TNT agrees to deal to televise 24 Club World Cup games this summer
The cable network will show games in the group stage and knockout rounds, including the final, while streaming platform DAZN will carry all 63 games. Philadelphia is one of the host cities.
TNT Sports has agreed to a sublicensing deal to televise 24 of the 63 games at this summer’s Club World Cup, alongside global streaming platform DAZN’s broadcasts of the entire tournament.
The deal includes an agreement for TNT to produce English-language studio shows for all of the tournament’s games, including shows that will air only on DAZN.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the matter told The Inquirer that the expectation is for TNT to carry one match per game day. (There won’t be games every day of the tournament, which runs from June 14-July 13.)
Lincoln Financial Field will host eight Club World Cup games: six group games, a round of 16 game, and a quarterfinal on July 4. Teams coming to town include England’s Chelsea and Manchester City, Spain’s Real Madrid, Italy’s Juventus, and Brazil’s Flamengo. Germany’s Bayern Munich and France’s Paris Saint-Germain are among the clubs that could play here in the knockout rounds.
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If you’ve never heard of DAZN, you aren’t alone. The platform isn’t a major deal in the United States, where its top properties are combat sports and the UEFA women’s Champions League.
But in the rest of the world, it’s much bigger. DAZN has the NFL’s international streaming rights, Canada’s deal for the men’s Champions League, and home-country contracts for Italy’s Serie A, Germany’s Bundesliga, France’s Ligue 1, and Japan’s J.League.
For now, there’s no word on whether TNT will hire its own game broadcasters or just simulcast what the world gets. So if you’re wondering whether Charles Barkley will start talking about soccer, there’s no answer yet. But TNT generally doesn’t do crossovers with its employees.
It’s also not known yet whether TNT will bring broadcasters over from its British sports channel, which televises the Premier League and Champions League.
TNT’s package includes games in the group stage, knockout rounds, and the final. Specific picks haven’t been made yet. The games will not be simulcast on Max, TNT’s streaming platform, because DAZN has the exclusive streaming rights.
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TNT and DAZN also will work together beyond game broadcasts on U.S. sponsorship and marketing deals for the tournament.
It isn’t surprising that a sublicensing deal has been agreed upon to get some games on TV. DAZN’s agreement with FIFA for a worldwide deal allowed it, and both entities knew that a TV deal was really needed in the U.S. to get the tournament more attention.
But the fact that a cable channel got the English rights in the tournament’s host country is notable. When the DAZN deal was announced last December, FIFA’s press release said it included “the possibility of sublicensing to local free-to-air linear broadcast networks.”
TNT Sports is not free-to-air, which in the U.S. translates to the big broadcast networks. It’s a cable platform, with channels including TNT, TBS, and truTV. A source with knowledge of the matter told The Inquirer that DAZN was always open to a sublicense to any domestic TV outlet, including cable channels, even though the press release didn’t say so.
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The Spanish sublicensing rights went to TelevisaUnivision, which last month announced a deal to televise 18 games. Those broadcasts will be spread across the Univision broadcast network (Channel 65 in Philadelphia), smaller free-to-air channel UniMás (Channel 28), and cable sports network TUDN.
All three outlets are plenty familiar to Spanish-speaking soccer fans, and even many English ones. Univision televises many games from Mexico’s Liga MX, the most-watched soccer league in the United States, and the UEFA Champions League. The network also aired every men’s World Cup from 1970 to 2014, starting well before the event became popular in English in the 1990s.
Similar to TNT, TelevisaUnivision and DAZN’s deal includes studio shows and a collaboration for marketing and sponsorship.
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