar |
| India & South Asia | Sony Pictures Network (Sony has exclusive rights in south asia and sub continent countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afgahanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives etc) |
| Middle-East & North Africa | beIN Sports (exclusive rights in middle-east and some north african countries) |
| South Africa & Other African countries | SuperSports (South African based network, SuperSports has live rights in South Africa and some of the other african countries.) Participating countries in World Cup will have their matches on their national channels. |
| Germany | ARD, ZDF (Coverage to be shared between ARD and ZDF) |
| European Countries | EBU (most of the european countries will have live coverage on Free to air local channels, specially the matches involving the nation team of that country) |
| Portugal | RTP, SIC, SportTV |
| Spain | Mediaset España |
| Netherlands | NOS |
| Ireland | RTE |
| Italy | MediaSet |
| Belgium | VRT, RTBF |
| Austria | ORF |
| Switzerland | SRG SSR |
| Sweden | SVT, TV4 |
| Finland | YLE |
| Denmark | DR, TV 2 |
| Norway | NRK, TV 2 |
| Poland | TVP |
| Czech Republic | CT |
| Ukraine | Inter |
| Russia | Perviy Kanal, VGTRK, Match TV |
| Turkey | TRT |
| Greece | ERT |
| South American Countries | Unlike the previous world cups, every South American country has seperate deals with FIFA and below is the list of channels broadcasting in latin countries. |
| Brazil | Globo, SporTV, Fox Sports |
| Argentina | TV Pública, Telefe, DirecTV, TyC Sports |
| Uruguay | Monte Carlo, Canal 10, Teledoce, TyC, DirecTV |
| Colombia | Caracol TV, RCN TV, DirecTV |
| Chile | Canal 13, TVN, Mega, DirecTV, Movistar |
| Ecuador | RTS, DirecTV |
| Paraguay | SNT, Telefuturo, TyC, DirecTV |
| Peru | Latina, DirecTV |
Fifa World Cup 2018 Live Commentary on Radio:
More then 40 countries will provide the live commentary of World Cup 2018 matches. In Australia you can get each match detail about the team line-ups, pre-match interviews and live commentary on (SBS) radio channel during the match. The biggest radio broadcast of world cup 2018 matches will be listed in Brazil. Almost 7 radio station will give live updates from Russia.
In Brazil radio channels that will air Brazil match live commentary are (Rádio Bandeirantes, Rádio Gaúcha, Rádio Itatiaia, Rádio Jovem Pan, Rádio Verdes Mares, Sistema Globo de Rádio and Super Rádio Tupi). Fútbol de Primera provide live radio commentary in United States and BBC in United Kingdom.