SVG Sit-Down: FOX Sports' Michael Bucklin Explores Successful Live Social Video During Euros, Copa Am rica FOX Sports Digital live-streams nearly 200 episodes of FOX Soccer Now to X and TikTok By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Friday, July 12, 2024 - 1:17 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
FOX Sports' epic Summer of Stars comes to a dramatic conclusion on Sunday with the finals for both the UEFA European Championship (3 p.m. ET, FOX) and the CONMEBOL Copa Am rica (8 p.m. ET, FOX) set. For the digital production team in particular, it will cap off an insane month of live- and social-content creation that has generated a ton of traffic and interest in both tournaments from the @FOXSoccer accounts across TikTok, X, Instagram, and Facebook.
From left: Hosts Jimmy Conrad, Melissa Ortiz, and Wes Morgan have been linchpins to the live pre/postmatch show FOX Soccer Now across X and TikTok for both Copa Am rica and the Euros. (All photos: FOX Sports)
As the group has done for its coverage of other recent major international soccer tournaments - the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup in Qatar, the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia/New Zealand - FOX Sports Digital has leaned heavily into live studio and podcast programming for social platforms while providing a high level of production value.
The pre/postmatch program Fox Soccer Now and the popular podcast series Alexi Lalas' State of the Union Podcast broadcast live from studios on the FOX lot in Los Angeles and are produced with high-end graphics and full-resolution highlights, anything one would expect from a top-flight linear-television production. The team has even dedicated a second control room to producing live programming for TikTok for distribution in a vertical 9:16 format.
In all, it has totaled 191 shows - hundreds of hours of live content - distributed exclusively to social platforms. And it has paid off in spades. Through July 3, according to FOX Sports, Digital had generated 440 million views across the social-media accounts of FOX Soccer, Alexi Lalas' State of the Union Podcast, and the sports-betting-focused account BEAR BETS. Through the midway point of both tournaments (July 1), FOX Soccer social-media channels had picked up more than 430,000 new followers across all platforms.
--
Before the Summer of Soccer ends, SVG sat down with Michael Bucklin, SVP, digital, FOX Sports, to reflect on the work being done, get his take on why his team is committed to live social on such a grand scale, what he and his team continue to learn at each of these major soccer tournaments, and how it is all leading to the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America.
FOX Sports Digital has carved a cool lane for itself. I don't think anyone covering a property does more comprehensive, exclusively live social content in the U.S. than you guys do around international soccer tournaments. What has it been like watching that evolve, and how has this become an expectation that you guys will produce this much live content exclusively for social platforms?
One of the things we think about is, whatever you do today becomes the foundation of what you do tomorrow. So, when we're trying something today, we're not worried just about [whether] this is going to be a success for this pregame or postgame show for that particular event on television. We're thinking, how might we use this come the World Series? How might we think about this for the fall for college football or the NFL? How might this be useful for the Super Bowl this coming February on FOX? How might we think about using what works today for the Gold Cup or the Women's Euros next summer? And, of course, everything we do aims at how might we put it to use for the [FIFA Men's] World Cup in 2026?
FOX Sports' Michael Bucklin: The differences between digital and linear productions are becoming fewer and fewer.
To me, when you think about it that way, you're not just putting this enormous pressure on yourself to have a killer broadcast for today; you're giving yourself the freedom to try some things and to fail at some things with the belief that whatever we do today will be better, of higher quality, more efficient tomorrow. That's just the mindset.
In some cases, when you're trying something super-new, innovative, and different, the audience is okay if you make a tiny little mistake here and there. At least we'd like to think so. Maybe we've convinced ourselves as much. But we just don't feel that pressure to be a 100% perfect. We feel more pressure to be building the foundation for what we're going to be doing in the future while serving fans today.
You've got two massive tournaments filling your broadcast day. Fans are almost getting two World Cups for the price of one: Euros during the day, Copa at night. The time zones are working in your favor, so much better for you than when you were doing similar things in Russia, Australia, and Qatar. How important is it that the schedule is working out in your favor?
It's enormous. We've produced tournaments in Eastern Europe and Australia. There have been lots of times when you're thinking not just about the product that you're creating in real time but about how well that product will be repurposed in the morning when people [in the U.S.] wake up. You're thinking about multiple things at the same time. Your editors are thinking about how to re-edit the content so that the morning audience can consume it and it's still relevant to them.
When you're doing things that are truly live, there's an energy because you see the traffic, you see the comments, you see the excitement that people have. You see the concurrent viewership grow, and you're speaking to that audience in that moment. I think there's an en
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
SVG Sit-Down: FOX Sports' Michael Bucklin Explores Successful Live Social Video During Euros, Copa Am rica FOX Sports Digital live-streams nearly 200 episodes of FOX Soccer Now to X and TikTok By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
