Pay-TV broadcaster Setanta Sports has snapped up rights in Georgia to soccer's upcoming FIFA World Cup men's national team tournament.
The network will provide live free-to-air coverage of all 104 games – a significant increase from the 2022 edition – on its OTT platform for registered users.
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The expanded 48-team tournament will be held across Mexico, the US, and Canada, between June 11 and July 19. However, Georgia's national team will not feature, having failed to qualify for the tournament.
For the last two FIFA men's World Cups (2018 and 2022), coverage in Georgia has been provided by the nation's public-service broadcaster.
Bacha Malazonia, executive director at Setanta Sports, has commented: "Broadcasting a tournament of this scale is not only a tremendous responsibility for us but also a remarkable opportunity. We are therefore excited to welcome both our loyal viewers and new audiences alike, especially as the full package will be available free of charge on setantasports.com."
Soccer's global governing body, FIFA, initially sent rights out to tender in Georgia and eight other European markets in early 2025.
Meanwhile, FIFA is still struggling to secure broadcast partners for the World Cup in a range of Asian markets due to the time difference from the US, with most games taking place in the early morning.
The Indian rights situation in particular will be causing significant concern at the governing body's Swiss headquarters, with the market now the last major territory where a deal has not yet been agreed, and less than three weeks to go before the World Cup gets underway.
FIFA had originally been looking to generate $100 million from the market (for rights to both the 2026 and 2030 tournaments), but reportedly will now have to make do with less than $35 million in total.
The battle to secure rights is currently being contested by media heavyweights JioStar and Zee.
Viacom18 (now part of JioStar) held rights in 2022, reportedly paying just over $60 million for that edition alone – with that tournament held in Qatar, matches were on at a far more friendly time for Indian audiences.
JioStar is reportedly not currently budging from its valuation of between $20 million and $25 million, meaning FIFA may have to move even further away from its original predicted figure.
A formal deal signing is still expected soon, according to Indian media; however, the sales process has been ongoing since July of last year.
In terms of broadcasters who have already turned down the opportunity to bid, this number reportedly includes FanCode and Sony.
Public-service broadcaster Prasar Bharati is also in conversation around taking rights to a package of World Cup games, to ensure free coverage, it has been suggested.
Issues with selling World Cup rights are also plaguing FIFA in other Asian markets – notably, Bangladesh and Thailand.
In Bangladesh, the company that had originally bought the rights, Singapore-based Springbok, has had to surrender them after missing payment slots and not being able to sell them on quickly enough.
Springbok struck a deal for World Cup rights in March that has been reported as worth $7.2 million, but has since then reportedly missed the first three deadlines for payment instalments. It had been trying to sell them on to state-run BTV, without success.
Now, it has been reported that a combination of Bangladeshi networks T Sports and Star News – alongside a company out of Dubai – is in contention to buy the rights directly from FIFA in a last-minute deal.
It has also been reported that FIFA has dropped its asking price from $7 million to $5 million, but has knocked back requests to provide the rights entirely free of charge.
There is also currently an impasse over where rights to the World Cup will be allocated in Thailand, meanwhile.
FIFA has asked for between 1.3 billion baht ($39.8 million) and 1.7 billion baht ($52 million) from that market, according to reports.
The Thai government has already ruled out the use of public funds and the state budget to buy the rights.
Games in that country will kick off in the early hours or during the morning, again meaning limited advertising potential and audience reach.
In Thailand (whose national team did not qualify either), the World Cup is one of the sporting events where rights-holders must, by regulation, provide free-to-air access.
In 2022, the Sports Authority of Thailand (the country's national sports agency) bought rights to that year's World Cup, and then distributed them to a wide range of broadcast partners.
In terms of Asian deals for the World Cup, earlier this month, Chinese public-service broadcaster CCTV secured a multi-year agreement for the tournament.
