2026 FIFA World Cup broadcast: Where and how to watch in Australia
Football fans rejoice, the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup will be broadcast live, free and all on the one channel. SEE FULL DETAILS HERE
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The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup will be broadcast exclusively via SBS in Australia after the broadcaster secured the rights to the new expanded 48-team event in a landmark deal.
In a major win for fans in Australia after the recent women’s World Cup was split between television broadcaster Channel 7 and digital streaming service Optus, the men’s event being staged in Canada, Mexico and USA in 2026 will all be live, free and exclusive via SBS, SBS Viceland and SBS On Demand.
Football fans around Australia constantly suffer through a division of broadcasting rights on various platforms to follow the various leagues around the world, but the World Cup remaining on SBS after the success of Qatar 2022 is a big win for supporters.
“Football is in the DNA of SBS,” said James Taylor, Managing Director of SBS.
“SBS has been the home of football on Australian television for almost 40 years and we could not be more thrilled to announce that we will broadcast the 2026 tournament from North America, which will have more teams, more matches and draw more eyeballs than ever before.”
The Matildas set new Australian broadcast records during their semi-final charge of the women’s World Cup earlier this year, peaking at 9.25 million viewers, but fans weren’t happy that every match of the tournament was not available live and free but rather via subscription streaming.
It was recently revealed football fans would need to fork out $600 a year in streaming fees for Australian fans to keep watching the Matildas in their various domestic leagues around the world, while subscriptions to follow all the major men’s leagues including the domestic A-League and Champions League would cost more than $1000 a year.
The Socceroos journey to the 2026 World Cup continues next month with qualifying clashes with Bangladesh and Palestine.
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Originally published as 2026 FIFA World Cup broadcast: Where and how to watch in Australia
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