Aleph, a global digital advertising firm, has snapped up exclusive broadcast rights to men's soccer's upcoming 2026 World Cup, in the Philippines.
Via a gatekeeper deal unveiled yesterday, Aleph will lead commercialization and multimedia distribution of media rights to the World Cup, which will take place in June and July across Mexico, Canada, and the US.
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It will appoint media rights partners across all platforms, including free-to-air, pay-TV, digital streaming, mobile, and video-on-demand.
Aleph now also becomes the gatekeeper to brands looking for advertising, sponsorship, and commercial opportunities, across "multiple media platforms in the Philippine market."
The initial tender process for these rights in the Philippines went live in November 2024, covering both the men's World Cup and the Women's World Cup (WWC) next year.
The 2026 World Cup will be the first-ever to contain 48 teams, up from 32 at the previous edition.
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By GlobalDataAnna Dy, country head in the Philippines for Aleph, has stated: "We are seeing a fundamental shift in fan culture, where digital content creation has become a primary way for fans to live and share the sport in real-time. For brands in the Philippines, this is a massive opportunity to connect with an audience that is more mobile, more expressive, and more invested in the game than ever before."
The 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar was shown live by Tap DMV in the Philippines, while the last edition of the WWC (2023, in Australia and New Zealand) was covered by pay-TV’s Cignal TV.
The Philippines' men's team has never qualified for a men's World Cup.
In terms of broadcast rights for the 2026 World Cup, earlier this week these were awarded in France to international pay-TV heavyweight BeIN Sports – despite French soccer’s Ligue 1+ OTT streaming service having already claimed success in the bidding for the upcoming edition.
BeIN will broadcast all 104 games from each of the next two editions of the quadrennial competition on its range of pay-TV linear channels, reportedly paying around €40 million ($47.5 million) for the two tournaments.
