The FIFA World Cup is the planet's most widely viewed sporting event. The 2010 World Cup held in South Africa was broadcast to 204 countries on 245 different channels. The 2014 World Cup attracted an audience of more than 3 billion people. All those eyeballs staring at screens also make the World Cup one very lucrative event. The sale of broadcast rights to the 2010 World Cup earned FIFA, soccer's governing body, $2.6 billion in 2014. But the rights are just the start. Broadcasters are willing to pay so much because the World Cup is uniquely valuable to advertisers.
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