ESPN President John Skipper on Friday said that the network "had no advance warning about the news" that FIFA had extended its deal with Fox and Telemundo for English- and Spanish-language World Cup rights in the U.S. through '26, according to Neil Best of NEWSDAY. Skipper "did not sound too pleased about it." He said, "No, not only not given an opportunity to bid, but we were given no heads up; nobody's called us yet. We read the press release. We know the same thing you know, which is an interesting position to be in as a former rights-holder who I think did a very outstanding job with the last two World Cups." When Skipper was told he sounded displeased, he responded, "I'm not going to characterize my emotions" (NEWSDAY, 2/14). SI.com's Richard Deitsch cited sources as confirming that ESPN execs "were ticked off -- and rightly so." Sources suggested that granting Fox and Telemundo an "extra round without opening up the bidding means a move to the winter" for the '22 World Cup in Qatar "is a done deal" (SI.com, 2/15). BLOOMBERG NEWS' Tariq Panja noted ESPN's Bob Ley criticized FIFA on his Twitter feed, writing, “Did FIFA just grant rights to WC2026 without opening it up to bidding? #typicalFIFA" (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 2/13). WORLDSOCCER.com's Keir Radnedge wrote the move is "being seen as compensation over the likely date change" of the '22 event. Fox execs "were furious when ... they suddenly discovered that the climate row over Qatar threatened to switch that ‘second’ World Cup into a midwinter broadcast clash with the run-up to the Super Bowl" (WORLDSOCCER.com, 2/13).
QUESTIONS ABOUND: ESPN FC's Gabriele Marcotti wrote at the "very least," the TV rights announcement "is unusual on two fronts." First, they "never went to tender, unlike last time around when bidding was fierce and the value of the rights went sky high." There "was no auction, just an extension." When asked on Friday as to the reasons, FIFA responded, "The extensions were the result of a detailed assessment of the market and discussions with the relevant broadcasters." Second, the deal "comes with the tournament 11 years away, at a time when we don't even know where it will be held." Location generally "is fundamental to determining how much a broadcaster is willing to bid." The possibility that the U.S. could be awarded the '26 World Cup "would have driven the value of the rights even higher." It is "hard to see how the broadcasters who were awarded 2026 even began to budget for how much they could afford to bid" (ESPNFC.com, 2/14).
