Fifa will tender the rights, which will be overseen by Fifa's marketing and TV division, on a regional basis beginning with the European, Asian and Oceanian continents.
Joseph Blatter, Fifa president, said: "The tender procedure is a reflection of Fifa's policy of transparency, its compliance with applicable competition law principles, and the wish to give all interested parties the opportunity to bid."
He added: "Furthermore, the tender procedure wholly reflects Fifa policy that the broadcast coverage of the 2010 Fifa World Cup should be universally accessible to the public."
The official launch of the invitation will take place on December 20 2004 with BBC and ITV being the main UK broadcasters battling it out to win the rights to the most coveted football tournament in the world.
In 2001, when the 2002 World Cup rights were being contested, then BBC director-general Greg Dyke accused Fifa of being hypocritical in its decision to sell the rights to the World Cup to the highest bidder after calling for universal TV coverage of the tournament.
There was further controversy in 2001 when German media group Kirch bought the rights to the World Cup for around £750m and wanted to recoup some of this money by charging both ITV and the BBC, which have traditionally shared the rights to the tournament, £170m.
ITV and the BBC refused to bid more than £55m, which is still 10 times more than the two bid for the 1998, and Kirch complained to the Office of Fair Trading accusing them of behaving like a cartel.
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