SVG Sit-Down: DAZN's Walker Jacobs Calls Streaming the FIFA Club World Cup The Most Ambitious Thing We've Ever Done in the U.S.' The FIFA Club World Cup begins Saturday with the final set for July 13 By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Friday, June 13, 2025 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The new FIFA Club World Cup kicks off this weekend, bringing 32 of soccer's best clubs to the U.S. to battle in a tournament unlike anything seen in the sport.
All 63 fixtures will be streamed for free both domestically and globally by DAZN, which is putting the full force of its direct-to-consumer platform and digital partnerships behind the event, aiming to engage audiences and drive users to its product.
SVG caught up with Walker Jacobs, global chief revenue officer/president, USA, DAZN, to discuss the company's approach to the tournament, its strategy around distribution and free access, and why this tournament represents a watershed moment for DAZN in the U.S. market.
What's the energy like around your team leading up to kickoff of this event?
This is a completely new tournament. I would say there's a lot of anticipation. One of the things that has been unique about this is that we reached the agreement with FIFA to become the global broadcast partner and announced it in December. That's a pretty compressed timeline to be planning something of this magnitude. The teams have been somewhere between incredibly busy and incredibly excited and a little bit anxious to get to this point. I think there's a lot of real excitement and energy around the tournament, and we're seeing the impact of it on our business. To have the opportunity to work with an organization as storied and as global as FIFA has been really, really exciting for us. Getting to work with our partners on this tournament has been incredibly exciting. So I would describe the energy around the office as eagerly anticipating the start of this.
You've decided to stream the event for free. What was the thinking behind that strategy?
Right from the beginning in our conversations with FIFA, we agreed that we wanted to make the tournament for free globally. That was one of the guiding principles of our approach to this year's tournament from the beginning. What it does for us is help us open up our brand, our business, and our product to the maximum number of users worldwide.
In terms of our broadcast partners, we are simulcasting 24 matches on TNT Sports [in the U.S.] and 18 matches in Spanish language in the U.S. on TelevisaUnivision Networks. We do that for a number of reasons. Those aren't just television-distribution partnerships; they're much more comprehensive partnerships, where we're partnering across the tournament overall. The two companies have a high level of expertise in understanding the American sports fan and the American viewer. They bring a lot to the table; we're partnering on everything from our team of talent to our studio shows, [which will be run] out of the TNT Sports studios in Atlanta and the TelevisaUnivision Studios in Mexico City.
We, of course, work with them on ad sales and sponsorship sales. We work with them on our production of the tournament end to end. We work with them on our promotional schedule. If you've been watching the NBA postseason or Roland Garros or the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Warner Brothers Discovery networks, you will have seen a ton of promotion for the FIFA Club World Cup. Similarly, on the Univision Networks, if you've been watching Liga MX or UEFA Champions League, you would've seen a ton of promotion for this event. Those are all things that help us, and we're excited about those partnerships.
Beyond that, we're putting all 63 matches on DAZN for free. The fact that we'll have a large number of matches exclusive on DAZN, we think, is going to help drive a large audience of people to download and use our app. We think they're going to be delighted when they discover it and all the things that make our service special and unique. We're excited to welcome new people to our service.
What about this new event made DAZN want to step in and be a global broadcaster for it?
We have a long and storied history as a club-football broadcaster in Europe. We work with La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, the English Premier League, and UEFA Champions League, the J.League in Japan. When you look at the clubs participating in this event, we have a lot of familiarity with them, and I think we're already thought of, in many parts of the world, as the home of club football.
Most of these teams have never had an occasion to play each other internationally in a competition. When you take the top clubs from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Africa, and Asia and put them in a competitive match against the top clubs from Europe, we think, it's going to unlock unpredictable and exciting storylines. We think it's going to become one of the most important tournaments and, hopefully, the most important club tournament on a four-year cycle with the goal of naming the top club in the world. That's something we've never been able to do before and something we're excited to get to be a part of.
Let's talk U.S. market specifically. What does success look like for this tournament here in the States?
We think that, on a global basis, this will be the most streamed sporting event in history. We think hundreds of millions of viewers are going to stream this tournament using our service.
Specifically, I think, DAZN has built its reputation in the U.S. as a leader in combat sports. In the U.S. in particular, boxing is probably what we're best-known for. We'll do about 125 nights a year of live boxing streaming on DAZN. We're known for doing the biggest,
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...
15/06/2026
Detach from Direct-Attached: How Remote Editing with EVO Keeps Creative Teams Mo...
14/06/2026
Library captures 1960s R&B/pop drum sound
Following on from their recent wave of plug-in effects, Iconic Instruments have just launched an all-new virtual d...
14/06/2026
HBO Comedy Rooster Shot with URSA Cine 17K 65
Brie Clayton June 14, 2026
0 Comments
Large format brings viewers intimately close to characters.
Black...
13/06/2026
Latest expansion pack includes 252 presets
Devious Machines have recently introduced another expansion for their powerful multi-effects plug-in, Infiltrator...
13/06/2026
Create custom DAW/plug-in controllers using prompts
MetaGrid have recently introduced an all-new AI Builder function to their touchscreen-based control surf...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
SVG Sit-Down: DAZN's Walker Jacobs Calls Streaming the FIFA Club World Cup The Most Ambitious Thing We've Ever Done in the U.S.' The FIFA Club World Cup begins Saturday with the final set for July 13 By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
