Argentina and Brazil qualifiers picked up by Telemundo and ViX

Argentina and Brazil fans, the wait is over. Telemundo Deportes and TelevisaUnivision have both secured media rights deals to broadcast Argentina and Brazil World Cup qualifiers to viewers in the United States.

The deals closed late Wednesday after both Argentina and Brazil signed an agreement this week to be represented by Sportfive, a German-based sports marketing agency. Subsequently, Sportfive was able to accomplish what previous agencies Brax and Torneos couldn’t do — landing a deal to bring the games to viewers in the United States.

While Telemundo and Univision share the rights to the Argentina and Brazil matches, there is a clear distinction regarding who gets what. For TelevisaUnivision’s sports division, it secures a rights agreement that includes nine home matches of Argentina, in addition to nine home games of Brazil. For viewers in the United States, all of those games are streaming on ViX, the Spanish-language service run by TelevisaUnivision.

Meanwhile, Telemundo has the television rights. Equally, that’s quite a coup considering that Telemundo will be the only broadcaster airing the CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers featuring Argentina and Brazil home games on linear television. With Inter Miami games shown all summer long on MLS Season Pass, Telemundo Deportes is offering a rare opportunity to see Messi on television.

Argentina and Brazil qualifiers

Coverage begins this Thursday for matchday one of CONMEBOL’s 2026 World Cup qualifiers. TelevisaUnivision’s rights deal with Argentina and Brazil runs through 2026, and also includes all rights in Mexico.

With each football association in South America selling their rights separately, it caused havoc for soccer fans who have been asking for weeks who would show the games. Thankfully, streaming service Fanatiz came to the rescue. Apart from the separate Brazil and Argentina deals, all of the football associations (except for Bolivia) agreed deals to bring their matches to pay-per-view via Fanatiz (as well as home Ecuador games on Fanatiz and PPV.com). Meanwhile, Bolivia has yet to find a broadcaster partner to air its home games.

To simplify matters, here’s the rundown of who will be showing which game at least for the first week of CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers:

Thursday, September 7

Paraguay vs Peru, 6:30PM ET, Fanatiz WCQ
Colombia vs Venezuela, 7PM ET, Fanatiz WCQ
Argentina vs Ecuador, 8PM ET, Telemundo (TV), ViX (streaming)

Friday, September 8

Uruguay vs Chile, 7PM ET, Fanatiz WCQ
Brazil vs Bolivia, 8:45PM ET, Universo (TV), ViX (streaming)

Tuesday, September 12

Bolivia vs Argentina, 4PM ET, FIFA+ (streaming)
Ecuador vs Uruguay, 5PM ET, Fanatiz WCQ and PPV.com
Venezuela vs Paraguay, 6PM ET, Fanatiz WCQ
Chile vs Colombia, 8:30PM ET, Fanatiz WCQ
Peru vs Brazil, 10PM ET, Fanatiz WCQ

Additional reporting by Ed Perovic.

Photo: IMAGO / PanoramiC