NEP's Summer of Soccer Didn't End at World Cup: 1,100+ Domestic Productions Follow the Final

From host-broadcaster and rightsholder support in June and July to MLS, NWSL, USL, Leagues Cup, Super League, and All-Star Week in Charlotte, the company's soccer docket hasn't slowed down

For most of the summer, the soccer conversation in North America centered on a single tournament. For NEP, however, supporting HBS and multiple rightsholders at the FIFA World Cup was but one part of a marathon of soccer productions stretching well into the fall.

From mid July forward, NEP is supporting 293 MLS productions, 157 MLS NEXT Pro productions, and 301 NWSL productions across domestic and international distribution. Add more than 400 productions across the USL Championship, USL League One, and USL Super League - plus the U.S. Open Cup semifinals in a REMI configuration and the final onsite - and the total clears 1,100 shows.

NEP supplied a variety of cameras and personnel for MLS All-Star Week in July. Soccer for us doesn't stop anymore, says Jeff Jacobs, SVP/head of production, NEP Group. We think that's one of the biggest signs of how much the game has grown in North America. The international tournament came to an end, but the momentum around the sport certainly hasn't. If anything, it has carried straight into MLS, NWSL, USL, and the rest of the domestic season.

For us, he continues, there wasn't a shift back. Viewership has increased, as have the levels of our productions to help with storytelling and fan enjoyment. We feel privileged to partner with such forward-thinking leagues and networks.

Nonstop Soccer': Navigating an Onslaught of Live Productions

Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, NEP is managing the production and/or technology for more than 560 matches spanning NWSL, MLS, MLS NEXT and MLS NEXT Pro, the USL Championship, USL League One, the Gainbridge Super League, U.S. Soccer championships, and the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

The run began with pre-World Cup friendlies, including USA vs. Germany in Chicago, and continued through ancillary World Cup programming; NWSL matches for CBS Sports, ESPN, ION, world feeds, and various RSNs; MLS on FOX; and the Super League season and final. It also includes Leagues Cup - 61 matches in three weeks, part of roughly 150 MLS matches in a four-week window - plus a partnership with Televisa to cross-produce matches.

Inside NEP Supershooter 33 covering an NWSL Gotham FC-Seattle Reign match in New York CityAccording to Jacobs, scaling for that kind of volume is as much about the people as it is about the facilities. It has been said a million times, but sports television is a team sport, and we've got a team that consistently delivers. It's not just our technicians in the mobile units and at our master-control hubs; it's our commercial teams acquiring rightsholder and shoulder-programming work, NEP Rentals and NEP Specialty Capture, our Connected Solutions team managing our hubs, data centers, crewing, distribution and production workflows, our production staff, broadcast management, engineering teams, and operations groups - all working as one incredible team.

World Cup Challenge: Multiple Clients, Venues, Workflows

The tournament itself drew production, technical, and operational resources from NEP divisions across the U.S. and abroad. For Host Broadcast Services (HBS), the company deployed mobile units or flypacks - each accompanied by engineering and technical management - at six venues and handled crewing and broadcast management at those venues and at the International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Dallas.

Beyond the venue work, NEP provided SDN management supporting connectivity between the 16 World Cup venues and the IBC. It also supplied a wide range of specialty-capture solutions from NEP Specialty Capture, including two helicopter aerial packages - each comprising helicopter, pilot, camera operator, and UHD camera gimbal.

In addition, NEP supported FOX Sports' studio operations, provided production facilities in Dallas for both Telemundo and TV Azteca, and worked alongside DAZN with production support originating from NEP's Production Hub in Hilversum, Netherlands. It also supported Brazil's Caz TV with production facilities, equipment, and crews at the semifinal and final venues and supplied mobile units and specialty-capture systems for productions by Global Citizen and Done+Dusted.

For NEP Connected Solutions President Joshua Liemer, this summer served as a proof point for a business the company has been assembling for years. From our perspective, this summer validated the investments we've been making in our global NEP Connected Solutions business.

We've been building that business around the idea that customers increasingly want more than individual services, he continues. They want connected workflows that bring together the entire NEP ecosystem: production hubs and facilities, mobile units, flypacks, networking and connectivity, specialty capture, media management, and, most important, the people and expertise behind it all.

NEP Specialty Capture supplied a variety of cameras for MLS All-Star Week.Those investments were not made for a single tournament - far from it. The same facilities, technology, and workflows that supported the World Cup have been deployed for MLS, NWSL, USL, and other domestic properties for years and will continue to do so after the summer is over.

World Cup Final weekend offered a prime example of how NEP's facilities can serve a variety of properties concurrently. On July 17, while the company was still deep in international support, it was also facilitating MLS on FOX, USL League One on CBS Sports Network, and NWSL on Prime Video. On July 18, the day of the third-place match, NEP added both the USL Championship and an NWSL doubleheader on CBS. The World Cup Final followed on July 19. There was no gap between the intern

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/08/19/neps-summer-of-soccer-didnt-end...
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