HBSs Johannes Franken on Digital Innovations, the Role of the Influencer at the 2026 FIFA World Cup

The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also distinguish this from all other World Cup productions

For Johannes Franken, director, digital, Host Broadcast Services, and his team, the list of things that make the 2026 FIFA World Cup different from previous iterations is long. First, in the digital world, technologies and consumer platforms evolve rapidly. Over the past year, the use of camera phones to capture broadcast-quality content has made big leaps. Social-media influencers increasingly carry more weight given their audience sizes. And it's simply a much bigger tournament: more nations are engaged, and the operation spans the Atlantic, with HBS's massive production team in London working on creation of non-live content, such as highlights and packages.

There are several things that we're doing very differently compared to previous tournaments, says Franken. Some of it is due to the nature of the tournament, where it's much bigger and much broader. We have some of the operation outside the country with some of the operation in London, which is a big step for us. It allows us to operate in a very efficient way with having those people in this operations hub. That's a big shift.

Johannes Franken says the HBS team continues to work on new digital services that will keep fans engaged.On the broadcast and streaming side, HBS is debuting two live-content services aimed at drawing in a broader audience, including fans who want more than a traditional match feed. The first is Datatainment: a 16:9 experience that renders three-dimensional, immersive match data - speed, touches, distance covered - as a companion or alternative feed to the live match.

The Datatainment product is a way to bring the match closer to the more casual fan, to explain what's happening on the pitch and showcase some of the skill that players have, says Franken. That is available to broadcasters, and broadcasters that book the service are able to publish it.

The underlying data comes through FIFA's Data Hub, controlled by the FIFA Innovations team, and it demonstrates how data visualization continues to be a growing area of interest when it comes to serving fans and helping them understand a sport.

The second new offering is Match Buddy, a mosaic stream that combines multiple video feeds with additional data elements. Match Buddy is an alternative live stream, Franken explains, which is a mosaic out of multiple video feeds with additional data to create a more entertaining experience of the live stream itself.

Alongside the two new services, HBS is offering an SDK companion app that displays player movement on a mobile device. It's designed to be integrated into a broadcaster's own app instead of being delivered as a white-label standalone product - a reflection of how the HBS model has evolved over the past decade.

The London Connection

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/06/11/hbss-johannes-franken-on-digita...
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