Fox, NBC reportedly submit bids for Women's World Cups... but not ESPN

Earlier this year, FIFA announced plans to separate the bidding process for the media rights to the men’s and women’s World Cup tournaments. While it was expected that this might open up the marketplace and increase competition, especially considering the rising interest and popularity in women’s sports, that appears to not necessarily be the case.

According to Puck savant John Ourand in his latest newsletter, the bids have been submitted for the 2027 and 2031 Women’s World Cups. While the 2031 tournament location has yet to be decided, the 2027 edition will be held in Brazil, which makes it a very friendly timezone for American media companies.

Nevertheless, Ourand reports that only two companies are known to have made a bid – Fox Sports and NBC.

Those two certainly make a lot of sense. Fox has held onto World Cup rights since 2015, broadcasting both men’s and women’s editions. Their additions of Copa America and the European Championships have made them the go-to network for international soccer coverage. And although the quality of that coverage is quite polarizing (see: Lalas, Alexi and Lloyd, Carli), they have certainly done the most when it comes to being the soccer network of record in America.

NBC represents a worthy adversary, though. They have been the longtime home of the Premier League in America. And while they don’t have the international tournaments that Fox offers, their coverage has traditionally been of a higher quality. Boosting their World Cup bid is the presence of Peacock as a streaming platform that Fox currently does not have. And as we saw with the Summer Olympics, NBC has reached the point where Peacock can be a true asset to their overall sports coverage.

One surprising omission is the WorldWide Leader in Sports – ESPN. The network was instrumental in the explosive growth in soccer’s popularity thanks to their groundbreaking World Cup coverage in 2010 and 2014, finally elevating the sport for American viewers instead of trying to dumb it down. However, the current regime in Bristol has shown no real interest in getting back into the sport in a significant way aside from mostly streaming deals with the Bundesliga and La Liga. Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery (who currently televise USA international games) also weren’t among the bidders. Given ESPN’s history with the tournament, it has to be a disappointment for soccer fans that they aren’t in the running and don’t appear to be anytime soon.

One wild card could be CBS, who has been the recent home of the UEFA Champions League. Like NBC, CBS also has a streaming platform in Paramount+, which outdoes Peacock in terms of subscribers. They’ve also made a wider investment in soccer with the Golazo network and Serie A coverage. The network has also not been afraid to push women’s sports as CBS Sports Network was a pioneer in the all-female talk show We Like To Talk that launched all the way back in 2014.

While the men’s and women’s tournament packages have been separated by FIFA, Ourand reports that the network that lands the rights to the next Women’s World Cup would have the “inside track” to the men’s tournament as well. Given their current relationship with FIFA, Fox has to be seen as the leader in the clubhouse. But don’t discount NBC or CBS from making a bold, transformative move that could add even more high quality sports programming to their streaming portfolios.