Globo has been the home of football in Brazil for decades. This summer, an influencer's streaming channel has more World Cup rights than they do.
CazéTV — built on the back of streamer Casimiro Miguel's Twitch following — is the only broadcaster in Brazil, digital or traditional, with rights to all 104 games of the 2026 World Cup. Globo, for comparison, gets 55. That's not a reshuffle. That's a changing of the guard.
How a Twitch experiment became the biggest broadcast deal in Brazilian football
It started as a trial run at the 2022 Qatar World Cup. FIFA gave CazéTV rights to 22 matches on YouTube, curious whether Casimiro's informal, creator-led style could attract younger viewers who'd drifted away from traditional broadcasts. The answer was a resounding yes — and FIFA expanded the partnership dramatically for 2026.
The format leans into what mainstream broadcasters have historically avoided: casual commentary, content creators on the mic, audience interaction baked into the broadcast. It's less polished. It's also what a generation of fans actually wants to watch.
Cristiano Ronaldo is now a shareholder in LiveMode, the Brazilian company behind CazéTV, which recently launched an international broadcast arm. Make of that what you will — but it's a signal that this isn't a novelty project anymore.
What this means beyond Brazil
FIFA is also letting users catch parts of matches live on YouTube and TikTok for the first time at a World Cup. The governing body frames it as an appetizer — short-form access designed to funnel viewers back to full broadcasts on traditional channels.
The 48-team tournament kicks off Thursday and runs through July 19, co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. With more games than any previous World Cup, FIFA needed more screens. They found them.
Traditional broadcast monopolies on major tournaments have been eroding for years. Brazil just showed how fast that erosion can move — and who benefits when it does.
