SBS goes big on workday World Cup push as on demand takes centre stage

With the 2026 FIFA World Cup just days away, official World Cup broadcaster SBS is going big on a campaign built around one awkward truth: many Australians will be working when the matches kick off.

Played across Canada, the United States and Mexico, this year’s tournament creates an unusual marketing challenge for SBS, with more than 65% of live matches falling during Australian work hours.

Rather than downplay that tension, the public broadcaster has turned it into the centre of its major consumer campaign, launching the World Cup Watchers’ Rights Association, a tongue-in-cheek push advocating for Australians’ right to watch football while at work.

The campaign is fronted by Nick Mohammed, best known for Ted Lasso, Slow Horses and The Celebrity Traitors, who appears as honorary executive chair of the fictional association. He is joined by Matt Okine, Mel Buttle, John Cruckshank and former Matildas goalkeeper Lydia Williams.

Uma Oldham, acting director of marketing and audiences at SBS, said the idea was born from a simple tension that Australians want to watch the World Cup, but work is going to get in the way.

“The World Cup is the world's biggest sporting event, but what's different about this year is that it's being played across three countries in North America. If you think about the time zone that presents in Australia, it creates this really lovely tension that we tried to own via this idea of the World Cup Watchers’ Rights Association,” Oldham told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

She said the World Cup is strategically important for SBS from an audience perspective, with the broadcaster seeing the event as one of its biggest opportunities to acquire and retain viewers.

“We knew we wanted to go big,” she said.

The campaign was developed by SBS with Droga5 Sydney, Poem, Hearts & Science and SBS’s in-house marketing team.

Oldham said getting the agency roster right was critical, with Droga5 helping shape the strategy and creative platform, Poem leading earned media, talent and publicity, Hearts & Science managing paid media, and SBS’s internal creative and marketing teams helping bring the campaign to life.

“We need to drive participation and talkability,” Oldham said.

“We’re all aware that it’s the world’s biggest sporting event, but the people that are less interested in football might not be as engaged. We needed an idea that had that stretch.”

Oldham said SBS did not want a traditional campaign built only around a television commercial.

“We saw this as being a less traditional campaign. We didn’t just want to make a TV ad and put it out there,” she said.

“In order to drive talkability and participation, earned really needed to be at the heart.”

The campaign comes as SBS prepares to broadcast every match of the FIFA World Cup 2026 live across SBS, SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand from 12 June to 20 July AEST.

SBS has broadcast the FIFA World Cup in Australia for around 40 years, with Oldham saying the tournament remains central to the broadcaster’s identity as the home of football.

“SBS has been very proud to broadcast the FIFA World Cup since the 80s,” she said. “We’ve been part of that transition from something that was referred to as soccer, and now it is really a mainstream sport. The Matildas’ success has been part of that.

“There’s no other event like the World Cup that brings community together. Social cohesion and community are at the heart of our purpose and brand.”

Oldham said the World Cup also creates a rare whole-of-organisation moment for SBS.

“The audiences that you draw in, and us being a challenger brand in market, it’s something that the whole organisation galvanises around to really acquire and retain those audiences,” she said.

That retention piece is critical.

Oldham said the Socceroos games are effectively SBS’s “Super Bowl moment”, with the broadcaster thinking carefully about how it uses every break to showcase the wider SBS offering and keep audiences beyond the tournament.

“If you think about the three Socceroos games for us, that’s like our Super Bowl moment,” she said.

“We are really thinking about every ad break, what are we showcasing from SBS in order to keep them beyond the World Cup, because that's part of the big reason why we invest in it.”

SBS On Demand will sit at the centre of that strategy.

Oldham said digital viewing has changed significantly since the 2022 World Cup, with connected TV now dominating digital consumption in a way it did not previously.

“This is going to be my third World Cup, and I think what’s been really interesting in having gone on that journey is seeing how audiences have shifted how they consume TV, and sport in particular,” she said.

“In 2022, yes, CTV was a thing, but it was much more around the mobile and iPad viewing experience. Now CTV dominates digital consumption, so that CTV experience is really key for us.”

SBS recently announced live pause and restart functionality for SBS On Demand, with the broadcaster positioning the platform as central to how Australians will follow matches during work hours.

“With such a big event and all eyes in Australia being on SBS, it really galvanises the team, from our streaming and digital products team to SBS On Demand,” Oldham said.

Oldham said SBS On Demand is “absolutely core” to the World Cup Watchers’ Rights Association idea.

“If you're going to tune in at work, it’s really about having SBS On Demand on in the background at a minimum, or getting all your pals together in the boardroom and having a bit of a watch party,” she said.

“SBS On Demand is absolutely core to this. It's really important for our future, and World Cup will drive a lot of digital growth for our streaming platform.”

Research commissioned for the campaign found three in four Australians plan to watch the World Cup in June.

It also found one-third have booked a meeting specifically to watch sport, 38% have watched sport while on a work call and 20% have muted a call so they could focus on a game.

One in 10 Australians admitted to hiding under their desk to secretly watch sport.

Workplaces and workers can join the World Cup Watchers’ Rights Association and start planning their tournament viewing schedule via the campaign website.

SBS will broadcast every match live across SBS, SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand from 12 June to 20 July.