Nielsen Panel Discussion Highlights World Cup Impact for FOX, Telemundo, MetLife, and MLSThere's no scale like the World Cup and we all work for companies that talk a lot about being in a marketplace of attention-Mike Mulvihill, Fox SportsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Monday, January 12, 2026 - 12:51 pm
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Now that the calendar has officially flipped to 2026 the sports industry is sharpening its focus on some of the big-time events that will be consuming the attention of sports fans and also leading to big-time ratings. And one of the most eagerly anticipated events here in North America will be the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup, an event whose hype machine kicked into overdrive for the World Cup Draw last month.
The Draw last month provided the Nielsen Sports team with an opportunity to bring together some key stakeholders in the World Cup for a panel discussion in New York City. And it was clear from the get-go just how much the World Cup will mean for not only Fox Sports and Telemundo but also the sponsors, the athletes, and MLS.
Mike Mulvihill President, Insights & Analytics, FOX
This is probably the biggest production that we have ever undertaken, says Mike Mulvihill President, Insights & Analytics, FOX. In an NFL season we'll do about 105 games and with 104 World Cup matches this really is almost like doing a second NFL season but compressed into five weeks. And as far as our vision for what this event should be, at the risk of being a little bit lofty about it, this World Cup should be a demonstration of everything that makes sports worth caring about as a fan and everything that makes sports worth investing in as a business.
Mulvihill adds that the timing of the World Cup, coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, provides a one-two punch that will couple a national celebration of independence with a global celebration of arguably the world's greatest game.
We want this to be the biggest party in American sports history and we're going to have the attention of most of humanity on this event, he adds. And even more important than that is the unique ability that sports has to bring people together. That's what drives this entire business: the ability to create shared real-time experiences at a meaningful scale.
Fede Garza, Senior Vice President, Research Strategy and Insights, Telemundo
Fede Garza, Senior Vice President, Research Strategy and Insights, Telemundo, says that while the event will be massive in scale in terms of venues and number of matches at the end of the day each fan will also experience it on a personal level.
Some of the biggest memories I have of my childhood are actually around the World Cup, explains Garza. I grew up in Mexico so I remember the World Cup being played in Mexico in 1986. All those moments are ingrained in my heart. And all the numbers are obviously important for us, but it is that connection that is unique and important.
Telemundo, which has the Spanish-language rights in the United States, is in a great position to bring the U.S.-based Hispanic community together around a sport that is at the center of Hispanic culture.
A few years ago, we asked Hispanic viewers how important the World Cup is and people said that their team winning the World Cup was second just behind the birth of a kid and ahead of getting married, he says.
While Fox Sports and Telemundo will be driving the media consumption of the 2026 World Cup on TV and streaming Dan Pincus, Assistant Vice President, Sponsorships and Promotions, MetLife, and his team will be engrossed in ensuring that fans tap into the MetLife brand on a global level in a way that resonates.
FIFA established the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund about a year ago and this fund is $100 million fund that will be supporting various K through 12 education programs around globally and MetLife and the MetLife Foundation decided to become a founding donor of the fund, he explains. We made a $9 million donation back in September and MetLife became an official partner of Global Citizen and the Fund over the last 90 days. And that gives us a role in the games where we can tell our story and support K to 12 education through sport education and soccer. MetLife is a global brand that operates in 45-plus markets around the world and [the World Cup] gives us an opportunity to do one single thing unites all of those countries and all the different divisions of the company around a single idea with a single message.
Tsironyannis says that MLS is also providing some great marketing value for brands that want to build their presence with soccer fans not only during the World Cup but beyond. Audi and Adidas have taken advantage of the opportunity to get closer with MLS fan s and Apple, of course, offers fans around the globe a chance to see every game from anywhere on any device.
There are all types of global cultural opportunities as well as locally and nationally, he says.
Jonathan Tsironyannis, Major League Soccer (MLS), VP of Strategy and Business Intelligence at Major League Soccer, pointed out just how far the sport of soccer has come in the U.S. since 1994, the last time the U.S. hosted a World Cup. Today 14 millions youth over the age of six play soccer and the U.S. Youth Soccer Associations are registering two to three million new kids every year.
And at MLS we just launched a second tier of MLS Next which has 2,000-plus clubs and 40,000 participants, he says. And now we are in the golden era, I believe, of American soccer between the tournaments that are happening here, just not the World Cup, but we had the Club World Cup last year and then Continental tournaments plus 22 soccer stadiums that are world class stadiums. Every one of our clubs has World Cup training faci
