Tough negotiations: FIFA’s emergency solution in the TV dispute: Women’s World Cup only on the Internet

In the TV dispute about the women’s soccer World Cup, there is still no agreement in sight – but at least there is now an emergency solution. Plan B of the World Football Association are live broadcasts on the Internet. There will be “no blackout”, a FIFA spokesman assured the German Press Agency.

The world association still hopes for a negotiated solution with the television stations ARD and ZDF. “We are still in talks,” said the spokesman. At the same time, he emphasized that there would be no tournament in Germany without moving pictures and explained: “We prefer broadcasts on public television, but we can also show the games on FIFA+.”

Play on FIFA+

With this, FIFA publicly confirmed for the first time that in the event of a definitive failure of the negotiations, the World Cup broadcast on the in-house Internet platform is the alternative to traditional television broadcasting. Games have been streamed on FIFA+ since April last year. However, the reference to possible Internet transmissions can also be seen as a threat to the broadcaster in the unprecedented public TV dispute.

Almost five weeks before the start of the tournament in Australia and New Zealand on July 20th, the fronts between the association and ARD and ZDF – despite the talks mentioned by FIFA – seem to be extremely hardened. ARD sports coordinator Axel Balkausky recently said at the SpoBis congress: “In the normal world you would sit down and come to a solution. But both sides have to be ready for that.”

Officially, the first and the second have not wanted to comment on the latest FIFA statements. But people entrusted with the negotiations had recently stated several times that there was no progress and no real negotiations. However, despite the time pressure, there is still no internal deadline for the official termination of efforts for the TV rights.

FIFA President demands more money

So far, the transmissions of the big tournaments in Germany have always been on ARD and ZDF, which also submitted the best offer for the German TV market when it came to the tender for the 2022 World Cup, as those responsible for broadcasting emphasize. However, the offer was too small for FIFA. President Gianni Infantino publicly called for more money without giving specific figures. The only thing that is certain is that the amount involved is in the mid-single-digit millions.

“There has to be an agreement,” said DFB Vice President Celia Sasic. “It would be a very hard blow if that didn’t work.” The 34-year-old ex-national player emphasized the importance of broadcasting on classic television. “It would be very, very important for women’s football, for society, for the whole development, to show this tournament, to keep the visibility high.”

It is currently unclear how the World Cup broadcasts brought into play by FIFA would look like on the company’s own Internet portal. Technically it is definitely not a problem. The involvement of German-speaking commentators would also be possible. However, the usual standards of ARD and ZDF with moderation, interviews and, above all, critical reporting would hardly be expected if FIFA broadcast it itself.

A pure FIFA+ broadcast would also be problematic for people in areas with poor internet connections. And for older people who do not use the Internet or are unfamiliar with the operation of streaming. It is extremely unlikely that the ratings would be as high as in classic television.

The lack of agreement between FIFA and television stations is not a purely German problem. In other television markets in Europe, there are still no deals shortly before the tournament begins. Most recently, Infantino had stressed that he was still determined to get more money from the broadcasters in the big countries.