China Media Group (CMG) has issued a strict copyright protection mandate ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026, establishing an aggressive enforcement framework to eliminate unauthorized broadcasts and streams across the Chinese mainland.  As the absolute rights holder for the 48-team tournament running from June 11 to July 19, 2026, CMG retains complete exclusivity over all multimedia platforms, alongside the direct copyrights for television and radio signals.

The network has established tight, official channels for digital distribution, sub-licensing online live streaming, delayed broadcasts, and video-on-demand rights strictly to China Mobile’s Migu and the lifestyle social platform Xiaohongshu (RedNote). On traditional television, broadcasting privileges have been extended exclusively to regional networks Shanghai Five-Star Sports and Guangdong Sports Channel.  In a comprehensive directive issued by CMG’s General Manager Office, the broadcaster issued a stern warning to independent media entities, websites, and mobile applications.

Without explicit state authorization, entities are strictly prohibited from broadcasting, rebroadcasting, distributing, selling, or publicly screening any World Cup matches or CMG broadcast signals.  Crucially, the anti-piracy campaign extends deep into digital and social media formatting. The mandate explicitly bans the unauthorized creation and distribution of GIFs, short-form video loops, images, and audio clips extracted from the official tournament feed. Furthermore, the network pledged to take severe legal action against “ambush marketing” and deceptive online promotions that employ misleading phrases like “free World Cup streams” to siphon internet traffic toward unauthorized platforms.

The severe copyright crackdown follows a newly finalized long-term agreement between FIFA and CMG, securing the state broadcaster’s tournament exclusivity through both the 2026 and 2030 World Cup cycles. CMG’s dedicated copyright protection task force has confirmed that enforcement monitoring will operate at maximum capacity throughout the duration of the tournament.