TV Klan, the commercial broadcaster in Albania, has secured exclusive domestic rights to soccer’s showpiece 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The broadcaster will provide free-to-air coverage of all 104 matches from the tournament taking place in the US, Mexico, and Canada.
TV Klan will also exclusively show all matches involving the Albanian national team should they qualify for the World Cup.
The commercial network also held rights to the UEFA European Championship in which Albania took part before being knocked out at the group stage.
The 2026 World Cup will begin on June 11 at Mexico’s 87,523-capacity Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, the largest venue at the tournament, and conclude on July 19 at the 82,000-capacity MetLife stadium in New Jersey.
FIFA has conducted several rights tenders for the next edition of its flagship quadrennial national teams tournament in recent months.
A tender was launched in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, and Slovakia in March with a deadline of April 16 set for bids.
Rights in the UK were put on the market in early April with an April 29 deadline.
Outside of Europe, a tender in Indonesia was also issued in April, with offers due by May 21.
FIFA additionally launched the tender process for worldwide in-ship and in-flight media rights to the 2026 World Cup last month (June).
In March, French media company Groupe M6 secured exclusive free-to-air rights to the 2026 and 2030 World Cups.
FIFA recently announced it will sell its media rights directly in the Asian market for the first time under a new strategy but has retained the Infront sports marketing agency as an advisor in selected territories.
In its new advisory role, Infront will advise on media rights for the 2026 World Cup and 2027 Women’s World Cup across various territories in Asia.