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For the first time since the BBC and ITV started sharing World Cup Studying in 1966, their local competition will not be a big broadcast stadium this summer.
In conjunction with the first World Cup held in three countries, the 48-team competition will be a global event, YouTube and TikTok are broadcasting live for the first time and Netflix is showing a daily TV program, Gary Lineker’s The Rest is Football, and a podcast that was once at home moving to Times Square in about six weeks.
The former Match of the Day presenter will be joined by The rest is Football regulars Alan Shearer and Micah Richards in the first programme, available from 6am in the UK on Wednesday, but celebrity guests including Harry Maguire, Frank Lampard and Patrick Vieira have been booked for later in the competition.
Richards has joked about “Podcast wars” for the upcoming World Cup because Sky Sports partner Gary Neville’s Stick to Football will also be based in New York for this tournament, but Netflix’s participation in The Rest is Football is a game changer that should take this podcast to the next level, and to a wider audience.
The US broadcaster has forked out £14m for 40 daily episodes, which will feature interviews and reports from the ground and local football chats, for fear of losing many of its fans to the World Cup.
Stick to Football appears to have scaled back its ambitions, and after airing some shows on ITV during the Euro 2024 Neville banter-fest with Ian Wright, Roy Keane and Jill Scott will be available only on YouTube and 12 programs dedicated to ITV.
The bigger picture in the podcast wars is Netflix’s growing interest in live sports and they have a good relationship with Fifa, having bought exclusive rights to the next two Women’s World Cups.
“Netflix didn’t have a way to get an audience for the World Cup because they don’t have the game they’re playing,” said Tony Pastor, co-founder of Goalhanger, the company behind The Rest is Football and the rest of the successful podcast stable that generates more than 70m downloads a month for its 14 shows.
“They want to be part of the World Cup discussion and have a daily contribution, to give the audience a reason to turn on every day without stopping the channel for six weeks.”
Lineker and co will be forced to deliver huge numbers for Netflix given the scale of the investment, but the 65-year-old has the tools to deal with it, having covered six World Cup games for the BBC and played in two.
All other companies will be watching, because any move from Netflix to add more sports content to sports that focus on sports events such as Major League Baseball opening night, Christmas Day games of the NFL or sports entertainment such as WWE and popular boxing will have a big meaning.
“The Rest is Football on Netflix is fantastic,” said Alex Kay-Jelski, the BBC’s head of sport. “If a show like that can do well on a big platform, it will be a huge development.”
The BBC’s sporting ambitions are very limited, appearing in Salford until the final week of the competition, and Match of the Day features Kelly Cates, Gaby Logan and Mark Chapman sharing display services.
With a planned layoff that will see nearly 2,000 BBC workers out of a job, financial concerns are at the root, as are environmental concerns.
The BBC is focusing on sustainability and investing in its long-term products, with a new studio opening this week and a number of new digital services to be offered in a bid to attract younger audiences.
Pundits like Wayne Rooney need to make sure his TV coverage packs a punch, too Thomas Frank’s first press appearance since he was sacked by Tottenham to bring out the headlines.
“We have created a 24/7 World Cup system, which is more connected and integrated than ever before,” says Kay-Jelski. “There will be something for everyone, whether it’s television, Radio Five, YouTube shorts, news and analysis, or World Cup games.
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“If we had £200m to spend we might have done things differently, but we’re very happy with where we’ve ended up. We can’t just focus on a six-week tournament, we have to invest for the long term. That’s why we’ve built a new studio that will be used by Match of the Day, providing a real World Cup legacy.
“I still don’t know where we would have gone even if we had decided to build a studio there. You could argue with Miami, LA, New York or Mexico City. It’s a big competition so I feel comfortable being in the UK, especially at the start.”
ITV is taking a more old-school approach with its team, led by New York-based Laura Woods and Mark Pougatch. Their director of sport, Niall Sloane, will participate in the 11th World Cup 40 years later, when his work included operating the camera behind the goal at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City when Diego Maradona punched the ball past Peter Shilton. “That was a tough 20 minutes,” he says with a smile.
Sloane says there is too much football on television, and the growth of 48 teams and the increase from 64 to 104 matches is not a development he welcomes.
ITV, which will broadcast 51 of the BBC’s 54 matches with all of them sharing the final, should start strongly as it has the opening game on Thursday – Mexico v South Africa – and England’s first game, against Croatia, next Wednesday. The BBC seems to have gambled that Thomas Tuchel’s side will go far. ITV has rights to the first quarter, including the first two qualifiers, and the BBC has first choice for the semi-finals and England’s games in the last 32 and last 16 if they qualify.
Although the BBC is expected to win the World Cup title it will provide a major marketing support to ITV at a time when its takeover by the US company Comcast, which owns Sky, is at an end.
ITV’s audience of 10.2 million for the Women’s Euro 2025 final in Italy was last year’s biggest, a number that should be beaten this summer.
“We’re going to be making a lot of shorts, but it’s going to be a while before we lose the meaning of two 45-minutes,” says Sloane. “As sports have become more popular, the importance of live events has increased. There are not many TV programs that provide double viewing figures these days, but big football games are one of them.
“It’s going to be a good tournament, but I’m not sure the extra 16 teams will add up. There’s going to be some games that aren’t at the level you’d expect at a World Cup, which worries me a little bit.
Given the heavy schedule – and the fact that 40% of the games will kick off at midnight in the UK – Fifa’s new social media program feels good. YouTube and TikTok have the right to air 10 minutes of selected games, at the end of which most viewers may be asleep.
