Live From the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup: Digital Efforts Rise To Meet Increased Demand A major focus is social media and showcasing personalities and events away from the action By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Monday, July 1, 2019 - 7:18 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
The previous FIFA Women's World Cup was held in 2015, and the four years since then is a lifetime when it comes to the evolving needs of social-media content creation and delivery. There are new devices, anticipated trends that fail to materialize, and new trends that pop up. But one thing remains constant: social-media content is one of the best places to showcase personalities and events that happen off the pitch.
From left: HBS's Stefan Wistuba, FIFA TV's Neil Darroch, and HBS's Johannes Franken have taken digital-media services to a new level at the Women's World Cup.
The story of an event like this is the color around the matches, says Neil Darroch, senior manager, TV operations, FIFA TV. The matches are good, but you also really need the stories around the matches. And now we're beyond the standard interviews.
This year's tournament production features the largest commitment ever to creating content beyond the pitch. Each team had a dedicated video team that captured everything from practices to press conferences to arrivals. Those teams spent plenty of time with the athletes and coaches, and that familiarity produced a new level of relaxed storytelling that generally occurs only after a subject and production team have been working together for years. But today's athletes, growing up with video cameras in their pockets, are extremely comfortable in front of (and sometimes behind) a camera.
HBS has a team of seven working in the IBC on social-media needs and, as has been the trend for nearly all sports productions in recent years, they are working closely with the rest of the editorial team.
We're trying to bring those teams as close together as possible, says Johannes Franken, head of digital, HBS.
The content that is created has three pillars: short-form videos, 360-degree videos, and infographics.
Broadcasters can get long-form content via the FIFA MAX server, notes Franken, and we now have a social-media interface that is simple and also goes chronologically so that the user can scroll backwards to the earliest items. They can also download items as either 1:1 or 16:9, which enables easier publishing to Instagram or Twitter.
The content is also more easily personalized to rightsholder needs. Infographics can be downloaded either as a JPEG for quick publishing or as a layered Photoshop image, allowing rightsholders to change branding, photos, or other elements.
The video content also goes beyond highlights with things like quizzes or 5, 10, 15, where players discuss their involvement with soccer at ages 5, 10, and 15 (newsflash: they were often on kids' teams for at least two of those three ages). Another popular item was the Kick Up Challenge (China took top honors). And then, of course, there are unscripted moments, such as interview bloopers and visits to landmarks around France.
The behind-the-scenes [looks], what the players have been sharing, and the quizzes have been really interactive, reports Stefan Wistuba, director of production, HBS, and you can see the clips being used everywhere.
Adds Franken, Some of the content has been very popular, and smaller items without big reach are doing well. And then there are other items that have gotten close to a million views. All in all, it's been a great product.
There are also advances that hint at future workflows. SBS Australia has a section on its website that relies on AI and machine learning to tag players and also understand the type of event occurring on the pitch. Users can dive into the application and search for something like all goals scored by the U.S. team. A quick hit of the return button quickly produces a video compilation rendered on the fly, thanks to a database that is automatically compiled in the background.
How the manually entered data and the automated data come together is an important part of the future, says Franken. And what SBS is doing on the frontend is one of those things that is coming together and offers a lot of potential.
New Ways To Work
The biggest development at this year's World Cup has been the ability of rightsholders to access the FIFA MAX server - the massive repository of content ranging from game action to feature packages, interviews, and more - from their home office as well as the IBC.
We have a new frontend that is customer-facing, notes Franken, and we made some significant improvements on the technical and editorial side for users.
The digital team has also been hard at work developing other important services for rightsholders. One on-going experiment is live-streaming a high-resolution contribution feed on a point-to-point basis. The technical vision involves sending a contribution feed over the backbone of a large cloud service provider and then touching public internet for connectivity to a rightsholder. The contribution vision would be to offer it as a service whereby rightsholders have access to feeds and other elements without the need for satellite delivery.
We have created a low-latency loop that streams content from here to Frankfurt to Sydney and then back to Frankfurt and back to here, and the roundtrip latency is only four seconds, says Franken. That is faster than satellite, and it is also fully encrypted. So we envision it as an alternative path to satellite distribution of things like alternative feeds.
The new workflow introduces some different challenges compared with a normal mass-distribution platform. The audience is very narrow, and an item may have only a single user, s
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
26/11/2025
A cinematic snow sculpture at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Randall Michelson...
26/11/2025
Book podcasts are booming. On Spotify, you'll find everything from celebrity book clubs to deep dives with bestselling authors. And in markets where audiobo...
26/11/2025
Mumbai, November 24, 2025: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, JioStar, in collab...
26/11/2025
LONDON Factual content producer ITN Productions has launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins....
26/11/2025
MIAMI TelevisaUnivision said it struck a new multiyear distribution agreement with YouTube TV that includes distribution of TelevisaUnivision's U.S. network...
26/11/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leader in software-defined data storage and data services, today announced the launch of the Atlas Corporate Creative Solution. This new Atl...
26/11/2025
Disguise, the industry-leading company powering the world's biggest live performances, is partnering with pioneering LED wall manufacturer DVS to give atten...
26/11/2025
HighField AI, the pioneer in agentic and multimodal automation for broadcast and media production, today announced the expansion of its global channel partner n...
26/11/2025
As high-stakes Premier League fixtures approach and additional premium content launches, with MONO positioning themselves to dominate Thailand's sports stre...
26/11/2025
Hosting a wide variety of events from high-intensity NHL games to complex live music concerts and major entertainment productions, Montreal's 21,000 capacit...
26/11/2025
Vizrt, the leader in live production technology revolutionizing viewer engagement and experience, releases AI-driven advances focusing on speed, intelligence, a...
26/11/2025
ITN Productions, an award-winning factual content producer, today launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins. Responsible for delivering a leading...
26/11/2025
Ikegami reports ongoing advances throughout 2025 in developing and delivering coordinated television production solutions that maximize quality, versatility and...
26/11/2025
Following the Nov. 21 blackout of NBCUniversal channels on Fubo, the two sides have traded barbs about their inability to reach a new carriage deal....
26/11/2025
LONDON As TV sports rights become increasingly important for both broadcasters and streamers, Ampere Analysis predicts global investment in the genre will surpa...
26/11/2025
LOS ANGELES Vubiquity said it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Entertainment Competency as part of the AWS Partner Network (APN). This designa...
26/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau said it has entered into a consent decree with Comcast calling for the cable company t...
26/11/2025
Berklee Named to the Hollywood Reporters Top Music Schools List The publication highlights the college's screen scoring program, industry partnerships, and ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
Animated Series Love Through a Prism' Casts New Light on ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
NALIP Unveils Fifth Cohort of Director Incubator
Social Impact
26 November 2025
United States
Link copied to clipboard
The National Assoc...
26/11/2025
YouView Achieves Greenly Gold Certification for SustainabilityNov 26, 2025
YouView is proud to announce a Gold Certification award from Greenly for our perform...
Live From the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup: Digital Efforts Rise To Meet Increased Demand A major focus is social media and showcasing personalities and events away from the action By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
