world cup qualifying rights
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AWAY WORLD CUP QUALIFYING TV RIGHTS

We understand that fans may have questions about why U.S. Men’s National Team’s away World Cup Qualifying matches are not on ESPN, Fox Sports and Univision which are U.S. Soccer’s broadcast rights holders.

To provide fans insight into how the worldwide television rights are handled for away World Cup qualifiers and why the match is not being televised by a U.S. Soccer broadcast partner, we have included answers to some frequently asked questions below. We hope this information will offer some clarification.

For any further questions, please email us at supporters@ussoccer.org.


WHO OWNS THE BROADCAST RIGHTS TO WORLD CUP QUALIFYING MATCHES?

The worldwide television rights to each World Cup Qualifying match are the property of the hosting country. The host Federation is under no obligation to grant these television rights to a specific broadcaster in their opponent’s home territory. By way of example, Jamaica is not obligated to grant the rights to the November 12 World Cup Qualifier to one of U.S. Soccer’s rights holders in the U.S. Further, U.S. Soccer has no authority to compel the host Federation to sell the rights of a World Cup qualifier to any particular broadcaster in the United States. The host Federation often works with a third party to commercialize these television rights via distribution deals in their opponents’ territories as well as other countries across the world.


WHY DOES THE HOST FEDERATION OWN THE RIGHTS?

It has long been industry standard for the ownership of the worldwide television rights for World Cup Qualifying matches to belong to the host Federation.


WILL ALL AWAY USMNT WORLD CUP QUALIFYING MATCHES BE ON PARAMOUNT+, CBS SPORTS AND TELEMUNDO PROPERTIES?

In the United States, all the USMNT’s away WCQ’s will be aired in English on CBS networks and/or Paramount+ in English and on Telemundo’s family of networks in Spanish. The one exception will be the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifying match at Mexico on March 24, 2022 which will be broadcast in Spanish by Univision.

CBS Sports owns the English language television rights to all Concacaf WCQ’s, including the USMNT away 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifying matches, via a deal they struck with a third-party who aggregated all the individual Concacaf countries’ WCQ rights, with the exception of the USA and Mexico. Telemundo acquired the same set of rights in Spanish. CBS Sports was able to acquire the English-language rights to the March 24 USMNT match at Mexico as well.


WHERE CAN I FIND CBS SPORTS NETWORK AND PARAMOUNT+ TO WATCH ENGLISH LANGUAGE BROADCASTS?

CBS Sports Network is available on DIRECTV (channel 221), Dish Network (channel 158), Verizon FiOS (channel 94, 594), as well as streaming platforms such as FuboTV, Hulu and YouTube TV. CBSSN is also available with most cable providers, look up your channel by location at the top of CBSSportsNetwork.com.

Paramount+ is a subscription streaming service that can be accessed online, or via home streaming platforms such as Amazon TV, Apple TV and Roku.  


WHERE CAN I FIND TELEMUNDO AND UNIVERSO TO WATCH THE SPANISH LANGUAGE BROADCASTS?

Telemundo is a free-to-air Spanish language television network with 28 owned-and-operated local stations available over the air across the United States. Telemundo is also available on DirecTV (channel 406, 407), Dish Network (channel 835, 836), AT&T U-Verse (channel 3007) as well as on streaming platforms such as Fubo TV, Hulu, YouTube TV. 

Universo is available on DIRECTV (channel 410), Dish Network (channel 838), AT&T U-verse (channel 192), Verizon FiOS (channel 275, 1643 and 775) and via streaming platforms like YouTube TV and Hulu. Visit www.nbcuniverso.com/encuentra to find Universo via your local cable provider.