The world’s biggest sporting event is coming to America next summer, and now radio officially has a front-row seat.
iHeartMedia announced a major partnership with FOX Sports that will bring English-language audio coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup to listeners nationwide across broadcast radio, streaming platforms and the iHeartRadio app. The agreement positions iHeart as a massive audio distribution partner for what is expected to become the largest World Cup tournament in history.
And honestly, this feels enormous.
Not just for soccer fans.
Not just for FOX Sports.
But for radio itself.
Because every few years, sports delivers one of those rare moments where live audio still matters at an emotional, almost primal level. The tension. The crowd noise. The urgency. The screaming announcers after a late goal. Sports on the radio still creates theater in a way few other formats can replicate.
Now imagine that energy attached to the World Cup on American soil.
Every match of the 2026 tournament will stream through the iHeartRadio app, while more than 100 iHeart-owned radio stations will carry coverage of every U.S. Men’s National Team match along with the World Cup Final. The broadcasts will utilize FOX Sports television commentary feeds throughout the tournament, which opens June 11 and concludes July 19.
And if you think this is just another sports rights agreement quietly tucked away inside a corporate press release, think again.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is expected to be unlike anything North America has ever hosted.
More teams.
More matches.
More cities.
More global attention.
And perhaps most importantly for broadcasters, far more American interest than previous tournaments generated decades ago.
Soccer in the United States is no longer some niche sport buried on the edge of the dial. Stadiums are packed. MLS continues growing. European leagues dominate streaming audiences. Young listeners consume soccer content nonstop online. And with the United States helping host the tournament, the event is expected to become a cultural phenomenon far beyond sports fans alone.
That is why this partnership matters strategically for both companies.
FOX Sports Executive Vice President Bill Wanger described the tournament as the biggest FIFA World Cup in history and emphasized the opportunity to extend FOX’s match coverage to audiences nationwide through iHeart’s massive audio reach.
Meanwhile, iHeartMedia Chief Programming Officer Tom Poleman highlighted both the historic scale of the upcoming tournament and the ability to connect fans through radio, streaming and mobile listening nationwide.
“This partnership allows us to deliver complete, live coverage at an unprecedented scale, reaching fans wherever they are — at home, in the car or on the go — and connecting them to the passion and unforgettable moments of the World Cup,” Poleman said.
And honestly, that “wherever they are” part may be the most important sentence in the entire announcement.
Because this is exactly what modern radio companies are becoming.
Not just radio stations.
Not just streaming platforms.
Not just podcasts.
Audio ecosystems.
The car. The phone. The smart speaker. The stream. The app. The live event. The digital audience. It is all becoming one giant interconnected audio universe, and sports remains one of the few forms of content powerful enough to drive audiences across every platform simultaneously.
That is especially true with the World Cup.
Somebody will hear these matches in traffic.
Somebody will stream them at work secretly wearing earbuds.
Somebody will gather around a radio during overtime because they cannot watch live television at that moment.
And somewhere next summer, after a dramatic late goal sends a nation into chaos, millions of listeners are going to experience that moment through sound first.
That is still radio magic.
And with this partnership, iHeartMedia just made sure it will be part of one of the biggest global sports stories of the decade.
On The Dial covers breaking radio industry news, including layoffs, programming changes, talent moves, and broadcast trends across the United States.