The surprise was big and unpleasant. When the TV managers streamed the FIFA show act to publish the World Cup schedule in a Hilton hotel in Washington, they were surprised by the many kick-off times – in the end there were 15 different ones.
According to information from the German Press Agency, four different kick-off times were discussed during the contract negotiations. The games in the tournament in North America should kick off at 6:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m., 12:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. – converted to Central European Summer Time (CEST). But things turned out completely differently.
Many World Cup games start on the German night
The TV managers were caught unprepared when new kick-off times were presented for the world association’s show act. The various kick-off times now range from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. CEST, a total of three times as many as at the last World Cup. And the large number of games on the German night was also unexpected.
This is also hard for the fans. More than half of the games start at midnight or later. If you want to see the Austrian team with German coach Ralf Rangnick, you have to turn on the television once at 4 a.m. (Algeria) and once at 6 a.m. (Jordan).
The licensee in Germany is Telekom, which proudly announced its purchase of the 104 games for the 2026 World Cup in May, but currently does not want to comment on the topic of kick-off times. According to reports, there are discussions with FIFA about the contract. The only thing that won’t change is the kick-off times.
The world association does not want to comment on the discussions. However, he points out that the kick-off times were also chosen taking into account the high temperatures in the US summer and the many different TV markets. At the World Cup in Qatar, games started at five different times.
Problem: Advertising banned after 8 p.m
The fact that there are significantly fewer 6 p.m. games than originally discussed also affects ARD and ZDF. In October, the two public TV broadcasters acquired rights for 60 games for the tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico in a complex sublicensing agreement with Deutsche Telekom.
The problem is: ARD and ZDF are only allowed to show advertising until 8 p.m. Only until then can money be raised to recoup some of the costs for the rights. For the German team’s games in the preliminary round, this is only possible on June 14th in the game against Curaçao, which starts at 7 p.m.
“A real challenge”
No commercials will be allowed on June 20 against Ivory Coast and June 25 against Ecuador, with the matches starting at 10:00 p.m. CEST. Advertising is then prohibited on public television, only sponsorship is permitted. In the State Media Treaty there are exceptions for “transmission of major socially relevant sporting events”. ARD and ZDF do not want to comment publicly on the topic.
More generally, ZDF sports director Yorck Polus says: “The different kick-off times represent a real challenge when planning our broadcasts.” This refers “to all aspects: planning the time slots into the overall ZDF program, organizing the broadcasts, logistics and personnel deployment, implementing our editorial concept and much more.”
But advertising marketing will also become more difficult for Telekom the later the games kick off. These revenues are one of the three important income pillars alongside the sale of pay subscriptions for MagentaTV and the sale of sub-licenses to ARD and ZDF.
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