World Cup 2026

ajc28

Yeah but it's still annoying there's something else to pay for when you're already paying for the other services and it's always been on one of them before. I expect the cost will be equal several months worth of subscriptions as the rugby world cup one on Spark was. The non NZ games are 97% of the tournament (assuming NZ don't go past the group). I'm a fan of another country and am a crazy person who tries to watch every game anyway so I'll have no choice but to pay, unless there's a good alternative and reliable VPN option.

SBS Australia have all the games live and free. Pretty easy to set your VPN to Aussie.

ajc28

Yet another service to pay for then. Already EPL, CL/UEFA and FA/Carabao Cups on 3 different services. Now the World Cup on something else. 

Last time I checked you'll be able to watch all NZ teams (clubs and national sides) either on Sky, free on FIFA+/TVNZ or live at the ground! Yay!

ajc28

Yeah but it's still annoying there's something else to pay for when you're already paying for the other services and it's always been on one of them before. I expect the cost will be equal several months worth of subscriptions as the rugby world cup one on Spark was. The non NZ games are 97% of the tournament (assuming NZ don't go past the group). I'm a fan of another country and am a crazy person who tries to watch every game anyway so I'll have no choice but to pay, unless there's a good alternative and reliable VPN option.

SBS in Australia will have every game free on their streaming platform

Thanks. BBC and ITV will also have it in the UK and I've used both of them for plenty of sports in the past (women's Euros, Olympics when there's been an event I've wanted to watch that Sky weren't showing etc). But they've been a bit hit and miss for me lately so maybe they are catching on and getting better at blocking. There will definitely be the temptation to just pay for the one that's guaranteed to work without faffing about with any settings in order to avoid sitting down to watch a game and it doesn't (which happened to me with the women's Euros final), so interested to see the pricing. I'd expect it to be something closer to 2-3 months of Sky with Sport than a month of Netflix.

Plenty of time to play around with different services to see what works best before then.

Procrastinixing

They'll have an exclusive event pay pass.  Impressed they got this.
All Whites games will be free.  Wonder how much they'll charge.  

Well, if they are completely stupid, they'll go for either $29.99 or $39.99 for normal rounds & $49.99 for semis & the Final. Gut feelings are, that they are that stupid. 

Do people think about cause and effect? Do they want to send a big signal to media companies that people in NZ aren't willing to spend money to watch football, so that they won't be willing to invest in football in the future? 

The World Cup is only every 4 years, it is an amazing product, you aren't entitled to it for free or for a negligible amount of money 

That’s fair enough. Just pointing out it’s not something I ever expected to get for free, but had hoped it would be on one of the 3 existing services I already pay for to watch football (it’s always previously been on one of them). It’s frustrating to have to pay for another one. Appreciate it will be a one off fee and not ongoing, but still expect it to be equivalent to a few months worth of subscriptions of one of the other services.

This is the consequence of breaking Sky’s monopoly and wanting to pay by competition instead of paying for everything though. It’s now multiple services for the same sport and costs you more.

It is always frustrating when yet another player comes into the market and offering it for sale. Yet another fee when I already pay for so many - I'd love it to be for free, but the rights to these events are stupidly high. The fact that TVNZ has won out over Sky and others is surprising. The only way Sky wins this is by offering better audience numbers and money - clearly TVNZ wanted it more - that's competition for you.
I'm just hoping TVNZ offer the whole event for a one off payment, and at a reasonable price.

Also hope it's not full of adverts as it may be difficult to recover the cost of the rights purely from the pass. Be interesting to see if it's the standard international coverage with pre-game, half time and post-match analysis etc, or whether there will be NZ studio people, or whether it will just be 15 minutes of ads at half time.

ajc28

Also hope it's not full of adverts as it may be difficult to recover the cost of the rights purely from the pass. Be interesting to see if it's the standard international coverage with pre-game, half time and post-match analysis etc, or whether there will be NZ studio people, or whether it will just be 15 minutes of ads at half time.

"Live" kick offs and commercials so that you don't get the 20 minute halftime break - which would also kick off "live" followed by more commercials. It's been done in the past like that.

I see that TVNZ has also obtained a "Lemmon," The Rugby NPC. I bet Sky would have been grateful to unload that given the minimal interest.

Prefer minimal screen time for Scotty Stevenson please.  Would guess that Chris Chang would be shoulder tapped to head any pre match, half time and post match shows 

theprof

It is always frustrating when yet another player comes into the market and offering it for sale. Yet another fee when I already pay for so many - I'd love it to be for free, but the rights to these events are stupidly high. The fact that TVNZ has won out over Sky and others is surprising. The only way Sky wins this is by offering better audience numbers and money - clearly TVNZ wanted it more - that's competition for you.
I'm just hoping TVNZ offer the whole event for a one off payment, and at a reasonable price.

It will be a one off payment for every match - this is a quote from the announcement on NZ Football's website "Football fans will also be able to purchase a one-off event pass to access every match at the tournament through TVNZ+ for the first time."

As for whether it's a reasonable price - who knows!

Half a Pint

theprof

It is always frustrating when yet another player comes into the market and offering it for sale. Yet another fee when I already pay for so many - I'd love it to be for free, but the rights to these events are stupidly high. The fact that TVNZ has won out over Sky and others is surprising. The only way Sky wins this is by offering better audience numbers and money - clearly TVNZ wanted it more - that's competition for you.
I'm just hoping TVNZ offer the whole event for a one off payment, and at a reasonable price.

It will be a one off payment for every match - this is a quote from the announcement on NZ Football's website "Football fans will also be able to purchase a one-off event pass to access every match at the tournament through TVNZ+ for the first time."

As for whether it's a reasonable price - who knows!

yuck! 
although that does say "also" suggesting there might be other options

So how is this going to work? With Sky it's done through your Sky box, per for view and billed onto your account.

no doubt  TVNZ will have an online payment option from your personal login.

ajc28

Yeah but it's still annoying there's something else to pay for when you're already paying for the other services and it's always been on one of them before. I expect the cost will be equal several months worth of subscriptions as the rugby world cup one on Spark was. The non NZ games are 97% of the tournament (assuming NZ don't go past the group). I'm a fan of another country and am a crazy person who tries to watch every game anyway so I'll have no choice but to pay, unless there's a good alternative and reliable VPN option.

All games will be shown free to air on BBC and ITV iplayers in the UK. Wink Wink 😉

ajc28

Thanks. BBC and ITV will also have it in the UK and I've used both of them for plenty of sports in the past (women's Euros, Olympics when there's been an event I've wanted to watch that Sky weren't showing etc). But they've been a bit hit and miss for me lately so maybe they are catching on and getting better at blocking. There will definitely be the temptation to just pay for the one that's guaranteed to work without faffing about with any settings in order to avoid sitting down to watch a game and it doesn't (which happened to me with the women's Euros final), so interested to see the pricing. I'd expect it to be something closer to 2-3 months of Sky with Sport than a month of Netflix.

Plenty of time to play around with different services to see what works best before then.

My old man watches BBC, ITV and Channel 4 every day in the Waikato. Just use a decent VPN and make sure you system's clock is on UK time not NZ time. You'll have no issues then.

ajc28

Also hope it's not full of adverts as it may be difficult to recover the cost of the rights purely from the pass. Be interesting to see if it's the standard international coverage with pre-game, half time and post-match analysis etc, or whether there will be NZ studio people, or whether it will just be 15 minutes of ads at half time.

There will be so many games on that there will be no need to listen to pointless pre/post game chat whether it's kiwi, Aussie, Pom, Yank or other.

Marto

ajc28

Thanks. BBC and ITV will also have it in the UK and I've used both of them for plenty of sports in the past (women's Euros, Olympics when there's been an event I've wanted to watch that Sky weren't showing etc). But they've been a bit hit and miss for me lately so maybe they are catching on and getting better at blocking. There will definitely be the temptation to just pay for the one that's guaranteed to work without faffing about with any settings in order to avoid sitting down to watch a game and it doesn't (which happened to me with the women's Euros final), so interested to see the pricing. I'd expect it to be something closer to 2-3 months of Sky with Sport than a month of Netflix.

Plenty of time to play around with different services to see what works best before then.

My old man watches BBC, ITV and Channel 4 every day in the Waikato. Just use a decent VPN and make sure you system's clock is on UK time not NZ time. You'll have no issues then.

I do similar. It's the way to go.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0RF3NCHwpwLjodegpeNDNB?si=QF8ZBRURTvafer9IXOYxMQ

Melodie Robinson from TVNZ on their plans for the World Cup

imanixsupporter

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0RF3NCHwpwLjodegpeNDNB?si=QF8ZBRURTvafer9IXOYxMQ

Melodie Robinson from TVNZ on their plans for the World Cup

The way she latches onto Guy mentioning some people might be willing to pay $50 for the World Cup pass and her saying that a lot of pay per view events are around $50 makes me think that might be the number TVNZ currently have in mind

imanixsupporter

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0RF3NCHwpwLjodegpeNDNB?si=QF8ZBRURTvafer9IXOYxMQ

Melodie Robinson from TVNZ on their plans for the World Cup

Thanks, gave it a listen. Would be surprised if it was as low as $50 (was thinking 3 times that) but that would be very reasonable if it was all games live and on demand. As long as it all works and doesn't just die when loads of people are streaming the same live game at the same time, that would be a good enough price to go with that over faffing about with hit and miss vpn and dns settings.

ajc28

imanixsupporter

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0RF3NCHwpwLjodegpeNDNB?si=QF8ZBRURTvafer9IXOYxMQ

Melodie Robinson from TVNZ on their plans for the World Cup

Thanks, gave it a listen. Would be surprised if it was as low as $50 (was thinking 3 times that) but that would be very reasonable if it was all games live and on demand. As long as it all works and doesn't just die when loads of people are streaming the same live game at the same time, that would be a good enough price to go with that over faffing about with hit and miss vpn and dns settings.

Sky Sport Now is $54.99 for a month pass so I would imagine it would be hard to sell for much more than that

ajc28

imanixsupporter

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0RF3NCHwpwLjodegpeNDNB?si=QF8ZBRURTvafer9IXOYxMQ

Melodie Robinson from TVNZ on their plans for the World Cup

Thanks, gave it a listen. Would be surprised if it was as low as $50 (was thinking 3 times that) but that would be very reasonable if it was all games live and on demand. As long as it all works and doesn't just die when loads of people are streaming the same live game at the same time, that would be a good enough price to go with that over faffing about with hit and miss vpn and dns settings.

They had Jodi O'Donnell on Hosking and she said it would be far lower than $139 which he suggested

Half a Pint

ajc28

imanixsupporter

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0RF3NCHwpwLjodegpeNDNB?si=QF8ZBRURTvafer9IXOYxMQ

Melodie Robinson from TVNZ on their plans for the World Cup

Thanks, gave it a listen. Would be surprised if it was as low as $50 (was thinking 3 times that) but that would be very reasonable if it was all games live and on demand. As long as it all works and doesn't just die when loads of people are streaming the same live game at the same time, that would be a good enough price to go with that over faffing about with hit and miss vpn and dns settings.

Sky Sport Now is $54.99 for a month pass so I would imagine it would be hard to sell for much more than that

Except SSN doesn't have it so it's not direct competition if you're wanting the World Cup - it's not a choice between one or the other. But probably right that it will have to be a similar price to other services to get enough people willing to pay. They'll need to cover the cost of getting the rights which will be huge, but can't price it too high that people won't pay and will just make do with the few free games or use VPNs etc to access free coverage from overseas.

Apparently Mexico will host the 6 team Inter-confederation play-offs, next March.

Alongside New Caledonia, Bolivia are now confirmed to be there.
Plus yet to be known teams from AFC, CAF & CONCACAF x2 teams.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6663331/2025/09/25/president-trump-world-cup-games-cities-unsafe/

This guy is a menace

Procrastinixing

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6663331/2025/09/25/president-trump-world-cup-games-cities-unsafe/

This guy is a menace

He may soon join charlie kirk though a massive stroke or heart attack

That guy has the brains of a mollusc. Unfortunately he is the most powerful man on the planet. If he says move the games Fifa will move them. This WC could be a fiasco. There are already worries about the heat problems in open stadiums. 

Whilst Trump is not the answer, the Democrats certainly are not. Was Biden still alive or was that a Thunderbird Puppet??

Looking forward to this World Cup to see if the "new" format actually works. 

I have heard the Mexican squad of 30 will have 23,000 support people in their party coming with them across the board.

LG

Whilst Trump is not the answer, the Democrats certainly are not. Was Biden still alive or was that a Thunderbird Puppet??

Looking forward to this World Cup to see if the "new" format actually works. 

I have heard the Mexican squad of 30 will have 23,000 support people in their party coming with them across the board.

Ice will have a meltdown

Better the corpse of Biden than a fascist

Nelfoos

Better the corpse of Biden than a fascist

I'm pretty sure Biden wasn't even running in the last election, for that matter

https://www.friendsoffootballnz.com/2025/09/29/maple-zayu-and-clutch-join-roll-call-of-fifa-mens-world-cup-mascots/

I see that Trump will not allow officials from Iran to attend the draw in December. Fifa needs to get tough with the prick and state that if he interferes then they will take the tournament elsewhere.

It's clear that Trump plans to make this all about himself.  

whatever

I see that Trump will not allow officials from Iran to attend the draw in December. Fifa needs to get tough with the prick and state that if he interferes then they will take the tournament elsewhere.

It's clear that Trump plans to make this all about himself.  

It’s a tough one for FIFA and the federations. 

The reason they want it in the US is the high population of Latin American fans with disposable income who are football crazy. 

They have had a couple of special Conmenbol Copa Americas in the USA. That’s the equivalent of the Euros being held outside the confederation in China or something! 

The Copa America has had a tough recent history, with teams unable to afford to host it and instability making it difficult to guarantee safety.
Holding it in the US seemed like a way to make cash. Which I believe they did. 

So I assume they thought they’d go back to the well with the World Cup! And Infantino got close to Trump as he seems to with every particular host. 

Will it be a bit of point scoring now and be fine closer to the tournament? 
Have to wait and see I guess. 

Should move the draw to Canada or Mexican instead, but FIFA are gutless. 

whatever

I see that Trump will not allow officials from Iran to attend the draw in December. Fifa needs to get tough with the prick and state that if he interferes then they will take the tournament elsewhere.

It's clear that Trump plans to make this all about himself.  

 
No problem for FIFA, as a non profit, they are known to stand up for  the right things like human rights and that stuff.