What if only Americans willing to pay for another monthly subscription could watch the 2026 FIFA World Cup?

It’s a hypothetical worth considering, because the answer explains why this summer’s tournament became more than a sporting event — it became a shared national experience.

That didn’t happen by accident. The biggest sporting event in the world was freely available to every American on broadcast television. Whether fans tuned in on Fox or Telemundo, they didn’t need another subscription, another password or another monthly bill. They simply turned on the TV.

The record-breaking audiences speak for themselves. Fox delivered the largest English-language World Cup audiences in U.S. history, with more than 128 million Americans watching some portion of the tournament across its platforms. Nearly 24 million viewers tuned to Telemundo for the final, making it the most-watched Spanish-language soccer broadcast ever in the U.S. The tournament captivated Americans across communities, cultures and languages. When the biggest events are available to everyone, they become part of the national conversation.

That success should prompt a broader conversation: What if the World Cup had been available only behind a streaming........

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