Fox Sports is gearing up for its Summer of Soccer, and heavily investing in the digital space. To cover UEFA Euro 2024 and Copa America, Jimmy Conrad and Melissa Ortiz are returning to the company as analysts, now joined by former Jamaican National Team D Wes Morgan. Kicking off Friday, June 14, the hosts of the Fox Soccer Now franchise will present coverage through the tournaments’ conclusion on July 14.
“Realistically, most fans can’t watch up to six games again,” said Michael Bucklin, SVP of digital at Fox Sports. “The digital space is fun because we can keep them connected.”
Fox’s digital coverage will be featured across all social media livestreaming platforms for the first time (Facebook, Twitter/X and YouTube), as well as the Fox Sports app. And for the first time, the first five minutes of every match will be streamed on the social platforms, which the company hopes will serve as a lead-in for more viewership.
The company has the exclusive digital rights to both tournaments, and plans to utilize multiple platforms to reach fans on the platform they prefer. Fox will produce the content nearly exclusively in vertical video, making an “enormous shift” to the vertical aspect.
“Technically that takes filming nearly everything you do in such a high definition that you can punch in vertically, or you have to turn the cameras on their side,” said Bucklin. “Then when you start talking about graphical presentation, graphics are very, very different in a vertical space.”
That will take two separate control rooms to pull off, using technology first developed for the “Caitlin Cam” following Caitlin Clark on TikTok during her collegiate career at Iowa.
“That was one of the most well-received things any of us have ever worked on,” said Bucklin. “It’s a different experience, but one we’re going to throw ourselves into. It’s going to be 30 straight days of it, we’re going to have up to 19 productions in a day.”
Sponsored by Geico, the live pre- and post-game shows will also include the rotating cast of the Fox linear broadcasters, including Carli Lloyd, Stu Holden and Alexi Lalas. Lalas will also record daily episodes of his podcast “Alexi Lalas’ State of the Union” sponsored by Zillow.
Social channels will also include near real-time highlights, which the company said can be produced within two minutes following air time.
The linear broadcasts for both tournaments will be across Fox and FS1.
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