What advertisers need to know about the 2026 World Cup

This year’s World Cup, beginning on June 11, is bound to be the most accessible to watch tournament yet.

All 104 matches will be airing on Fox and FS1 in the U.S., while streaming will be available on Fubo and Fox’s own streaming platform, Fox One (which didn’t even exist during the last tournament in 2022). Tubi, Fox’s free streaming app, will carry the opening ceremony and two opening games. Spanish-language matches will be available on Telemundo, Universo and Peacock.

For advertisers, the tournament represents another live sports boon following the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics and NBA Finals. Fox is expecting 150 million combined viewers across the entire tournament.

According to a Nielsen survey conducted in February, that viewership could turn into sustained fandom: 33% of people in the U.S. expect their interest in soccer to grow because of the World Cup.

“Engaged fans are your best customers,” Jeff Collins, Fox’s president of advertising sales, said onstage during the company’s upfront presentation last month.

In fact, research shows that soccer fans are more likely than fans of other major sports to engage with brand sponsors and buy sponsored products after watching matches.

To that end, Fox made sure to drum up advertiser enthusiasm for the event during its upfront presentation; it touted its “agentic AI native” operating system, the Fox Fan OS, built on fan insights — like those of sports fans.

But as The Current recently reported, the World Cup’s true brand impact could go beyond the live games. A recent WARC report found ancillary media goes gangbusters around major sports events..

“When people are deeply engaged with live sports, they don’t just watch. They continue the experience elsewhere. You watch a game on a CTV app, then listen to a postgame podcast,” wrote Arthur Larrey, CEO of Audion.

“We’re also seeing significant uplift when audio is activated alongside video around major sporting events. … Rather than competing with video, audio extends the conversation and helps brands stay present throughout the entire fan journey.”

That trend appears particularly pronounced among soccer fans. According to the Nielsen study, 77% of U.S. soccer fans listen to sports podcasts for soccer news.

“The World Cup creates more than viewership; it creates daily attention and cultural momentum. Brands that only invest in the live game risk missing the broader fan journey, where people are catching up on storylines, reacting in real time and staying connected through trusted voices and personalities,” Stephanie Denevan, senior vice president of sales development operations at iHeartMedia, told The Current.

“That is where the opportunity opens up for audio, podcasts and companion media to extend a brand’s relevance well beyond the final whistle.”

Further, 76% of soccer fans in the U.S. are millennials or Gen Z, according to Nielsen; 38% of millennial soccer fans and almost 35% of Gen Z soccer fans read live news related to the event they are watching during the match.

“The soccer fans in the U.S. are the next-gen consumers that every marketer wants to engage with right now,” Denevan added.

Another recent survey suggests that fans across the U.K., France, Germany and Spain — which have larger soccer (or football) followings than in the U.S. — will be at least 1.5 times more likely to get sports-related content from CTV, podcasts and news sites versus using social media platforms.

That seems like a decent endorsement for an omnichannel marketing strategy.

“The biggest mistake brands make with tentpole sports moments is over-indexing on the live game. The smarter play is to invest in everything around it,” Gina Whelehan, group director of strategic partnerships at Butler/Till, told The Current.

“Fandom lives in the anticipation, the analysis, the player stories, the unexpected upsets and the emotional aftermath. Aligning with shoulder content allows brands to show up where engagement is often deeper.”