With World Cup starting on last Thursday, it is time to plan where you will be watching the games. If you don’t want to go to the mamak or don’t have access to cable TV, you can still watch every match online, anywhere you want, as long as there is Internet connection.
In most countries around the world, the World Cup is broadcast on television, and Wikipedia has a good list of who is the official broadcaster in each country. Many of these broadcasters have also decided to livestream the World Cup online, and a list of the best livestreaming sites is compiled below so you don’t miss a single game.
The majority of the streams listed below are, of course, region-locked. You can use an app like TunnelBear or any VPN apps to change your location if you are not in one of the countries listed below or if you want to watch a broadcast from another region.
Australia
SBS, Australia’s national broadcaster, has rights to 25 of the 64 World Cup games, including all of Australia’s games. Users must sign up for Optus Sport and stream the action to watch all of the games.
Canada
Bell Media, which owns The Sports Network and will broadcast the games in Russia, was awarded the broadcasting rights by FIFA.
Germany
Sky Deutschland, a German subscription service, has the rights to broadcast 25 of the 64 games. The tournament will also be broadcast on free-to-air broadcasters ARD and ZDF.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, ITV and the BBC will broadcast every match in its entirety, with the national broadcasters splitting the coverage. Both services will livestream matches through their apps and websites, and both will broadcast the final at the same time.
India
The World Cup in India is owned by Sony Pictures Networks. This means that the action will be broadcast in HD on the Sony Ten 2. The games will also be streamed live on the internet.
France
While many of the matches will be broadcast on TF1, the broadcaster also sold a portion of its rights to the pay channel beIN Sports. TF1 has 28 of the best games to choose from, while beIN has all of the action.
America
Fox Sports will broadcast 38 games live in English in the United States, more than the previous four World Cups combined and the most ever for an English-language network. Fox Sports Go and Fox Soccer Match Pass will broadcast all 64 games live.
Telemundo has exclusive rights to Spanish-language content for the 2018 World Cup. Telemundo will broadcast 56 of the 64 games live, while Universo will broadcast the remaining eight.
You would need a good internet connection to get the best results when streaming any of these games. To ensure a smooth video feed during the match, most sites recommend at least a 1.1 Mbps connection. You can use a speedtest service to see how fast your internet connection is.
Although watching the games live in the stadium is more exciting than watching them on TV, given the unusual circumstances, it is probably a safer measure to prevent another possible outbreak of the virus.
