TV 2 and DR to cover FIFA World Cup 2026

For the first time, the FIFA World Cup 2026 will feature 48 participating teams and will be hosted by the United States in particular. The World Cup is co-hosted by Canada and Mexico – 40 years after Denmark’s first participation in a FIFA World Cup in Mexico.

When the FIFA World Cup 2026 is played, the event may be followed on TV 2 and DR. This is clear after the two Danish public service broadcasters have acquired the World Cup rights from the international football association, FIFA.

Thus, the World Cups 2022 and 2026 as well as UEFA EURO 2024 and 2028 will be broadcast on TV 2 and DR.

- Over the years we have celebrated many big sports events with the Danes, and it is with great pleasure that we now add another football World Cup to the series of large, gathering events that deserve to be broadcast on the Danish public service stations, says Anne Engdal Stig Christensen, CEO of TV 2, and continues:

- In the battle against other streaming services, it is imperative for TV 2 to be able to preserve its impact. That is done e.g. by investing in important sports properties and thus sharing the sense of community in large sports with the Danes – always in combination with solid journalistic coverage, which is what we are good at when these events take place. The Danish national football team will return to TV 2 in 2022, and it is great to have the world’s most prestigious football event, the World Cup, to look forward to in 2022 and now also in 2026.

TV 2, TV 2’s sports channels and TV 2 PLAY have – over the last months and years – invested in a number of new and attractive sports properties taking place in the years to come, including the Olympics and important football properties such as UEFA EUROs, the Danish national team, LaLiga, the European club tournaments Europa League and Conference League as well as far more than 1,000 international football matches.

Extended World Cup offering even more matches
The FIFA World Cup 2026 will feature 48 teams and is therefore greater than the previous World Cups featuring 32 teams. The number of matches will increase from the usual 64 to 80, of which 60 are played in the USA, 10 in Canada and 10 in Mexico.

- The FIFA World Cup is already one of world’s biggest events, and in 2026 it will be even bigger with more teams and more matches for the Danish viewers and users. Happily, this means that the Danish team will have a greater chance of qualifying – even though a World Cup is big in itself, it will, of course, have quite an extraordinary significance for us when the Danish team participates. Just as back then in 1986 when the World Cup was last played in Mexico – for us who have the privilege of remembering that tournament, says Frederik Lauesen, Head of Sports at TV 2.

World Cups have a wealth of history and sense of community. Denmark’s first participation in a World Cup in 1986 – group winner after defeating Scotland, Uruguay and West Germany and a painful exit after 1-5 to Spain – is a brilliant example of that.

- The agreement with FIFA will enable TV 2 and DR to make the FIFA World Cup as accessible as possible for as many people as possible. World Cup football is for TV 2 ‘all what we share’, and during the big football tournaments, we shall cultivate a sense of community and render these events even more significant for the Danes, says Frederik Lauesen.

The rights agreement also includes FIFA U-17 and U-20 World Cups in 2023 and 2025, FIFA Futsal World Cup 2024 as well as FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2023 and 2025. These rights are also evenly shared between TV 2 and DR.