A day after completing its coverage of soccer’s 2026 World Cup, German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom has announced its rights acquisition for the 2030 edition, the anniversary tournament of the flagship national teams competition.
Under its agreement, Deutsche Telekom will air all 104 games of the tournament being staged across six host nations on its MagentaTV platform from June 8 to July 21.
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Once again, an expanded field of 48 national teams will compete, with MagentaTV to also host highlights, game clips, interviews, shoulder content, and ancillary programming throughout the tournament.
As a nod to the tournament’s first edition in 1930, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina will host one opening-round match each, while the rest of the showpiece event will be staged across Spain, Portugal, and Morocco.
Uruguay staged and won the inaugural edition, while Argentina was runner-up. Paraguay has been given hosting rights as the home of Conmebol, the only continental governing body that existed at the time.
The rights come as the German telco consolidates its soccer portfolio, having secured rights to air all 51 matches of UEFA Euro 2028, the pan-European national teams tournament, with 17 fixtures to be exclusive.
It is unclear whether Telekom will sublicense part of its rights to free-to-air broadcasters as it did for the 2026 edition, with Germany’s public service broadcasters ARD and ZDF given rights to air 60 matches.
A similar deal with ARD and ZDF could be secured again for the 2030 edition, or with commercial broadcasters RTL and Sat.1.
Arnim Butzen, head of TV at Telekom, told the German Press Agency: “The sublicensing model has proven successful, and we will soon be holding initial talks with potential partners in the market”
Even without a sublicensing deal in place, at least some matches will be available free-to-air in the country due to German broadcasting law, which stipulates that matches involving the German national team at a FIFA World Cup, as well as the opening match, both semi-finals, and the final must be available on FTA television.
Telekom’s rights for the 2026 edition, which was staged across the US, Canada, and Mexico, came as part of a FIFA rights package acquired in 2025, also covering the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and the youth-category U20 World Cup in 2025 and 2027.
The new rights come days after Telekom announced it had drawn a record 200 million viewers for its coverage of the 2026 World Cup – more than three times the audience it secured for the UEFA 2024 Euros, which attracted 70 million.
England’s quarter-final win against Norway attracted the highest viewership, with 8 million tuning into MagentaTV’s coverage. This is followed by the round of 16 match between Brazil and Norway with 6.9 million viewers, and the group stage match between France and Senegal with 6.5 million viewers.
Rodrigo Diehl, the Telekom board member responsible for the German business, said: “It [the 2026 edition] was a record-breaking FIFA World Cup for us. We reached more than 200 million viewers and simultaneously gained significantly more customers than expected.
“And with Magenta TV, we offer football fans unique sports coverage and top-class expertise combined with high entertainment value. Magenta TV is the home for first-class live sports. Today and in the future,”
The deal also comes the same day FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced the 2026 edition has brought in revenues of around $15 billion – a huge increase from the approximate $5.8 billion FIFA generated for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
