DAZN has announced a major deal with TelevisaUnivision to sublicense many of the games from the FIFA Club World Cup this summer. TelevisaUnivision will broadcast Univision’s Club World Cup games across Univision, TUDN, and UniMas.
In total, 18 of the 61 games will be shown by TelevisaUnivision. That’s less than 11% of the FIFA Club World Cup. The only way to watch all 61 games is on DAZN, a streaming service.
How we got here
In December, DAZN rolled the dice with FIFA when it announced it scooped up the global broadcast rights to the 2025 Club World Cup. The $1 billion acquisition fee was a gamble because it’s unproven whether or not the FIFA Club World Cup will be a success. The competition and previous incarnations of it haven’t exactly set the world on fire.
What DAZN taking the risk did do, however, was to make it more palatable to broadcasters in the United States. As part of the deal, the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup will be exclusive to DAZN worldwide except in the United States, where FIFA has allowed DAZN to sublicense select games to television broadcasters stateside.
Why? It’s pretty simple. DAZN is practically invisible in the U.S. market. Having a streaming service that most sports fans in the United States have never heard of is a recipe for disaster if it’s the only place to watch games. So while having select games available on television makes sense, the biggest reason is another matter entirely.
Why FIFA needs TelevisaUnivision
To put it bluntly, FIFA needs DAZN to sublicense select games to television broadcasters (such as Univision) to expand the awareness that the competition is taking place. In doing so, that will help try to drive ticket sales.
So far, those sales aren’t going too well based on the news that FIFA has slashed ticket prices.
If FIFA had to rely on DAZN to generate awareness and interest in this summer’s Club World Cup, it would be in a world of hurt. Therefore, today’s news is music to the ears of FIFA who can now rely on TelevisaUnivision to start pumping up the competition ahead of the June start date.
According to the TelevisaUnivision press release, DAZN and TelevisaUnivision will “work closely together on a promotional and marketing strategy that will maximize reach of the tournament to millions of soccer fans in the U.S.”
Which broadcaster will pick up the English-language TV rights?
As I predicted in December 2024, “Currently, in the United States, DAZN has very little focus on the Spanish-language audience, so a hypothetical deal for DAZN to sub-license games to TelevisaUnivision and/or Telemundo would make sense. That’s especially true when you consider the competition features fan-favorites Inter Miami, Real Madrid, River Plate, Boca Juniors, and Monterrey.”
The question, now, is whether DAZN will do a deal with an English-language television broadcaster. And if so, which one? The Spanish-language deal with TelevisaUnivision makes perfect sense. The English-language option is a lot more complicated.
First of all, are there any English-language broadcasters in the States that would be interested? Teams like Inter Miami, Real Madrid, River Plate, Boca Juniors, and Monterrey are all homerun hits for Spanish-language audiences. But what clubs would appeal to largely English-language audiences? The only two Premier League clubs competing are Manchester City and Chelsea. And Manchester City doesn’t have a significant supporter base here.
There’s no Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal or Tottenham in the competition. So outside of the Premier League, there’s not much that would interest English-language Americans. Perhaps the closest would be Juventus, where Weston McKennie has been playing well.
Made for Spanish-language TV
The 2025 edition of the FIFA Club World Cup is made for Spanish-language audiences. For English-language audiences, it’s a tough sell especially given that the US Men’s National Team will be playing in the Concacaf Gold Cup on practically the same calendar dates. Plus it looks likely that Manchester United and five other Premier League clubs will be playing across the U.S. this summer in the latest edition of the Premier League Summer Series.
Unless DAZN is willing to sublicense the English-language rights for free or practically for peanuts, I sense that the TelevisaUnivision TV deal is enough. Anyone, whether they speak English or Spanish, can watch the games across Univision. And if they’re so swept away by the competition (or if they support U.S. teams Seattle and Inter Miami), they can sign up to DAZN.
There’s just too much risk for an English-language broadcaster to fork out a significant amount of money for an unproven competition.
