FIFA World Cup on NBC is the branding used for presentations of the
FIFA World Cup produced by the
NBC television network in the United States. NBC[1] was the official American network television broadcaster for the international
association football competition in
1966 and
1986.[2][3]
1986 marked the first time that the World Cup had extensive live
cable and
network television coverage in the United States.
ESPN carried most of the weekday matches while
NBC did weekend games. To be more specific, NBC aired seven[9][10] matches, including the
"Hand of God" quarterfinal, with broadcasters on-site. NBC's theme music[11] for their 1986 coverage was
Herb Alpert's[12] "1980", from his 1979 album Rise. It was originally a cue meant for the ill-fated
1980 Moscow Summer Olympicsbroadcasts. Meanwhile, ESPN aired about 25 matches that year, all with broadcasters in studio.
NBC's producers were forced to run the games' audio feed through
telephone lines rather than through
satellites. This was because the
International Broadcast Center in
Mexico City crossed up many communication lines. Consequently, various countries received commentary from others (or no sound or video at all). NBC in this case, received commentary from somewhere in
Southeast Asia and so were forced to have
Charlie Jonescall collect and broadcast the
Italy-
Bulgaria opener via a handset telephone receiver. NBC lost the sound but still had video so Charlie Jones dialed collect again.
On October 22, 2011, Deportes Telemundo acquired the Spanish language rights to broadcast the
FIFA Men's and
Women's World Cup for around $600 million, replacing
Univision as the tournament's Spanish language broadcaster, which began carrying the World Cup tournaments in
1970 (
Fox acquired the English language U.S. broadcast rights through a separate agreement). The deal, which began with the
2015 Women's World Cup and runs through 2026, includes rights to associated
FIFA-sanctioned tournaments (including the Men's Under 20 and Under 17 World Cups, and the Men's Beach Soccer World Cup), which will be telecast on Telemundo and NBC Universo; the deal was extended on February 12, 2015, to include rights to the
2026 FIFA World Cup.[25][26][27]
On May 16, 2015, during Telemundo's 2015–16
upfront presentation in
New York City, it was announced that Deportes Telemundo would be replaced by a new division initially known as NBC Deportes; the new division was formed as a branch of the English-language
NBC Sports division, and be responsible for sports content for Telemundo, NBC Universo and related digital platforms. While it retained all existing sports telecast rights and programs aired by both Telemundo and NBC Universo, the latter network also began to expand its sports coverage, primarily in preparation for the
2016 Summer Olympics and the start of the division's contract with
FIFA—whose first events included the
2015 U-20 World Cup and
Women's World Cup.[28][29][30]