Stop 1: International Broadcast Center

Welcome to the International Broadcast Center (IBC), the hub of broadcast operations for the FIFA World Cup 2026™ and a home away from home for Media Partners during the competition.

The FIFA World Cup 2026™ is one of a kind, being the first ever edition of the tournament to feature 104 matches, with 48 teams engaged to compete, marking the expansion of the event. It’s also the first edition of the tournament since its inaugural edition in 1930 to be hosted in three different host countries and 16 host cities.

With the action spread across three countries and 16 venues, the IBC has a key centralizing role in ensuring the delivery of live and non-live content to rights holders.

The International Broadcast Center (IBC)

The Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center is host to the International Broadcast Center; construction of the temporary structures started six months before the hub’s official opening and operational phase. Dismantling after the event will take place for two months.

Spaces at the IBC are divided between multilateral spaces, hosting FIFA and the HB services, such as live galleries or Football Innovation, and unilateral spaces, areas dedicated to broadcasters with an IBC technical and/or editorial presence.

While on the ground, the competition is more widespread than in previous editions, the International Broadcast Center retains its main technical hub status: it is where the signals from the venues are ingested and re-distributed, where live content is edited, and where key refereeing activities are held.

As a technical hub, the building hosting the International Broadcast Center must meet certain criteria to ensure its redundancy, such as power back-ups, reliable, industrially scaled HVAC, as well as enough space to host operations of world-class scale. These are complemented by additional technical installations designed and implemented by the Host Broadcaster’s architectural team, who are not only planning the floor plan of the International Broadcast Center, but adapting it to the specific constraints of protecting the technology it hosts.

Temporary structures are built at the IBC done with a sustainable philosophy in mind: about 90% of all materials (partitions, electric and lights fixtures) will be either recycled or reused, ensuring an eco-friendly construction operation.