For many years, watching the World Cup in Brazil meant turning on the television. That has changed in 2026 as YouTube platform CazeTV attracts millions of football fans.
CazeTV, founded by streamer Casimiro Miguel, is the only platform showing all 104 World Cup matches for free. The move has made Brazil a key market for the future of sports streaming.
Brazil take on Norway on Sunday for a place in the quarter-finals. Traditional broadcaster Globo remains the country’s biggest World Cup broadcaster and has reached 86 percent of the tournament audience so far.
Still, viewers are now spread across different platforms. More fans are choosing streaming services instead of free to air television.
The change has given younger fans more ways to follow the tournament. At the same time, some casual viewers have found it easier to miss matches because they are no longer all available on regular television.
CazeTV said it reached a peak of 21.3 million connected devices during Brazil’s 2-1 win over Japan in the last 32. The company believes it was one of the biggest live streams ever on YouTube.
The platform’s owner, LiveMode, has also expanded into Portugal. Its YouTube channel, LiveModeTV, is showing 34 World Cup matches for free. Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the channel’s major investors.
LiveMode said the Portuguese channel reached almost 90 percent of households during the opening weeks of the tournament.
LiveMode co-founder Sergio Lopes said Brazil has become the perfect place to test new ideas because of its strong football culture, large online audience and popular content creators.
“Every major sports organisation is asking how to connect with audiences whose media habits have changed significantly,” Lopes said. “Brazil is one of the places where this transformation has moved very quickly, so it has allowed us to test and refine ideas at scale.”
FIFA said its deal with CazeTV aimed to reach younger fans through digital and community driven coverage.
CazeTV has become popular because of its relaxed style. Casimiro and other presenters speak directly to viewers with humour and simple language. The channel can also be watched through services such as Amazon Prime and Disney+.
Broadcast analyst Danni Moore said the rise of CazeTV reflects a wider move toward streaming. Research by Ampere Analysis found that 53 percent of sports fans aged 18 to 34 prefer streaming. Among all sports fans, that figure stands at 45 percent.
CazeTV has also faced criticism for showing betting odds during broadcasts through sponsor promotions. Betting addiction has become a growing concern in Brazil.
The platform’s rise followed Globo’s decision during the pandemic to give up exclusive digital World Cup rights while keeping television rights. FIFA later partnered with LiveMode, which launched CazeTV for the 2022 World Cup before expanding its rights for the 2026 tournament.
Football media expert Jose Carlos Marques said Globo made a strategic mistake by not keeping all the rights. He believes television companies will try to regain their position before the 2030 World Cup.
“The television networks will want to strike back for the 2030 World Cup,” he said. “They’ll try to compete on equal footing with CazeTV, or with whatever other outlet emerges wanting to broadcast the tournament.”
