FOX has taken no small amount of criticism for choosing to cut away from the World Cup broadcast to air full-screen commercials during the mandatory hydration breaks that FIFA introduced. But judging by the reports, the money they're making far outweighs the outrage they're causing.
According to the Wall Street Journal, FOX is selling 30-second ad spots during the hydration break at a rate of around $200,000 for early-round games and a whopping $750,000 for games featuring the United States men's national team.
Awful Announcing estimates that, conservatively, FOX stands to generate nearly $250 million just from their hydration break ads. That number could climb as high as $330+ million depending on if the ad break price spikes for later rounds.
Worth It (For FOX)?
FOX reportedly paid FIFA a whopping $485 million for broadcast rights to the World Cup (at a bit of a discount thanks to some alleged lack of foresight by FIFA). The decision to play ads during the hydration breaks will virtually guarantee that FOX makes all of its money back and secures a big-time profit for their broadcast of the World Cup.
The problem is, fans have made it overwhelmingly clear that they despise the move to ads so much that they're switching over to Telemundo, where the network proudly shows all of the action without any ads, rather than endure the 2-3 minutes of ads on FOX.
"If you're not watching @FIFAWorldCup games on @Telemundo then you're Doing it all wrong," one user on X declared at the start of the tournament.
"Telemundo broadcast is far superior," wrote another.
"Yea I’m watching Telemundo moving forward," former NFL star Damien Woody wrote.
© Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
Granted, the greater problem that people have are the hydration breaks themselves, many of which are totally unnecessary.
“I think hydration breaks are really interesting,” Netherlands star defender Virgil van Dijk said this week. "Because I was obviously watching almost all the games up until today. Every time, going to commercial is a bit — not really that I like it. I think for the neutral watching on TV, it’s also not great. So, if it’s really hot, obviously it would be good to put them in, but I think you have to look at it every game, separately, in my opinion.”
FOX may be making a killing from the ads, but the ads might wind up killing interest in watching soccer on FOX.
