The World Cup clash between the Socceroos and Paraguay represents a potential milestone for Australian football, as the team chase qualification for the knockout rounds for only the third time. For the broadcaster SBS, its significance may be even greater.

The match is the culmination of 11 straight men’s World Cup tournaments, and a commitment that stretches back to Mexico 1986. Its audience is expected to go close to – or exceed – the network’s record for any Socceroos match or World Cup fixture.

“It’s very likely that this match will have the largest audience ever for an SBS broadcast from the World Cup, which is a credit not only to our current broadcast team but to the giants whose shoulders they stand on,” said the SBS director of sport Ken Shipp.

The veteran executive has been involved in nine World Cup tournaments, and has overseen the transition from its traditional, often early-morning TV coverage into a 2026 extravaganza which encompasses free-to-air television, SBS On Demand streaming – for the first time including restarting a stream while a match is in progress – highlights, mini-matches and social media content.

“Our football broadcast pioneers Les Murray and Johnny Warren firmly believed that we could get here and will be smiling down on us,” Shipp said, speaking from a downtown San Francisco bar which he, Murray and Warren visited during USA 1994.

“I hope this match stops the nation – there’s every chance it will, given the favourable timing, the unprecedented media coverage we’re seeing and the excitement around this young Australian team. If it does, then that will be the result of 40 years of dedicated work at SBS.”

SBS attracted an average audience of 3.4 million for the World Cup qualifier against Uruguay in 2005, when John Aloisi scored the penalty to send the Socceroos to Germany 2006. For the last-16 match against Italy at that tournament, just over 3 million tuned in. The television ratings methodology has changed in the decades since, making direct comparisons difficult.

The Matildas set Australia’s modern TV audience benchmark when 7.13 million watched their 2023 Women’s World Cup semi-final against England on Channel Seven, aided by its prime-time kick-off and feverish national interest in the tournament.

The Socceroos’ victory over Turkey two weeks ago drew an audience of just over 3 million. The clash against the USA – screened at a less-friendly time of 5am on the east coast – drew almost 2.2 million.

The 12pm kick-off on Friday will have industry observers closely monitoring their inboxes when audience figures are expected around lunchtime on Saturday.

Jon Marquard, a broadcast consultant and founder of Janez Media, said there was already a strong level of interest going into the tournament thanks to “probably the best team that we’ve had going into the tournament since the “Golden Generation of 2006” and the convenient time zone, with the result against Turkey providing an additional boost.

“So those things all helped, for me the big one though was winning that first game,” he said. “It really did set us up.”

The SBS World Cup broadcast has evolved since Murray and Warren were hosts, and this year the network handed hosting responsibilities to youthful presenters Niav Owens and Claudio Fabiano. They are supported by talent including the former Australian representatives Harry Kewell, Lydia Williams, Tommy Oar and Andrew Redmayne, as well as the former Ghana international Kevin-Prince Boateng.

“We’ve gone with a really varied lineup of football experts – by age, gender and culture – because we wanted our broadcast team to represent and reflect modern Australia, and the football world,” Shipp said.

Time spent by users watching World Cup content on SBS social media accounts is already double what the organisation set as its goal before the tournament. SBS has experimented with showing the first 10 minutes of certain matches live on TikTok, before directing viewers to other platforms, as it treads a fine line between attracting younger audiences and cannibalising its traditional coverage.

Despite that change and the activity of other broadcasters – Paramount and Network 10 have rights to the 2027 Women’s World Cup and the broadcaster for 2030 men’s tournament is undecided – SBS has retained its standing among football fans.

Chants of “S-B-S” were heard on the Vancouver streets before the Socceroos’ match against Turkey. “That was amazing for our team,” Shipp said. “To feel that the fans really appreciate and respect what SBS has done to popularise football in Australia over 40 years.”