The Chinese electronics company's premium backlight displays, called MiniLED, are what officials use to review World Cup replays at the International Broadcast Centre in Dallas. The deal is a sponsorship arrangement, not an independent technology endorsement.
When a referee halts a World Cup match this summer to review a possible red card or an offside, the screen showing the replay will be a Hisense. The Chinese electronics company's RGB MiniLED televisions now sit in front of video assistant referees at the International Broadcast Centre in Dallas, a centerpiece of the company's "Official VAR Review TV Provider" arrangement with FIFA for the 2026 tournament, according to a Hisense press release distributed via PR Newswire.
The setup is worth a closer look for any viewer who will see the Hisense logo pitch-side and in broadcast graphics all tournament. "RGB MiniLED" describes a premium TV backlight: thousands of small LEDs grouped into independently controlled red, green, and blue zones, so a screen can light up only the bright parts of a frame and stay dark elsewhere. Hisense pitches that as native color and high contrast, and the company argues the precision matters when officials are parsing a fingertip, a shoulder, or a ball that grazed a defender's sleeve.
What the screens actually do is narrower than the marketing language suggests. VAR is not a single pitch-side camera; it is a multi-camera replay process in a control room. Match officials at the International Broadcast Centre in Dallas watch incidents back on these Hisense displays, then communicate with the on-field referee, who makes the final call. The Hisense press release describes FIFA President Gianni Infantino visiting the VAR center and "experiencing" the review process on a Hisense television, an anecdote the company itself is publishing. No separate FIFA technical statement endorsing the display has been made public.
The commercial layer is the more verifiable story. Hisense is paying for the right to be the "Official VAR Review TV Provider," a label that runs alongside its overall FIFA World Cup 2026 sponsorship. The arrangement puts the brand inside a room broadcasters will occasionally show on air, and gives Hisense a technical-sounding claim to attach to the partnership. The press release also leans on a ranking from market research firm Omdia placing Hisense "No. 1 in 100-inch and over," a figure Omdia attributes to vendor-supplied shipment data and that should be read as a marketing metric rather than independent analysis.
The release's framing of "every moment seen with greater clarity, accuracy, and emotional impact" is marketing rhetoric, not a measured claim about officiating. No referee testimony, independent benchmark, or comparison against alternative displays is included in the announcement. The only FIFA voice quoted in the release is from the commercial partnerships side, not from refereeing or competition.
What to watch next: a FIFA-side technical statement on the VAR center equipment, any independent review from broadcast or display trade press on the deployment, and how often broadcasters cut to the VAR room during matches. Every camera frame of a Hisense screen in that room is, in effect, another second of paid sponsorship inventory.