Zee scales platform for FIFA World Cup 2026 and secures anti-piracy injunction

Zee’s technical and legal offensive addresses the two biggest risks in live sports streaming: technical failure at scale and revenue leakage through piracy. By securing a dynamic injunction, Zee can bypass the slow process of filing individual court petitions for every new pirate domain, a necessity for a fast-moving tournament like the World Cup. This infrastructure investment marks Zee's aggressive return to the sports sector, challenging established players by proving it can handle massive concurrency. For the broader ecosystem, this signals a shift where streaming providers must become as proficient in legal enforcement and server reliability as they are in content acquisition.

The technical and legal maneuvers by Zee Entertainment follow its last-minute acquisition of FIFA media rights for India through 2034. Per Sportspro (June 2026), Zee secured the deal for roughly $40 million to $60 million, significantly lower than the $100 million FIFA initially targeted. The agreement ends months of market uncertainty after negotiations between FIFA and the JioStar combine reportedly stalled over valuation disagreements. Zee’s eight-year deal covers 39 major events, including the 2026 and 2030 men’s World Cups and the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

To support this rights package, Zee officially launched its linear sports portfolio under the Unite8 Sports brand. Per PTI and Rediff (June 2026), four new channels—Unite8 Sports 1 and 2, along with their HD counterparts—went live across more than 500 distribution platforms, including Tata Play and Airtel Digital TV. This multi-platform approach aims to capture a viewing audience that FIFA estimates reached 746 million people in India during the previous 2022 edition, split almost equally between linear and digital viewers.

The dynamic injunction secured by Zee is part of an escalating judicial trend in India to protect high-value sports IPs. Per BestMediaInfo (March 2026), the Delhi High Court recently issued similar 'Dynamic+' injunctions for the IPL 2026 tournament to block Android-based piracy apps and mirror websites within 36 hours of discovery. By obtaining these orders, broadcasters like Zee and JioStar are putting increased pressure on Internet Service Providers and Domain Name Registrars to act as real-time enforcement agents against the flourishing ecosystem of unauthorized streaming sites.