According to information reported by different websites in Brazil, the ‘TV Walter Abrahão’ pay TV channel (TV WA), recently launched in the country, acquired the rights to broadcast 56 matches of the South American Qualifiers towards the next World Cup, to be disputed in Qatar next year. According to the ‘Palco 23’ website, TV WA paid around R$ 60 million (more than USD 11 million) for the matches package.

The acquired package enables TV WA to broadcast all the matches played by the Brazilian National Team outside the country, as well as those played by all other teams, from the fifth fixture date of the Qualifiers, which will be played at the end of March. Likewise, the rights that the Brazilian National Team disputes at home during the Qualifiers, as well as those of the match to be played between Brazil and Argentina, belong to Globo.

TV WA was previously called PlayTV, and is available on various pay TV operators in Brazil. The first four fixture dates of the Qualifiers, played in October and November 2020,  were aired on TV Brasil (only one match), on the OTT ‘Esporte Interativo Plus’ –recently rebranded as ‘Estadio TNT Sports’-, and on BandSports, as PPV events. In these three cases, agreements were made to broadcast specific matches, without the channels having access to broadcast all the South American Qualifiers matches.

In Brazil, according to FIFA, each football federation must agree to negotiate the rights of matches that teams play as locals during the Qualifiers. After FIFA’s decision, several federations chose to appoint Mediapro to negotiate the rights, and TV WA managed to acquire the 56-matches package from the Spanish company.