https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/20...rope-with-womens-world-cup-broadcast-blackout There are, probably, better places to post this but this location will do for now. I wonder if anything other than simple profit reasons is driving the delay in someone buying the European rights? I do not really think so but Europe is a VERY different place from The USA. I also wonder if broadcasting the WWC is normally profitable for Europe and if it is possible for the broadcast "package" to be broken up into smaller parts based on country or team? But this could get interesting as politics of TV broadcasting in Europe seems often to get more "intense" than it does here. Also, if FIFA does not award someone the rights, how much will their "piracy" problem be aggravated?
As Infantino has already stated he wants to get the WWC broadcast on his FIFA streaming platform. So this a is a cack handed attempt to blame the broadcasters. Fifa and Infantino are panicking, because if broadcasters and commercial partners don’t flood money in they will have to dip into their hefty coffers to meet the commitment to equal prize money. Anyway … Here’s some good local knowledge on the subject. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2023/may/02/fifa-talks-tough-but-has-paved-the-way-by-undervaluing-womens-world-cup-rights
This op-ed suggests --without explicitly saying so-- that the potential buyers of the rights are offering an amount they think will net them a profit at the end of the day, and that amount isn't as much as FIFA would like to be offered. These buyers really don't have a dog in the "demean woso" game- they're trying to make a buck. They seem to be far apart from what FIFA thinks is reasonable. Be interesting to know who's math is wrong and who's trying to rip off someone else...
It makes no sense for FIFA to sabotage a tourment they sponsor. I'm sure some here are already headed down Conspiracy Street, but FIFA wants money. Maybe they don't want to sell the rights at their true value.
FIFA wants 10 million from each of big 5 European countries: France, Germany, Italy, England, and Spain. BBC + ITV offered 9 million German Broadcaster offered 5 million FIFA is right in trying to maximize WWC TV money; Games start at 9:00am in Europe, so Broadcasters want to protect their margins. The next couple of WWC should be in Europe and US to guarantee a successful WWC and increasing TV rights value.
I heard the game times were tweaked to favor the €uro centric audience. At the beginning they were intended to be aired live at 3 am 6 am and 9 am Now the UK have air times of 9am and 12 noon. We here in the USA are hosed as it’s 2 am, 3 am and 6 am at best.
If that is really the reason for changing/setting the match times (favoring the Euros) I am a bit surprised. It seems that if any time considerations are undertaken it would be to favor the Americas, including South America. I do not have the exact numbers but, from what I have read, it seems that the majority of fans (maybe a small majority) of women's soccer are still in this hemisphere and not in the European theater. With the main exception being in the far east like Japan etc. But Japan's time is close enough to Australia to mean that nothing needs changing to accommodate them. I have not, yet, really decided how I will handle watching of this WWC. I may just alter my sleep times for this tournament as I have nothing in my life that forces me into a particular sleep pattern. Or I may well just use my DVR to record everything and each day avoid news and these boards until after I have watched the matches. Or I may use some hybrid of those two. I do have time to decide. I still do not really understand FIFA's position and they may well just be posturing and a deal will be reached before the first kickoff. I do not understand the finances of international football broadcasting. I am one of the people that do not watch commercials at all (even live I use "mute" when those things appear) so my "behavior" should not be used to model revenue streams. I just want the time to pass and get this thing started.
Europe (26.7%) had bigger percentage of global audience than North, Central America & Caribbean (15.8%) and S.A (14.7%) individually. https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/5fd80f719fbff8e4/original/rvgxekduqpeo1ptbgcng-pdf.pdf IMO FIFA wanted to favor Euro audience to increase the value of Euro TV rights; You have four Euro countries that can reach the finals, while US is the only one from NA + SA. I imagine that better time would help FIFA closing the deal.