Sport TV to air all 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 matches in Portugal
December 5, 2025 13.41 Europe/London By Julian Clover


Portuguese pay-TV broadcaster Sport TV has secured rights to show every match from the FIFA World Cup 2026, committing to live coverage of all 104 games, 70 of them on an exclusive basis.

The sports network will be the only subscription-TV channel in Portugal to carry the full tournament, which runs from 11 June to 19 July 2026 in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Sport TV says it will show every game from the group phase through to the final, with a World Cup-focused schedule running for the full 39 days of competition.

Flagship channel SPORT.TV1 will switch to a dedicated World Cup format, carrying 92 live matches and close to 1,000 hours of coverage, including studio programming around Portugal’s national team. The remaining 12 fixtures will be shown on SPORT.TV2, with additional content and highlights offered across the broadcaster’s seven-channel line-up and digital platforms.

Local reports indicate that 34 of the 104 matches will also air free-to-air in Portugal, in line with past tournaments where games involving the national team and key knockout ties have been sublicensed to terrestrial broadcasters. Pay-TV exclusivity will therefore apply to 70 fixtures, primarily outside Portugal’s matches and the highest-profile games.

Sport TV chief executive Nuno Ferreira Pires said the deal extends a World Cup relationship that goes back more than two decades and described the 2026 edition as “special”, with expectations high around another deep run for Portugal in what could be the last World Cup for several star players.

Sport TV’s acquisition follows FIFA’s 2024 invitation to tender for rights in Portugal and sits alongside a separate package awarded to LiveMode, which is understood to be preparing digital and YouTube coverage of part of the tournament. The combination reinforces Sport TV’s position as the leading premium football outlet in the market while ensuring broad distribution of selected matches via free platforms.