Futbol de Primera (FDP), the Spanish-language soccer radio network in the US, has secured radio rights to soccer’s flagship FIFA World Cup 2026 as the country looks to bolster its coverage ahead of hosting the event.
Under the deal, FDP will distribute live match coverage during the tournament across more than 180 affiliate stations in the US, with full coverage on digital and streaming platforms, including FDP Radio’s YouTube streaming channel.
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The World Cup, taking place across the US, Mexico, and Canada later this year, will feature an expanded 48 teams, with 104 matches taking place in 16 host cities between June 11 and July 19. Mexico will kick off the tournament against South America in the opening game.
FDP’s coverage will include an international broadcast team featuring Carlos ‘Pibe’ Valderrama, along with World Cup champions Jorge Burruchaga and Mauro Silva, who will provide tactical analysis during matches. Referee analysis will be led by former FIFA World Cup referee Javier Castrilli.
The panel will also include international soccer figures Manuel Sol, Eduardo "Yayo" De la Torre, Carlos de los Cobos (Mexico), Alex Aguinaga (Ecuador), Mauricio "Chicho" Serna (Colombia), Steve Sampson (USA), and Giovani Savarese (Venezuela).
Andrés Cantor, President of FDP Radio, said: “We have assembled a dream team of professionals for what will be our seventh consecutive broadcasts of the FIFA World Cup. I know our listeners will enjoy our coverage.”
The new deal sees FDP continue its World Cup coverage, having aired every edition since 2002, and add to its current crop of rights, including the US men’s and women’s national soccer teams through 2030, as well as the 2027 and 2029 Gold Cups and the Concacaf Nations League through 2029.
Spanish-language broadcast rights in the US are held by NBC Universal-owned Telemundo after extending its deal to cover this year’s event in 2015, while Fox Sports holds the English-language rights under the same deal extension.
Fox first secured US English-language rights to FIFA events from 2015 to 2022 in October 2011 when it outbid incumbent holder ESPN, the international sports broadcaster, paying $425 million. The figure was more than four times the $100 million that ESPN paid for rights from 2007 to 2014 (including the 2010 and 2014 World Cups).
Telemundo, meanwhile, acquired the Spanish-language rights for the 2015 to 2022 contract period for $600 million, almost double the $325 million paid by rival Spanish-language broadcaster Univision for the rights from 2007 to 2014.
The new deal comes shortly after world governing body FIFA announced a new content partnership with YouTube that will allow official broadcasters of the 2026 edition to stream a portion or full matches on the Google-owned video platform.
FIFA and YouTube will collaborate to make premium content from the tournament’s media partners and content creators available on the platform.
For the first time in the competition’s history, broadcasters will have the option of live streaming the first 10 minutes of every match on their YouTube channel, while they will be able to stream a select number of matches in full.
Outside of live matches, broadcast partners will be given access to a library of match footage across formats. This includes the opportunity to publish extended highlights, behind-the-scenes footage, YouTube ‘Shorts’, and video-on-demand content.
The parties stated that the deal offers FIFA’s media partners more premium content to showcase on their YouTube channels, including “more opportunities to monetize their content.”
Meanwhile, FIFA has reportedly slashed its asking price for rights to the World Cup in India, having so far failed to land a broadcaster to provide coverage of the event.
The sales process for the rights in the country for the 2026 and 2030 World Cup editions was launched in July 2025, but FIFA still has not secured an Indian broadcast partner two months out from this year’s tournament starting.
Citing anonymous officials, the Economic Times outlet said the fees for the two events have now been reduced from $100 million to $35 million to attract buyers.
For the last men's World Cup, held in Qatar in 2022, the Viacom18 broadcaster (now a part of the JioStar group) provided coverage across the subcontinent through a tie-up with the Infront media rights agency, which acted as FIFA's distributor in that region.
Sony Sports Network, meanwhile, held rights for the 2014 and 2018 World Cups.
