Peacock to deliver World Cup in Dolby Vision and Atmos via Telemundo

This deployment marks a major shift towards premium technical standards for live sports en Español, moving beyond standard dynamic range for mass-market audiences. By using the AC-4 codec, Peacock is addressing the high-bandwidth requirements of Atmos while maintaining streaming reliability for the world's largest sporting event. This sets a precedent for competing streamers like Fox and YouTube TV to match these audiovisual benchmarks in future high-stakes live sports bid cycles. Watch for subscriber adoption rates on Peacock's premium tiers during the opening Mexico vs. South Africa and USA vs. Paraguay matches to gauge the demand for high-end Spanish-language streams.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is the largest in the tournament's history, expanding to 48 teams and 104 matches across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Per World Soccer Talk in November 2022, Telemundo secured the exclusive Spanish-language rights for the 2018 through 2026 cycles, reportedly paying $600 million for the privilege after long-time incumbent Univision lost the bid. Unlike previous iterations, this tournament will see a heavy tilt toward streaming as NBCUniversal centralizes its coverage on Peacock, which now offers interactive features like Multiview and "Catch Up with Key Plays" in Spanish for the first time, per a May 2026 Peacock announcement.

Technically, the move to Dolby Vision 2 and AC-4 represents the culmination of a broader roadmap announced by NBCUniversal at CES in January 2026. According to Dolby's own disclosures that month, Peacock became the first streamer committed to the full suite of Dolby’s next-generation innovations, with plans to roll these enhancements out to Sunday Night Football, MLB, and NBA broadcasts throughout the year. While English-language rights-holder Fox will air games in 4K, recent reporting by Tom's Guide in June 2026 suggests those streams may be upscaled from 1080p, potentially giving Peacock’s native HDR production a competitive edge in visual fidelity for high-end home theater users.

From a distribution standpoint, Comcast’s Xfinity is also supporting this push by delivering matches in "RealTime4K" with ultra-low latency, per Xfinity's June 2026 product guide. This infrastructure is critical as projected peak concurrent viewership for the 2026 tournament is expected to reach 30 to 50 million streamers globally, a massive increase from the record 18 million seen during 2022. The deployment of the AC-4 codec in particular is a strategic move to preserve bandwidth without sacrificing the immersive stadium sound that defines the modern World Cup viewing experience.