SBS has declared that its 2026 coverage of the FIFA World Cup will deliver the biggest TV audience event of 2026.
The public broadcaster has locked in seven major partners for its coverage of the expanded tournament, which now has 104 games instead of 64.
“It has been incredibly exciting how the market has responded,” SBS acting managing director Jane Palfreyman told a media briefing ahead of its annual Upfront event.
“We’ve locked our major partners, but we have other partnership opportunities for clients that we are working through and still available. We feel really pleased with the opportunity of offering clients exposure across linear TV, but also all of the activity on SBS on demand, whether it’s mini matches, replays, there is so much digital opportunity outside of just the games.”
It has been reported that SBS paid $30 million for the 2026 World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada. Previous World Cups in 2022 are believed to have cost SBS $20 million.
SBS plans to recoup the outlay through commercial partnership, advertising, but also value from the “halo effect” derived by exposing its slate of programming to a broad audience.
SBS has named its tier one partners for the event, confirming that Hyundai, Macca’s, Rexona, Hisense, bet365, Commonwealth Bank and Youi were all supporting the 2026 FIFA World Cup as SBS official broadcast partners.
The Matildas’ Women’s World Cup semifinal against England is the most-watched football audience and TV program since the current audience measurement system began in 2001.
The match, on Seven and 7plus, attracted a national average audience of 7.13 million viewers and reach of 11.15 million.
The last men’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar had more modest audiences, albeit played outside of friendly viewing times in Australia.
The final between France and Argentina delivered a total TV audience of 976,000, while the most watched fixture between Australia and Argentina drew an audience of 1.7 million.
