Live From FIFA Women's World Cup: Fox Sports' Live Social and Digital Content Plan Grows, Even Despite Time Difference With U.S. Market Deeper integration of tech from Tagboard, Riedel brings added efficiency By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Wednesday, August 2, 2023 - 3:56 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
FIFA World Cups are wildly exciting projects to work on. But, as with any major global international sports event, fruitful opportunities always bring a set of major challenges. There's perhaps no bigger challenge for Fox Sports at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup than the time difference.
Fox Sports is producing its live social and digital show, World Cup NOW, from a set on the banks of Sydney Harbour. (All photos: Fox Sports)
With many of the matches in Australia and New Zealand happening during overnight hours in the U.S., it begged the question: would the aggressive, live-programming plan that Fox Sports Digital's team flexed during the men's FIFA World Cup in Doha last year even make sense this time around?
The answer was a resounding yes. Not only did Fox Sports Digital choose not to back off, but it decided to go even bigger and harder.
We're always going to stay true to live, says Ricardo Perez-Selsky, senior director, digital production operations, Fox Sports.
@MelissaMOrtiz was every Colombia fan after that late winner @stuholden | @JimmyConrad | @CarliLloyd pic.twitter.com/qEtjIusFDD
- FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 30, 2023
From a gorgeous set at the Hickson Road Reserve under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Fox Sports is back with its live social show, World Cup NOW, on Twitter (X) and the FOX Sports App, and is clipping and producing a wealth of original content, producing wall-to-wall coverage of the entire FIFA Women's World Cup, and offering daily coverage on the status of the U.S. Women's National Team (USWNT).
Perez-Selsky says that his group will actually produce more live hours in Sydney than it did in Doha. Nearly 1 times as much, in fact. For some perspective, the Fox Sports Digital team produced a whopping 160 live shows exclusively for digital and social platforms at the men's FIFA World Cup in Doha last year.
Multiple digital-first programs, including the State of the Union Podcast with Alexi Lalas, are broadcasting from the Sydney set.
Those added hours are coming in the form of more live halftime streams, as well as longer bridge shows between matches. During the men's tournament, a post-match show might go 20 minutes followed by a dropout, before returning for a pre-match show 30 minutes or so later. During the Group Stage at the Women's World Cup, the plan has been to, instead, stay on the air from match stoppage time into the first three minutes of the following match. That's live for approximately 45 minutes straight.
The output is testament to not simply the tireless effort of the Fox Sports Digital team but the seamless integration between the broadcast and the digital sides of the house.
Fox Soccer is truly one cross-platform family, says Michael Bucklin, SVP, digital content, Fox Sports. Whenever I say we' when referring to Fox Sports Digital, people like [Executive Producer, FIFA World Cup on Fox] David Neal or [President, Production and Operations,] Brad Zager are quick to correct me. It's one big team.
Key Enhancements to Tech Workflows Besides the set's beautiful backdrop of Sydney Harbour and the Sydney Opera House, along with a new LED wall, the Fox Sports Digital team is enjoying some significant improvements to its live workflows at this Women's World Cup.
Instead of breaking between post-match and pre-match shows, as Fox Sports Digital did during coverage of the men's 2022 FIFA World Cup in Doha, live streams stay live and bridge between matches. That puts shows live for between 45 minutes and a full hour.
A huge improvement from the effort in Doha comes in the form of deeper integration with two key vendor partners: Tagboard and Reidel Communications.
According to Perez-Selsky, deeper use of Tagboard not only streamlines graphical workflows but makes the on-air product fresher and more fun. All name fonts for every live stream are run directly through Tagboard; at the men's World Cup, a designer had to whip up an individual .png file for any font appearing on screen. Going directly through Tagboard allows changes to be made on the fly and spur-of-the-moment on-screen fonts to be added more quickly.
We have a Tagboard producer in-country with us this time, says Perez-Selsky. That has made a big difference. They've basically become like a secondary producer on the show because we have so much social-media integration to what we do. That has been a big improvement.
Spearheading the Tagboard efforts are Associate Tagboard Producer Trip Westmoreland, as well as Tagboard Specialists Alex Hobbs, Nicolette Rojo, and Cole Weinstein.
Deploying Reidel Communications' Bolero product has greatly improved comms on the set and, more important, with the Los Angeles-based remote team, headed by Fox Sports Senior Director, Digital Operations, Rachel Sollenberger. Previously, all real-time comms were done via Slack and Zoom.
It just makes all of the difference, says Perez-Selsky. They're pulling late-night shifts, obviously: starting their day at 1 a.m. and finishing it at 10 a.m. Having them on quick communication has been so great.
Another tech enhancement this year is going fully wireless on microphones and IFBs for on-air talent on the set.
Playing key roles in the operational and technical efforts for Fox Sports Digital at this FIFA Women's World Cup are Senior Manager, Technical Operations, John Marcus; Associate Manager, Technical Operations, Chris Cheshire; Senior Manager, Production Operations, Tho
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia backs audience-led filmmaking with new insight-driven initiativ...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia refines guidelines for Narrative Content Development and Docume...
02/07/2026
Maxon Autograph: Introduction to working with Tables
Simon Ubsdell July 1, 2026
0 Comments
An overview of Autograph's ridiculously powerful tables...
02/07/2026
Boston Conservatory's Soir e Breaks Records to Fund Student Scholarships The event achieved 127 percent of its fundraising goal in an evening celebrating ...
02/07/2026
How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Med Tech Without Missing a Beat What do the rehearsal room and the boardroom have in common? More than you might thin...
01/07/2026
Broadcast Management Group (BMG) has announced the appointment of Kathy Samuels ...
01/07/2026
Shade has announced Custom Objects and Automations, a platform expansion releasing June 29, 2026, that adds database and workflow automation capabilities direct...
01/07/2026
FOR-A America has announced the addition of Jaz Wray and Fernando Cruz to its U.S. sales team. Both report to Ernie Leon, Senior VP and Head of Sales and Strate...
01/07/2026
NBC Sports will air all 15 MLB games nationally on Sunday, July 5, across NBC, P...
01/07/2026
Clear-Com has announced a wireless communications upgrade for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, deploying FreeSpeak II and FreeSpeak Icon systems across both prod...
01/07/2026
England's performance team will use Sony's STATSports APEX GPS tracking system to monitor player physical data in real time during FIFA World Cup 2026 m...
01/07/2026
Adder Technology has announced the appointment of Neil Hillier as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Hillier succeeds Adrian Dickens, who transiti...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. has announced a strategic transaction creating two separate companies. The Production and Playout business will continue as Bitcentral, now own...
01/07/2026
DAZN has announced results from DAZN48, its creator initiative for the FIFA World Cup 2026. Launched in April 2026, the program received thousands of applicatio...
01/07/2026
Sarah Rose, VP, global services, Daktronics (NASDAQ: DAKT), will be inducted into the Information Display and Entertainment Association (IDEA) Hall of Fame at t...
01/07/2026
Gravity Media and the World Economic Forum's production team provided broadc...
01/07/2026
Insight Productions has announced the launch of Insight Storm, a 53-foot mobile broadcast unit built for esports production. The truck is built around a Ross Vi...
01/07/2026
ESPN has announced several content initiatives marking America's 250th anniversary, as part of The Walt Disney Company's Disney Celebrates America pro...
01/07/2026
Eleven production kits, REMI workflows, and cloud distribution bring 40 World Cu...
01/07/2026
The conference also discussed the opportunities offered an industry that is endu...
01/07/2026
The Mountain West Conference has announced the launch of MW , a direct-to-consumer streaming platform powered by Kiswe. The platform will carry live Mountain We...
01/07/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
01/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
01/07/2026
Exclusive run of limited-edition modelling pedals
Sweetwater and Andertons M...
01/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Manfrotto Introduces UNCOVER, the new premium camera bag collection for modern h...
01/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Powers Houston Tamil Sangam Literacy Competition
Brie Clayton July 1, 2026
0 Comments
Volunteers use ATEM Mini Pro, Blackmagic Desig...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
PlayBox Technology has published State of Broadcast Infrastructure 2026, an in-depth industry research report examining the technologies, operational challenges...
01/07/2026
LONDON, UK, 1 JULY Jigsaw24 has appointed Alan Henry as Head of Sales for Media and Entertainment, reinforcing its continued investment in helping broadcaster...
01/07/2026
Content Vault, the patent-pending secure content distribution platform protecting high-value media from disclosures, theft and unauthorised access, today announ...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. a leading provider of enterprise software and digital media solutions for news, sports and entertainment broadcasters, as well as streaming pla...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Groundbreaking First Nations Screen Business Accelerator launched through nation...
Live From FIFA Women's World Cup: Fox Sports' Live Social and Digital Content Plan Grows, Even Despite Time Difference With U.S. Market Deeper integration of tech from Tagboard, Riedel brings added efficiency By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
