Fifa World Cup rights could help TVNZ achieve pay-TV goal

Thursday, 14 August 2025

TVNZ could have scored the football World Cup through to 2030, giving a long-term lift to its pay-TV ambitions.

TVNZ has outbid Sky TV to secure the rights to broadcast next year's Fifa World Cup finals, well-placed sources have told The Post.

However, it is not yet clear whether the football rights will come packaged up with rights to the 2030 finals and the Women's World Cup in 2027, which were put out for tender by Fifa at the same time earlier this year.

TVNZ would not comment on its talks with Fifa. It is understood an agreement is still subject to some formalities.

The state-owned broadcaster is believed to be planning to charge viewers to watch some matches, using the major sports event to perhaps launch its long-touted pay-TV offering.

“We’ve been open about the need for TVNZ to have some form of pay offering in order to be able to secure content rights that are valued by our audiences. This is particularly true of sports rights,” a TVNZ spokesperson said.

Official confirmation of the rights deal may come on August 29, if not before, when the broadcaster will post what is expected to be a small underlying profit for the year to June — an oasis during a period of red ink.

The company expects to return to a loss next year as it makes investments in its digital infrastructure, some of which will be needed to charge for programming.

TVNZ has openly chatted about charging viewers to watch some of its programmes since 2014, when former chief executive Kevin Kenrick flagged that as a possibility.