SNRT Put Morocco’s World Cup Matches on Free TV

SNRT put Morocco’s World Cup matches on free TV on June 1, after a deal with beIN Sports. The window covered the Atlas Lions only. The other 98 games of a 104-match tournament stayed on pay television.

That split is what the June headlines skipped. Public TV took the national team. The Qatari network that has held the MENA World Cup since 2014 kept the rest, then published the regional audience counts once Mohamed Ouahbi’s side had gone out to France.

The June Deal Covered Morocco Only

SNRT’s June 1 rights announcement said the National Company of Radio and Television had obtained the rights to broadcast the national team’s matches at the finals, after talks with beIN Sports, the MENA rights holder. The company said the move confirmed its wish to bring the biggest competitions closer to Moroccan viewers when the Atlas Lions are in the field.

It also said it would send journalists, technicians and radio staff to the United States, Canada and Mexico for ground reports and analysis studios. That was a coverage plan for Morocco’s run, not a promise to carry Brazil against France or the final.

The wording matched the public window SNRT opened in June. Families could watch Ouahbi’s side without a paid decoder. Anyone who wanted Scotland against Haiti, Egypt against Argentina, or Spain against Argentina on July 19 still needed beIN.

FIFA Still Lists beIN as the Licensor

FIFA’s own map of who may show the tournament, last modified on June 11, puts that hierarchy in writing. In Morocco the licensor is beIN Sports. SNRT sits underneath as a sublicensed media partner. The same sheet lists beIN as the holder across 24 MENA markets for the expanded 48-team finals.

North Africa did not copy the scramble south of the Sahara, where New World TV, SuperSport, Azam, SportyTV and state channels carved up the 104 games. beIN’s MENA position held. The Moroccan carve-out was the crack in that paywall: Atlas Lions matches on national television, everything else still on the paid bouquet.

WHO COULD SHOW THE TOURNAMENT IN MOROCCO

FIFA’s media-rights licensee list is the document behind that table. It is also why a café that wanted every kickoff, not only Morocco’s, still pointed the dish at beIN.

Six Atlas Lions Matches on Public Television

Ouahbi’s side gave SNRT six live games, which is what a run to the quarter-finals produces in a 48-team draw. Group C opened against Brazil, then Scotland, then Haiti. The knockouts added the Netherlands, co-hosts Canada and France.

MOROCCO’S SIX MATCHES ON SNRT

1. June 13, 2026: Draws 1-1 with Brazil in the group opener, a 1 a.m. Mecca kickoff the next morning.
2. June 19, 2026: Beats Scotland 1-0, Saibari the scorer.
3. June 24, 2026: Beats Haiti 4-2 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, attendance 68,239, and finishes second in Group C on seven points.
4. June 29, 2026: Draws 1-1 with the Netherlands after extra time in Monterrey, then wins 3-2 on penalties, Bounou saving and Saibari converting.
5. July 4, 2026: Beats Canada 3-0, Azzedine Ounahi scoring twice and Soufiane Rahimi adding one.
6. July 9, 2026: Loses 2-0 to France at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, attendance 63,811, Kylian Mbappé at 60 minutes and Ousmane Dembélé at 66.

Brazil also finished Group C on seven points, 7-1 on goal difference to Morocco’s 6-3, so the Seleção took first place. Morocco became the first African and Arab side to reach consecutive World Cup quarter-finals, then went out in Foxborough. Captain Achraf Hakimi and goalkeeper Yassine Bounou were still the spine. The public channels had to keep extending the window each time the team advanced, because the sublicense was tied to Morocco’s presence, not to a fixed list of 10 fixtures.

What FIFA Counted on SNRT for Haiti

The only official domestic SNRT figure FIFA put on a World Cup night was the Haiti game. Overnight measurement gave Moroccan coverage an average audience of 3.2 million, with nearly 30% of people watching television at kickoff tuned to the match. FIFA Media called it the highest market share on SNRT channels in 2026 to that point, and Morocco’s highest World Cup audience of the tournament so far, with a note that consolidated numbers would follow after the finals.

HAITI NIGHT ON SNRT

• Average audience: 3.2 million in Morocco, overnight figures.
• Share of sets in use: nearly 30% of active television viewers.
• Score in Atlanta: 4-2, Hakimi, Saibari, Rahimi and Gessime Yassine for Morocco after a Bounou own goal and a Wilson Isidor strike.
• Status of the count: FIFA flagged later consolidated figures; no full SNRT tournament recap of those overnights has been issued.

That 3.2 million is a live average on a Wednesday group game, not a unique-reach number for a night match against France. Mixing it with later regional counts is how the split gets misread.

https://x.com/fifamedia/status/2071435225520107876

The same Brazil opener that SNRT carried at home was a United States event on the other side of the rights map. FOX averaged 10.02 million viewers, a high for an English-language men’s World Cup group game that did not involve the United States, and Telemundo averaged 11.2 million. Combined, more than 21.2 million people in the US watched Morocco’s first night. Numeris later counted a 5.4 million average in Canada for Morocco’s 3-0 win over the co-hosts, with 11.7 million unique viewers and a 7.3 million peak.

beIN Published the Numbers After France

On July 20, beIN released beIN’s Ipsos figures for Arab matches. Ipsos measured MENA viewing, not SNRT’s overnight panel. Morocco’s quarter-final against France, a 23:00 Mecca kickoff, drew 151.6 million viewers and 97% of Morocco’s adult population. That is a reach claim across the platforms people actually used, including the paid ones SNRT never replaced.

IPSOS MENA COUNTS FOR MOROCCO

Scotland and Haiti did not make beIN’s top 10 Arab-team audiences. Egypt against Argentina on July 7 led that list at 192.6 million. Across 29 matches involving Arab sides, beIN reported more than 2.1 billion in cumulative viewership: 1.25 billion from 23 group games, an average of more than 54 million, and 854 million from six knockout ties, an average of more than 142 million. The network said it showed every match live and exclusive across eight dedicated channels in 24 MENA markets.

This has been a historic FIFA World Cup for Arab football, and it has been an honour to bring every moment of it live and exclusive to fans across the region.

Mohammed Al-Bader, Managing Director of beIN Channels MENA

Al-Bader’s “every moment” line is the pay product talking. SNRT had already taken the six Morocco nights. beIN still owned the other 98, the stream, and the Ipsos release that became the public scoreboard.

The Free Window Came With SNRT Commentary

Free-to-air access is not the same as the sound people want in the room. SNRT’s own count for the June 7 Norway send-off, published the next day, put more than 12 million people on Al Aoula, Arryadia and SNRTnews social feeds. That figure mixed television and social, so it is not a like-for-like pair with FIFA’s 3.2 million Haiti average. It is the number SNRT chose to celebrate before the tournament, and the reaction to that post was about the commentary, not the price.

Households that already pay for beIN kept a second feed for the rest of the 104-match grid, and some used it on Morocco nights as well. The sublicense asked those viewers to accept SNRT’s match presentation as the cost of leaving the decoder off. That is a different bargain from Ghana or Kenya buying wider free packages, or SportyTV putting 34 matches including the opening game and the final on free-to-air in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.

WHAT THE JUNE SUBLICENSE DID AND DID NOT BUY

• On public TV: Every Morocco match from Brazil through France, carried as the team advanced.
• On the ground: SNRT crews in the United States, Canada and Mexico for reports and studio shows around those games.
• Still on beIN: The other 98 matches, including other African and Arab sides and the July 19 final.
• Still unpublished: A consolidated SNRT recap of World Cup overnights to sit beside the Haiti 3.2 million.

Two months after Foxborough, the operating model is the one FIFA wrote down in June. SNRT got the Lions. beIN kept the tournament, then counted the region watching France.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did SNRT Show the 2026 World Cup Final in Morocco?

No. The sublicense covered matches involving Morocco only, so the July 19 final between Spain and Argentina stayed on beIN Sports in the kingdom, along with every other fixture that did not include the Atlas Lions.

How Did the 2026 SNRT Window Differ From 2022?

In 2022 SNRT obtained 10 matches including the national team, which left room for games Morocco did not play. The 2026 deal named the Atlas Lions’ matches only, so the public grid grew only when Ouahbi’s side advanced.

Which Other Arab Public Broadcaster Sat Under beIN in the Same Way?

FIFA listed ENTV in Algeria as a beIN sublicensee on television, a North African pattern of a public window under the same MENA pay holder, while Egypt’s line on the same sheet stayed with beIN alone.

How Many Arab Teams Played at the 2026 World Cup?

Eight: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, the most the region has sent to a single finals, with Egypt reaching the round of 16 for the first time.

The Haiti overnight remains the domestic SNRT match figure FIFA put on the record. beIN’s July 20 Ipsos note still carries the 97% adult-population claim for France. Those two numbers describe different things, and they describe the same split.