FOX Sports Wins U.S. World Cup Rights

ZURICH: FOX Sports has won the U.S. TV rights for the World Cup in 2018 and 2022, beating out ESPN.

The channel will carry the 2018 event from Russia and the 2022 event from Qatar. FOX Sports has not officially confirmed the news.

ESPN, which has the rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, issued a statement: "We made a disciplined bid that would have been both valuable to FIFA and profitable for our company, while continuing to grow our unprecedented coverage of the World Cup and Women’s World Cup events. We were aggressive while remaining prudent from a business perspective.

"ESPN remains committed to presenting the sport of soccer at the highest level across our platforms with coverage of the UEFA European Football Championship, English Premier League, La Liga, MLS and other top leagues and tournaments, including the 2014 World Cup in Brazil."

FOX will also broadcast the 2015 and 2019 Women’s World Cup and will have the rights to all other FIFA events from 2015 through 2022.

NBCUniversal-owned Spanish-language channel Telemundo scored FIFA’s Spanish-language U.S. TV rights package for 2015-22, beating out current rights holder Univision.