China signed its World Cup deal last Thursday for $60 million. FIFA had originally wanted $300 million from them. India was asked for $35 million — already slashed from $100 million. Nobody’s biting. The FIFA World Cup 2026 India broadcast rights crisis is now in its endgame with just 22 days to kickoff.
The same India that produced 745 million engaged fans across platforms for the 2022 World Cup — second only to China. The same India where 32 million viewers watched the 2022 final on JioCinema alone. Yet World Cup TV rights in India have no buyer.
The $35 Million World Cup TV Rights Gap Nobody Will Fill
FIFA’s original India package bundled the 2026 and 2030 Men’s Cups with the 2027 Women’s at roughly $100 million. They cut it to $35 million. Still no takers. For context, an IPL franchise just sold for $1.78 billion — FIFA can’t find a buyer at 2% of that.
The math on every broadcaster’s spreadsheet is brutal. Only 14 of 104 matches start before midnight IST. The final kicks off at 12:30am. The IPL playoffs wrap up just 10 days before kickoff — meaning Indian advertisers have already committed their sports budgets to cricket. Then the fantasy app ban that reshaped IPL’s ad economics hollowed out the digital ad pool that propped up 2022’s JioCinema windfall.
Football rights in India are already in retreat. EPL fees fell from $145 million (2013-16) to $65 million (2025-28). La Liga has no Indian buyer. While China secured its FIFA deal, India was left out of 2026 entirely.
Delhi High Court, Prasar Bharati, and the Sports Act Catch-22
On May 12, a Delhi lawyer petitioned the HC arguing that no broadcast violates the constitutional right to information. The court asked the Centre and Prasar Bharati to respond. Doordarshan last aired a World Cup in 1998 — a 28-year gap.
Here’s the catch buried in the Sports Broadcasting Signals Act’s mandatory sharing rules: private rights-holders must share events of “national importance” with Prasar Bharati. But that law only triggers after someone buys the rights. Nobody has.
FIFA officials landed in Delhi this week — three Reuters sources confirmed it. China’s CMG is state-owned and got its haircut. India’s Doordarshan is broke and constrained by law. The biggest tournament on earth is about to play its second-biggest audience to dark screens. The FIFA broadcast deal for India — whether via Delhi High Court intervention or a last-minute buyer — remains the most consequential unresolved rights package in World Cup history.