07.20.2026
Rebecca Lowe, Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Alexi Lalas
Fox's World Cup studio crew featured Rebecca Lowe, Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Alexi Lalas.FOX Sports via Getty Images
The final numbers aren’t in yet for the FIFA World Cup final, but Mike Mulvihill told SBJ the tournament “exceeded” expectations from an audience perspective, with the biggest games pushing NFL playoff numbers.
“I don’t know that anybody fully expected that coming in,” said Mulvihill, Fox Sports’ president of insights and analytics. “We knew that this was going to be tremendously successful, but I think it surpassed even our most bullish expectations.”
Surprising numbers came early in the tournament as well. While games involving teams like the U.S., Mexico, England, Portugal, Spain, Argentina and France were expected to do well, Mulvihill notes his most notable shockers came from teams like Haiti, Cabo Verde and Scotland, which drew bigger-than-expected audiences in the group stage.
Also surprising was the audience retention after all three host countries lost in the round of 16.
Fox had a streaming strategy for this World Cup, something quite different than four years ago, and fans embraced the new service. “Signups for Fox One have exceeded all expectations during the tournament,” Mulvihill said.
Staying hydrated
Much of the discussion around World Cup hydration breaks focused on the added revenue opportunity for Fox, especially for Sunday’s final with a big audience expected.
During Spain-Argentina, Powerade (distributed by FIFA Tier 1 partner Coca-Cola) was listed as the sponsor for the hydration breaks in the full screen before and after ads. The hydration break in each half featured the picture-in-picture approach, with an ad taking up the larger box to the lower right and live action from the stadium in the smaller box to the upper left.
A Fox Sports logo bumper ran before and after the three ads in the first half and four ads in the second. The first-half ads were for Bank of America, Dove and Adidas. The second half ads were for Verizon, Lay’s, Michelob Ultra and The Home Depot. The BofA, Lay’s and Home Depot ads all featured David Beckham, while Lionel Messi was featured in the Mich Ultra ad with Billy Bob Thornton. Timothée Chalamet was in the Adidas commercial, and the cast of “Austin Powers” was in the Verizon ad.
Mulvihill told SBJ there was “no significant loss of audience” when hydration breaks came on during the tournament, regardless of whether the game went to full-screen ads or picture-in-picture. “The audience behavior was very much in line to what we see in traditional commercial breaks across all of our relationships,” he said.
What’s next?
Sunday’s game marked the end of Fox’s (and Telemundo’s) deal for the World Cup rights in the U.S. Fox Sports President and Executive Producer Brad Zager told SBJ the company is interested in bidding for the next iterations of the event in 2030 and 2034, even though questions persist on what the tournament will look like (perhaps with 64 teams). Fox joins NBCU and ESPN in publicly acknowledging their interest in bidding for the World Cup. Netflix and Prime Video are also likely to take a look at the rights.
Regarding Fox’s tenure as the rights holder for the men’s event dating back to 2018, Mulvihill feels the company has been a “good steward” for soccer’s growth in the U.S.
“I hope that FIFA recognizes that we played a significant role in bringing the game to where it is today,” he said. “Whatever the future holds, I think Fox is always going to be a major supporter of soccer in America.”
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