Brazilian YouTube channel CazéTV has revealed that it will be showing all 104 games from the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will take place across the North American countries of US, Canada and Mexico next summer. The news is the latest illustration of how creator-led channels are disrupting the market for premium sports rights.
In a post on Instagram, the channel said: “We were born to do things differently. We left our bedrooms and live streams to create a channel that started broadcasting a World Cup match every day. We grew, evolved, and brought more friends to join us. We made many mistakes but never gave up on being who we are.”
CazéTV, which has 22 million subscribers, is not a newcomer to sports rights having already secured properties such as the Olympic Games, UEFA European Football Championships and the inaugural edition of the FIFA Club World Cup. It also had rights to 22 matches at the 2022 edition of the FIFA World Cup.
Its business model to date has involved securing the rights for its channel and then streaming via major platforms such as SamsungTV Plus and Amazon Prime.
Analysing the deal via his LinkedIn feed, Dawid Prokopowicz, a senior sales consultant for YouTube owner Google in Poland, commented: “The world’s largest sports creator channel is now broadcasting the biggest tournament in the world.”
He added: “This is a totally different ballgame. The Cazé TV deal is a creator-led acquisition of broadcast rights. This isn’t just big; it’s a sign of the times. Trends are shifting. And while I know there are plenty of skeptics out there, Google’s YouTube is going to be consuming sports through creators even more boldly. The question is: when will traditional broadcasters finally catch on.”
