The next men's World Cup won't just be on television in Spain. It will be on Netflix.

The Netflix World Cup deal gives the streamer live rights to all 104 matches of the 2030 men's FIFA World Cup in Spain. The rights were agreed directly with FIFA, and the fee has not been disclosed.

For years, Netflix kept sport at arm's length. It made documentaries about teams and athletes, but left the live matches to TV channels. This deal changes that, and it says a lot about where the money in sports media is heading.

The deal at a glance

The deal

The 2030 tournament is the first with 48 teams. Spain, Portugal and Morocco are the main hosts, with one opening game each in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay to mark the World Cup's 100th anniversary.

Netflix will also produce pre-game, half-time and post-game shows, a daily round-up for each matchday and preview content. In other words, it plans to own the whole experience around the matches, not just the live feed.

Not everything is behind a paywall

Netflix won't keep every match for subscribers. One game per matchday will be free to watch, and that includes all of Spain's matches, both semi-finals and the final. Netflix may sub-license the free game to another broadcaster rather than show it itself.

That matters. Big national moments are hard to put fully behind a paywall, both politically and commercially. Keeping the home team and the biggest games free protects the tournament's reach, while everything else becomes a reason to subscribe. We saw a similar logic when Indian football tried free-to-watch streaming on YouTube: reach first, then build the business.