Fifa, football’s world governing body, agreed deals in Germany and Sweden for the Fifa World Cup finals.
In Germany, public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF acquired the exclusive media rights for all 64 matches in the 2018 World Cup finals. The Sponsors.de website reported the value of the deal as €200 million ($264 million).
In Sweden, the rights to the 2018 and 2022 tournaments were jointly acquired by public-service broadcaster SVT and TV4, which operates commercial and basic-tier channels and is set to launch a pay-television sports channel, TV4 Sports Xtra, in May. The deal ensures that a minimum of 46 matches in each tournament will be shown on free-to-air television.
The deals follow the acquisition by the European Broadcasting Union, the consortium of public-service broadcasters, of the rights for both tournaments in 37 European territories, as reported by TVSM Daily last Friday.
In December, Fifa issued a tender for the European rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups but carved out the markets of France, Finland, Russia, Spain and the UK. It still has to do deals in those territories, along with deals for Italy and Greece, where the rights were unsold in the recent tender.