2026 World Cup: How TV broadcast picks are made between BBC and ITV

Before the split takes place though, both sides have to do their homework.

Following the draw – which was made on Friday – broadcasters find out when and where the matches will be. The job then is to come up with a plan for which games take priority.

“We have a couple of days of conversations – at least – around what we would like to do and which way we might want to go,” Bigwood adds.

“In the BBC’s case we’ve got other scheduling like Wimbledon to take into account – for ITV they’ve got their commercial considerations. You need to weigh all this up as part of your strategy.

“You plot through each match and you also have a day by day schedule. No broadcaster wants to end up in a situation where you have four live games on one day.”

There’s lots to consider – covering matches involving the home nations is paramount and predicting who might face each other in the knockout stages is also key.

Kick-off times need to be taken into account too. The tournament across the USA, Canada and Mexico will have 13 different kick-off times, which adds an extra layer of complication.

None of this is a perfect science.

“You have to weigh up how far you think a team might progress,” he adds. “If there’s a big team – say in England’s group – do you go with that or something else? That’s always the big conundrum.

“Once we’ve all agreed on what pick we want we’ll then phone ITV and confirm it, they then have the next pick. We’re not in the same room and we never know which way they’re going to go.”

The plan both sides have in place has to be constantly tweaked – after all ITV might well pick one of the matches the BBC had their eyes on, and vice versa.