JTBC and KBS will jointly broadcast the 2026 FIFA World Cup, to be held in North America beginning in June, after JTBC — the exclusive rights holder — reached its first agreement with a terrestrial broadcaster following renewed negotiations.
JTBC announced Thursday that it had agreed with KBS on joint coverage of the 2026 North American World Cup, the first such deal reached among its talks with the three terrestrial broadcasters. The agreement is reportedly valued at 14 billion won ($10 million). SBS and MBC have received the same offer as KBS and are reviewing whether to accept.
KBS said it accepted JTBC's final proposal "despite the significant losses expected under the terms, in order to fulfill the responsibilities of a public broadcaster and realize the value of the license fee." With roughly a month until the tournament's opening, KBS plans to continue technical negotiations with JTBC while assembling a broadcasting team that includes former announcer and TV personality Jun Hyun-moo and football commentator Lee Young-pyo.
JTBC had earlier secured exclusive rights to the 2026-2032 Summer and Winter Olympics and the 2025-2030 World Cups, and attempted to resell the rights to the three terrestrial broadcasters, but those talks broke down.
As a result, when JTBC exclusively broadcast the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in February, civic groups criticized the arrangement as infringing on the public's universal right to view major sporting events. JTBC accepted the criticism and resumed negotiations to resell the North American World Cup broadcasting rights to terrestrial networks.
"With this agreement, viewers will be able to watch the June World Cup on both a general programming channel (JTBC) and a terrestrial network (KBS)," a JTBC official said. "We have delivered the same final proposal to MBC and SBS as to KBS, and will continue negotiations."
