If the decision is finalized, state broadcaster BTV will air the matches live. That has largely cleared up the uncertainty over whether the FIFA World Cup will be available to watch in Bangladesh.
Two sources at the Information Ministry and BTV confirmed the matter to Prothom Alo on Wednesday. No one involved, however, agreed to speak about it on the record.
Asked about it, Information and Broadcasting Minister Zahir Uddin Swapan told Prothom Alo, “Talks with all sides on showing the public the matches without spending public money are progressing satisfactorily.”
The biggest tournament in world football opens on June 11. The broadcasting rights for this World Cup in Bangladesh had gone to the Singapore-based company Springbok Pte Ltd. Bangladeshi companies were supposed to buy the rights from it and broadcast the matches in Bangladesh.
The company had sought about 151 crore taka from BTV for the broadcasting rights. With taxes, that would have come to nearly 200 crore taka. In the end, however, the deal did not go through.
The Singapore-based company has since relinquished the rights after failing to sell them.
The Bangladesh government then began talks directly with FIFA over broadcasting the World Cup. A source at the Information and Broadcasting Ministry told Prothom Alo on Tuesday night that several rounds of talks had been held with FIFA at a high level of government to obtain the broadcasting rights free of charge.
Senior officials of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) and BTV are involved in the talks.
The Information Ministry source told Prothom Alo that viewers were expected to be able to watch the matches. If the talks are finalized, BTV will take the World Cup broadcasting rights. Private broadcasters that show the matches will take the rights from BTV. The talks may be finalized within a day or two.
The OTT platform Toffee will also stream the matches live. The company told Prothom Alo that Banglalink and Toffee had obtained the digital broadcasting rights for the World Cup. All football fans, including Banglalink users, will be able to watch the matches on Toffee.
Along with Bangladesh, hundreds of millions of football fans in India and China were also uncertain about watching the World Cup because of broadcasting-rights complications. Recently, however, FIFA confirmed a broadcasting deal with China Media Group (CMG) for the 2026 and 2030 men’s World Cups and the 2027 and 2031 women’s World Cups.
FIFA has signed a deal with the Indian media company Zee Entertainment.
BTV sources said that in 2018, BTV broadcast the World Cup at no cost under the “package policy,” by which rights holders broadcast through BTV.
That policy was scrapped in 2022, however. As a result, that year BTV received an allocation of funds at the last minute before the World Cup, by a high-level government decision. It then bought the broadcasting rights for 98 crore taka from a “special budget.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report