We Speak Financials

The World Cup Is Going Back on the Market: FIFA Opens U.S. TV Bidding for 2030 and 2034

Published

2 hours ago

October 29, 2026

For the first time since 2011, the biggest television property in sports is going to a real auction. FIFA has formally opened the tender for the U.S. and Puerto Rico broadcast rights to the 2030 and 2034 World Cups. Bids are due November 19, and FIFA hopes to name a winner by the end of the year.

The last cycle shows why this matters. The 2026 rights were handed out with no competitive bidding at all: Fox paid $485 million and Telemundo paid $465 million after the tournament’s move to winter 2022. This time, FIFA prefers one single bidder to take both the English and Spanish language rights, which changes the shape of the fight entirely.

The audience numbers explain the appetite. The 2026 tournament averaged more than 14 million U.S. viewers across 104 matches. The Spain against Argentina final drew a combined 62.8 million viewers, and 18 matches drew at least 20 million combined. Fox and NBCUniversal are interested, ESPN is interested, and Netflix is considered a likely bidder. Netflix already holds the U.S. and Canada rights to the 2027 and 2031 Women’s World Cups. Amazon is looking at it too.

The 2030 World Cup will be hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with opening matches in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. The 2034 tournament is in Saudi Arabia.

The money, in plain words: the last cycle brought in roughly $950 million combined without any auction. Put the rights in an open bidding war with a streamer at the table, and that number is the floor, not the ceiling.

We Speak Financials

Tom Lee Called 7,700 by Christmas. The Market Got There in October, So He Moved His Target to 8,000

Published

1 hour ago

October 29, 2026

We Speak Media

Wall Street’s loudest bull just got his number early. Last December, Fundstrat strategist Tom Lee set a year-end 2026 target of 7,700 for the S&P 500, one of the most bullish calls on the Street at the time. On October 20, the index closed at 7,713, hitting Lee’s year-end number with more than two months to spare. Lee has since raised his target to 8,000.

To be clear on whose view this is: these are Lee’s calls, made publicly by Fundstrat, and we are reporting them the way we report any analyst’s call, with his name on them. They are not our recommendation, and this article is not financial advice.

The interesting part is the gap between the call and the product. Lee’s Granny Shots ETF, ticker GRNY, built around Fundstrat’s themes and holding 42 large-cap U.S. stocks, is up 10.4 percent this year. That trails the S&P 500’s 12.7 percent gain and the Nasdaq-100’s 16.8 percent, in the very year his headline call landed. In 2025 the fund returned 24 percent, ahead of the index’s 17.7 percent.

He is not alone in that gap. In the first half of 2026, 67 percent of U.S. large-cap funds did worse than the S&P 500 itself, according to the S&P Dow Jones Indices scorecard.

The money, in plain words: calling the market right and beating the market are two different skills. Lee nailed the first one this year. The second one is beating almost everybody, including, so far, him.

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