Thailand Struggles for 2022 FIFA World Cup Broadcast Rights

Thailand’s Sports Authority has until this Sunday to reach an agreement with FIFA for 2022 World Cup broadcast rights in Thailand, or else Thai fans will miss out on the games.

Tourism and Sports governor Kongsak Yodmanee admitted that they are still short a billion baht to cover the cost of the broadcast rights as of today (Monday) as they continue to negotiate a further discount.

Tourism and Sports and the (NBTC) Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission are set to sign a memorandum of understanding today for the 600 million baht already slated by the NBTC board.

According to Kongsak, FIFA has yet to respond to Thailand’s request for a further reduction in the 1.6 billion baht price tag, but he expects to hear back today.

According to an informed source, FIFA is unlikely to reduce its rights fee as requested by Thailand after already offering a US$2 million discount.

According to the source, FIFA will not sell a smaller package of broadcast rights, such as only for second-round matches of 16 teams, and will only allow the full package of 64 matches.

Kongsak has denied reports that True Corporation, Thai Beverage Plc., and PTT Plc. have already agreed to subsidize the fee by 500 million baht. He stated that the three companies had made no firm commitments other than verbal assurances.

However, it has been reported but not confirmed that the SAT is expecting additional funding from PTT Exploration and Production and Major Cineplex Group.

With the 2022 FIFA World Cup beginning on November 20, Google Search has created a new hub for all football fans to get detailed information about matches and sign up for alerts when their favourite teams face one of the 31 other competing nations.

Google is making many FIFA World Cup-themed changes to its websites and apps. Looking up “World Cup” in the Google app or the Google homepage will take you to a dedicated page with different tabs to check the football standings, match brackets, and ongoing games.

These tabs will contain information about individual games, such as win probabilities and key factors influencing the game. You could even use the hub to research specific players, their backstories, and career highlights.

The World Cup 2022 is set to begin on November 20th in Qatar.

Football fans can also directly watch game highlights in daily recap videos from Search. These videos will be available through FIFA+ and the official broadcast partners.

If you like to keep track of individual games as they happen, you can tap a football match on the hub and drag it to your Android device’s home screen to pin its score right there.

Google will also have an interactive global multiplayer football game in the Search results where you can choose a team and score virtual goals for as long as the real-world match lasts.

While the games run, you can score goals with Search users worldwide.

If you purchased a new Pixel Watch or another Wear OS smartwatch, you could use the Agenda application to track your plans to watch the next football game. Assistant can also assist you in creating reminders for the same.

Football fans who buy Hublot’s Wear OS-powered official referees’ watch of the FIFA 2022 World Cup will enjoy countdowns to upcoming matches and cool animations when teams score goals.

Live football matches will be pinned to the For You tab on Chromecast with Google TV and other smart TVs running the company’s OS. Google has confirmed that official broadcasters will stream World Cup games on their YouTube channels.

Google Assistant has a more comprehensive collection of soccer trivia along the sidelines. “Give me a soccer fun fact” is all you have to do. You could also engage the Assistant in a potentially interesting conversation about soccer by using prompts such as “Do you like football?”, “It’s game time,” and “Say goal!”

Waze (another Google enterprise) launched a limited-time special navigation experience celebrating the World Cup earlier this week, in addition to Search and YouTube.

More tech companies and services should make minor changes to their interfaces and feature sets to commemorate this sporting event.