Kenyans Risk Missing World Cup Action as Ksh150 Million Bill Stalls Free-to-Air Deal

With 10 days to go before the 2026 World Cup, millions of Kenyans are staring at a possibility of not watching the games as no free-to-air station has secured the broadcast rights.

The United States, Canada and Mexico will stage this year’s tournament from June 11-July 19 but as of Monday, June 1, no Kenyan channel had secured the free-to-air rights.

Traditionally, KBC TV has been securing free-to-air World Cup rights but had not done so as of Monday due to financial challenges.

The state broadcast reportedly requires Ksh150 million to secure the free-to-air rights, which would see it broadest live World Cup matches to millions of Kenyans free of charge without the hassle of subscribing to pay television services.

“As of now we don’t have the rights to broadcast the World Cup. We are hoping that by mid-next week (this week), we will have clarity on the matter,” an official from KBC told Nation.

The huge World Cup bill was revealed in March by the National Assembly’s Committee on Communications, Information and Innovation which warned that Kenyans could miss out on the tournament if the government did not move with speed and avail the funds to KBC and the fears could turn out to be true.

“The committee observed that KBC requires Sh150 million to acquire free-to-air broadcast rights for the FIFA World Cup 2026 to be held in USA, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, 2026,” committee chairman John Kiarie told the Budget and Appropriations Committee at the time.

With time running out, KBC and any other local channel interested in the free-to-air matches, will need a quick decision before they engage the necessary parties but there remains some hope that the Ministry of Sports, through the Sports, Arts and Social Development Fund can come to Kenyans’ rescue.

If it does not happen, Kenyans might be forced to tune in to pay TV channels with SuperSport TV, Azam TV and New World TV holding the World Cup broadcast rights in Kenya so far.