So far, the private television channels in Colombia Caracol Television and RCN have not found greater competition than themselves. Traditionally, the two compete for advertising and audience. But with the 2026 World Cup that is approaching, it is possible that they will find a competitor of global stature, the network ESPN, which would broadcast for the South American country the developments of the most important sporting tournament on the planet.
The information, spread by prestigious accounts on the social network X such as ‘Football of England’, with almost 500,000 followers, becomes known when there are two months left before the opening whistle of the competition that will be played in Mexico, the United States and Canada, and the channels continue making enormous efforts to deploy technical and journalistic teams to bring Colombians the emotions of the World Cup.
What that outlet said fell like a bombshell in Colombia. It assures that ESPN, a group of United States subscription television channels specialized in sports, through its paid platform Disney+, will broadcast 30 matches of the 2026 World Cup. That implies that the dish from which Colombian channels Caracol, RCN, and Win Sports used to eat would have to be shared with a powerful fourth.
Famous Argentine commentators would fight for the Colombian audience
As always, if that information is true, the one that will come out winning will be the audience, because the three Colombian channels will have to make efforts to improve their quality because they will have to face, for example, in play by play and commentary the famous Mariano Closs, Diego Latorre, Sebastian ‘el Pollo’ Vignolo, and Miguel Simon, among other talented commentators.
All of them are already well known to the Latin American public, before whom they have made a place with the broadcast of international competitions such as the Copa Libertadores, the Sudamericana, the Champions League, in addition to the English, German, Italian, and Spanish leagues, among others. Their voices are not unfamiliar. In Colombia, they could go on air thanks to the television rights that ESPN obtained from FIFA.
The sweet would be bitten into for the Colombian channels because it is a competition that inspires respect with a single focus: The Colombian National Team was placed in Group K of the World Cup with Uzbekistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Portugal.
The coverage of ESPN would be reinforced because it would join DirecTV and its platform DSports, which will broadcast all the matches of the 2026 World Cup in Latin America. In addition, the network that offers all the matches with the luxury of detail and functionality is DirecTV.
So far, none of the mentioned channels (ESPN, Caracol, RCN, and Win Sports) has spoken about it. They still have time to do so and announce to the audience in Colombia what is going to happen, which is nothing other than the entry of one more qualified player in the broadcast of the World Cup for the country.
That level of competition among the media had never been seen in Colombia, where fans did not have much to choose from. The eventual entry of a fourth international and very strong player could make the offer expand, and viewers have more possibilities to follow, feel, and live the World Cup.