Minister of Communications Fahmi Fadzil recently announced that Radio TV Malaysia (RTM) and Unifi TV will be the official broadcasters of the 2026 World Cup. The announcement came 37 days before the quadrennial sports event takes place in Canada, Mexico and the United States. The first kick-off is on June 11 and it will end on July 19.
Fahmi said that the 2026 World Cup broadcast can be enjoyed via free TV, MyTV digital TV, the RTM Klik application and Unifi TV. This is to provide comprehensive access to the entire country. As the official broadcaster, all 104 matches will be broadcast live via Unifi TV. RTM will broadcast most of the matches live and also delayed.
Fahmi did not announce how much the license fee was paid by RTM and Telekom Malaysia to FIFA to be the official broadcaster of the World Cup in Malaysia. Previously, reports emerged that FIFA was asking for around $50 million (~RM 198 million) for the broadcasting rights for the 2026 World Cup before reducing it to $35 million (~RM 139 million) which is still too high and is still seen as too high.
The 2026 World Cup has received little response due to the global economic and political turmoil. It was reported this week that China and India also still do not have official broadcasters despite contributing almost 22.6% of the total digital streaming audience for the 2022 World Cup. FIFA asked for $100 million from India but the Reliance-Disney alliance only wanted to pay $20 million which FIFA rejected yesterday.
