This story was originally published in On Background with Mark Stenberg, a free, weekly newsletter that explores the key themes shaping the media industry. You can sign up for it here.
When the World Cup kicks off on Thursday, viewers across the world will see something they have never seen before in a soccer match: in-game ads.
For the first time, FIFA has mandated three-minute “hydration breaks” in each half for all 104 matches of the World Cup, during which time broadcasters will be permitted to show commercials.
The governing body of global soccer has described the breaks as in service of “player welfare.” The stoppages were implemented as a one-off during a Netherlands vs. Mexico match played in Brazil in 2014 when temperatures reached above 90 degrees. But for this World Cup, the breaks will take place no matter the temperature.
According to The Athletic, a handful of guardrails will govern the breaks. The stoppages do not have to feature ads—they could just show footage of the players on the sideline, hydrating and adjusting their strategy. If they do cut away to commercial, they can only do so 20 seconds after the break has begun and must return to the game 30 seconds before play resumes. This gives the broadcasters two minutes and ten seconds to work with per half.
According to a representative for Telemundo, which owns the rights to the Spanish-language broadcast of the tournament in the U.S., the promotions shown during the breaks will largely consist of “squeezeback ads,” enabling the broadcast to show the scene on the pitch while enveloping the shot with a branded wrapper.
Fox, which owns the rights to the English-language broadcast in the U.S., did not respond to a request for comment.
The breaks mark a notable milestone in the broadcast history of the sport, which typically consists of two, 45-minute periods of ad-free play separated by a halftime. In introducing almost five minutes of potential commercial inventory to each match, FIFA is fundamentally reshaping the game.
This could have profound implications for the sport. It could spark fan backlash, as commercial stoppages are a hallmark of American sports but are absent in global soccer. In Britain, for instance, the broadcaster ITV has said it will not show commercials during the breaks due to strict advertising limits set by the U.K. regulator Ofcom.
The in-game pauses also effectively split the two-half match into four quarters, further mirroring the structure of American pastimes like football and basketball.
The spots themselves could become, in time, more valuable than Super Bowl inventory, given the global scale of soccer.
The Argentina vs. France World Cup Final in 2022, for instance, drew 1.42 billion viewers, dwarfing the audience generated by the Super Bowl. If Super Bowl spots retail for upward of $10 million for 30 seconds, these hydration breaks could ostensibly garner even higher prices than that in the near future.
