In Australia, the patch bay is called a tail board. In the United Kingdom, the engineer responsible for matching cameras is often called a “racker” rather than a shader.

At the FIFA World Cup, those differences disappear remarkably fast.

The world’s largest sporting event brings together hundreds of broadcast professionals from different countries, cultures and technical traditions. Within days, engineers from Australia, England, the United States and beyond must operate as a single crew delivering one of the most recognizable sounds in sports.

They arrive speaking slightly different technical languages. The same piece of equipment or role can have multiple names. Yet by kickoff, those differences largely vanish. The audience hears one broadcast, not the dozens of production cultures working behind it.

What viewers remember is the roar after a goal, the tension before a penalty kick, the swell of a national anthem and the eruption of a stadium after a dramatic winner. They remember how the World Cup feels. Audio is a major part of that feeling.

Australian broadcast veteran Tim Stapleton, audio guarantee for Host Broadcast Services (HBS) in Kansas City, is one of the people responsible for creating that experience. A veteran of UFC, cricket, combat sports in the Middle East and the recent Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, this is his first World Cup. The scale stood out immediately.

"The World Cup is unique because of the sheer number of moving parts," he said.

BIG EVENT, BIG UNDERTAKING

Commentary facilities are handled by a completely separate company, with 10 dedicated booths inside the stadium. Outside, the production compound fills a parking lot with mobile rack rooms and support units from multiple vendors.

The biggest difference from a normal match is the atmosphere. “The crowd makes it sound like a magical moment, not a regular weekly game,” Stapleton said. “You can tell it is something special.”

HBS deploys a standardized audio plan across all venues while adapting to each stadium's characteristics. In Kansas City, the bowl design allows crowd noise to rise naturally, giving the mix team exceptionally clean audience capture.

Capturing that atmosphere requires far more than the standard soccer microphone package. The foundation remains familiar: pitch microphones positioned around the field to capture ball strikes, player movement and referee whistles, along with microphones mounted on cameras to follow the action.

Beyond that foundation, the World Cup expands significantly. Additional crowd microphones and immersive audio arrays are deployed throughout the venue to capture the atmosphere that defines the tournament. In Kansas City, ambient microphone arrays are positioned on the roof, camera deck, and pitch level, allowing the team to capture everything within the roar of the stadium.

The goal isn't simply to make the crowd louder. It's to make viewers feel present.

GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium (or, FIFA is calling it during the tournament, Kansas City Stadium) presents a unique advantage in that regard. Stapleton noted that the stadium's bowl design allows crowd noise to rise naturally through the venue, creating excellent opportunities to capture clean audience reaction.

A MIX THAT TELLS A STORY

For Stapleton, however, the technical design is only part of the equation. His approach to mixing is rooted in storytelling. Rather than simply balancing levels, he actively follows the action around the field, searching for sounds that draw viewers deeper into the match. The crowd remains a constant emotional foundation while individual moments are allowed to breathe naturally. "You're telling a story," he said.

Goals are allowed to build organically rather than exaggerated artificially. As the action moves around the field, microphones mounted on handheld cameras, Steadicams and other mobile systems help bring viewers closer to the moments they are seeing on screen. There is even a microphone mounted on the referee, though it is only used during specific review situations.

The Lionel Messi hat trick in Kansas City was a perfect example. “The reaction inside the stadium was immediate and overwhelming,” Stapleton said. Moments like that are exactly why so much effort is placed on crowd capture. The goal isn't simply to hear the reaction; it's to transport viewers into the stadium and allow them to experience the emotion of the moment alongside the fans in attendance.

The technology behind those moments may be sophisticated, but for many of the visiting engineers, the most memorable part of the World Cup has been adapting to life in the United States.

For Felix Harris, an HBS A2 from London with extensive Premier League and Club World Cup experience, the technical approach feels familiar, just on a larger scale. American stadiums, compounds, and travel distances are noticeably bigger than what he's accustomed to in the U.K.

"It's really tomato-tomah-to as far as nomenclature goes," Harris said. "But it's definitely a bit more." A lot more.

Andrew Lilley, another U.K.-based HBS A2, pointed to one practical difference: U.K. vehicle-length restrictions limit how much equipment can fit in a mobile unit. American trucks simply have more room, allowing for larger technical footprints and expanded microphone deployments. “A good tech sheet keeps everyone on the same page,” Lilley said.

TEAMWORK COMES QUICKLY

While terminology and workflows may vary, crews quickly find common ground. According to Stapleton, the real key to building a successful crew has nothing to do with technology.

“The first few days are essential,” he said. Crews learn each other’s strengths. They figure out how people communicate. They discover who works best in which roles. Shared meals, a drink after work and long production days help transform a group of strangers into a functioning team. “You spend so much time together that you become a family.”

Harris described the welcome from American crews as warm and accommodating. Lilley joked about adjusting to the food, the lack of public transportation and a level of humidity that felt different from anything he experiences at home. “You do not do green vegetables in the States,” he joked. “And everything is on a bun.”

Stapleton has been impressed by Kansas City itself. “The best part is the locals,” he said. "Everyone has been friendly and willing to help.”

By kickoff, the terminology has been sorted out. The accents have become familiar. The workflows have aligned. Engineers who arrived from different continents are now focused on a single objective, helping billions of viewers feel connected to a match happening thousands of miles away.

Shared meals, long production days and countless hours spent solving problems together have transformed a group of strangers into a crew. The microphones, trucks and technology make that possible. The people make it memorable.

Together, they create the sound of the World Cup.

ALAMEDA, Calif.—Clear-Com has announced the successful deployment and testing of FreeSpeak Cell by RTL Deutschland during a live event production at Germany’s Nürburgring race circuit. The test validated the system’s ability to deliver reliable, low-latency communications across both private and public 5G networks, demonstrating the potential of cellular-based intercom workflows for future broadcast operations, the company reported.

Conducted in collaboration with RTL Deutschland and supported by Deutsche Telekom’s 5G network expertise and connectivity, the proof of concept demonstrated how FreeSpeak Cell can extend communications coverage across large-scale production environments by leveraging existing 5G infrastructure. The test integrated with RTL's existing communications ecosystem and provided stable connectivity across areas that would traditionally require multiple DECT antennas or additional infrastructure.

“For us at RTL, the flexibility of our production workflows is one of our top priorities,” said Jens Schilder, Project-Engineer at RTL Deutschland. “The successful test at the Nürburgring proves that integrating intercom solutions into 5G infrastructures efficiently bridges the last mile of wireless communication. Thanks to FreeSpeak Cell technology, we were able to ensure stable communications coverage across almost the entire Grand Prix circuit, the paddock, and additional production areas without relying on complex infrastructure. This is a decisive step toward fully mobile remote productions that demand the highest standards of latency and reliability.”

By leveraging 5G connectivity, RTL achieved clear audio quality and reliable communications coverage across almost the entire Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit, as well as the paddock and additional production areas including Hatzenbach.

Key results from the text included:

• Successful operation across private campus and public 5G networks
• Extended communications coverage using existing 5G infrastructure
• Integration with RTL's established communications workflow
• Validation of cellular-based intercom technology for live production environments

“The partnership with RTL Deutschland shows our commitment to implementing innovative solutions directly in real-world applications,” added Alex Hemme, sales manager DACH at Clear-Com. “The market demands scalable systems that reduce operating costs while increasing freedom of movement for production teams. FreeSpeak Cell delivers exactly that kind of flexibility and investment security. Demonstrating these capabilities under the demanding conditions of the Nürburgring sends a strong signal to the entire broadcast industry.”

CENTENNIAL, Colo.—Mobile TV Group (MTVG) today launched its full-stack MTVG Production Platform, a comprehensive solution covering every stage of a live broadcast, from on-site capture and production through contribution, media control and final distribution.

Located at the Mountain Media Center, the MTVG Production Platform was built to deliver through a single, unified partner what previously required multiple vendors and a patchwork of systems.

“What we’ve built at the Mountain Media Center isn’t just a facility; it’s the cornerstone of a complete production platform. From the mobile unit through contribution, media control, and all the way to distribution, every piece is connected and purpose-built to work together, for better performance and cost efficiency,” said Nick Garvin, CEO, Mobile TV Group. “Teams and leagues no longer need to stitch together a dozen vendors to get on air. We built this because the industry needs it right now, and the Angels partnership shows exactly what’s possible when you have the full platform behind you.”

The MTVG Production Platform plays an integral role in the daily success of Angels Broadcast Television. In late March, the Angels partnered with MTVG to stand up a complete broadcast network from scratch in one month. Leveraging every layer of the platform, MTVG delivered a fully operational, end-to-end production and distribution solution for the Angels, with the first game airing May 1, 2026.

“As plans for a new broadcast network moved from concept to reality this past spring, we identified MTVG's Production Platform as the best solution for Angels Broadcast Television,” said Molly Jolly, president, Angels Baseball LP. “They leveraged every layer of their platform to provide a fully operational, end-to-end solution in a month. It is an incredible partnership, and the MTVG team proved they are a unified, trusted partner who supported our objectives and positioned us to continue delivering baseball games to our fans.”

The MTVG Production Platform operates across four interconnected capability areas, delivering comprehensive live media capabilities through specialized divisions, including content and production, contribution, media control and centralized production and distribution services.

One year after opening its doors, the Mountain Media Center has become one of the most capable live production facilities in the country. The 300,000-square-foot, Class A facility, located near the Denver Tech Center provides the infrastructure that makes the full-stack platform possible.

The platform includes:

• More than 30+ mobile units
• Over 70 live media control pods
• Two technical operations centers (TOCs)
• 25 Cloud control rooms built nationally
• 24 centralized cloud control stations
• Four Edge/REMI rooms for flexible remote production
• Redundant power stations serving power
• Four data halls with uninterruptible power supplies and redundant generators
• Four satellite uplinks and six satellite downlinks
• Hundreds of fiber strands from multiple providers
• Capable of operating entirely off-grid without external power
• 30 minutes from Denver International Airport; few natural disaster risks

More information is available on the company’s website.

ODENSE, Denmark and Santiago, Chile—Pixop and Dynamics Media Group are reporting that the Pixop platform is the real-time video enhancement layer behind one of the Americas’ only 4K World Cup broadcasts.

Working with Chilevisión, Chile’s exclusive free-to-air rights holder for the tournament, and ClaroVTR, the country’s largest pay-TV operator, Pixop is processing Chilevisión’s live 1080i HD signal and delivering a continuous 4K UHD channel to subscribers throughout the tournament.

The channel, which launched on 1 June 2026, operates 24/7 and is available on VTR channel 710 and Claro channel 557, covering 52 matches of the tournament. In South America, Chile and Brazil are the only territories where viewers can watch the tournament in 4K.

The deployment uses a workflow based as a hybrid cloud architecture. Chilevisión’s live 1080i SDR broadcast signal is contributed via an Appear X20 encoder over secure SRT transport to AWS, where Pixop, the real-time ML-powered video enhancement platform, performs motion-compensated deinterlacing, AI restoration, super-resolution upscaling, and color processing in a single pass at sub-second latency. The resulting signal is encoded and delivered through ClaroVTR’s Harmonic ProStream X, ATEME Titan Live, and Velocix Origin infrastructure to subscribers.

The production configuration delivers 4K SDR at 60fps. HDR conversion was successfully completed during testing; 4K SDR was selected for the production launch based on subscriber device compatibility across ClaroVTR’s installed base.

Several Pixop platform capabilities were developed and strengthened during the project, including a real-time monitoring dashboard, an auto-recovery engine, remote decoder reset controls, and live adjustment of sharpness, clarity and color parameters without requiring encoder restarts.

The origins of the project date back to early 2025, when Dynamics Media Group invited Pixop to conduct live demonstrations in Santiago for Chilean broadcasters and technology partners. Chilevisión attended and subsequently requested a dedicated 4K channel proof of concept, which was completed in March 2026 and demonstrated HD-to-4K upconversion, 60 fps output, long-haul SRT transport, and continuous operation. The PoC led directly to this production deployment.

Dynamics Media Group acted as local integration and coordination partner, organizing the initial demonstrations in Santiago, coordinating technical workshops between all parties, and facilitating the operational deployment.

“At Chilevisión, we are convinced that free-to-air television continues to evolve to stay closer to people every day, especially in today’s highly competitive environment for audience attention,” Edgar Spielmann, chairman of the board, Chilevisión.” That is why we have invested and innovated to make all our programming available in 4K, delivering higher quality in both our content and our audiences' viewing experience. This advancement goes beyond technology: it is an essential part of our brand promise, ‘Vamos Contigo’ (‘We Go With You’). It allows us to be present with greater proximity and detail in our news coverage, entertainment programming, and major sports broadcasts, such as the FIFA World Cup 2026.”

“This is the kind of deployment we built Pixop for. A major live event, a mixed-format contribution chain, a tight latency budget, and an audience that expects premium quality,” added Jon Frydensbjerg, CTO, Pixop. “The team has spent seven years getting the ML processing and the real-time architecture to the point where it can handle this reliably at scale. Delivering 4K World Cup football to Chilean viewers, in one of only a handful of territories in the Americas where that’s possible, is something we’re genuinely proud of.”

The deployment marks Pixop’s first major production in the Americas and the first deployment of the Pixop platform for a live sporting event of this scale in the region.

CHESEAUX-SUR-LAUSANNE, Switzerland, and PHOENIX, Ariz.—Nagravision has launched Nagra Venturi, a new intelligence-led streaming security offering that helps service providers and rights holders detect threats, combat piracy, and safeguard revenue.

Nagra Venturi brings Nagravision’s streaming security capabilities together under a single intelligence-led model, shifting anti-piracy from fragmented, reactive tools to coordinated, data-driven offering.

“With AI in the hands of pirates, the market has reached an inflection point,” said Morten Solbakken, executive vice president and COO at Nagravision. “As piracy becomes faster, more automated, and increasingly intelligent, the industry needs a new approach. Nagra Venturi is built to fight AI with AI, giving operators and rights holders the ability to move faster and with greater precision, providing the clarity to see the full picture, the focus to target the threats that matter, and the impact to protect revenue and the audience experience.”

The new offering is designed to address the fact that today’s pirate operations are automated and increasingly AI-assisted, scaling illegal services globally within minutes and targeting live sports during the narrow window when content is most valuable. That has put operators and rights holders in the difficult position of managing growing volumes of data and alerts, without clarity on which actions will make the biggest difference.

Nagra Venturi answers that challenge by transforming security data into prioritized, decisive action. It aggregates and analyzes data from across the streaming ecosystem to create a real-time view of piracy activity, identifies the highest-value threats, and coordinates targeted intervention where it will have the greatest business impact. Rather than reacting to every signal, teams can focus on the threats that matter most to their business.

Through its managed service option, Nagra Venturi includes Nexus, the Nagra Anti-Piracy Center, where analysts coordinate monitoring, intelligence, investigation, and enforcement against a global view of piracy activity. Because Nagravision tracks the wider ecosystem rather than a single network, it can uncover pirate infrastructure and leaked content that individual operators may never see, then coordinate disruption across multiple points at once to maximize impact. Individual solutions, including forensic watermarking and multi-DRM, remain available as standalone solutions within the Nagra Venturi portfolio.

“For more than 30 years, Nagravision has protected the world’s most valuable content,” adds Solbakken. “Built on that heritage—and informed by decades of front-line anti-piracy intelligence—Nagra Venturi moves content protection from a reactive, tool-based model to a proactive, intelligence-led one designed for today’s piracy landscape. Nagravision is proud to be leading the charge to help its customers demonstrate the impact of their anti-piracy strategy—one that proves its value in commercial terms, not just technical ones.”

To learn more about Nagra Venturi, visit nagra.vision.

This week organizers for the annual IBC Show offered a preview of its plans for the upcoming annual event, Sept. 11-14 at the RAI Amsterdam.

IBC CEO Mike Crimp said the show will increase its emphasis on networking opportunities both at the show and online.

To that end, the show is launching the “Braindate Lounge” an initiative that will help attendees prepare in advance of the show.

Braindate Lounge will enable attendees to form their own peer groups online prior to the show and will be seeded with expert discussions from IBC consultants and from the show’s conference program around key topics, according to Crimp.

“People can go on there and form their own key topics and gather a group of people around them to do that,” he said. “I suppose the power of IBC is, in a way, is the power to convene, so all of those people will be able to take their meetings online to create an actual meeting between them on site in the Braindate Lounge, and they will be able to sit down, discuss their topics, discuss what they've seen, create their own knowledge networks.”

The show’s “Future Tech” zone, in Hall 14, will increase its focus on startups with the launch of “Future Tech Ignite,” dedicated to startups, emerging tech, future talent, and the creative community, according to Joe.

“We're also extending our partnership with EIT Culture and Creativity, and they are going to become the Future Tech Ignite innovation partner, which will really help strengthen IBC links with Europe's creative innovation communities,” said Jo Mayer, head of marketing for IBC.

Expanded from a single day to all four days of the show, “Ignite Stage”in the Future Tech area, will feature startup pitches, future-focused sessions, and talent/skills content across all four days of the show, Mayer added.

Key themes for this year’s show are: the transformation of sport, trust and authenticity, and new commercial models, which tie into the show’s three guiding pillars of shifting business models, transformative tech, and increasingly, people and purpose, according to Crimp.

“Those pillars are a consistent framework for the conversations that matter most to the industry,” he said.

Exhibition space itself should exceed 45,000 square meters this year with more than 1,200 exhibitors across 14 halls, according to Steve Connolly, IBC’s director of sales.

Last year, the show had 46,000 square meters of exhibition space and an estimated 1,300 exhibitors.

“Some key areas of the show are performing particularly strongly,” Connolly said. “Future Tech in Hall 14 and Content Everywhere in Hall 5 are both significantly ahead of last year in terms of bookings.”

Crimp said that they’re confident that attendance will be strong and that they'll be able to weather some of the issues that plagued the NAB Show in April, where attendance was softer than previous years.

“I think at the moment we are tracking really strongly against last year,” Crimp said. “We're an international show and a very welcoming show. Who knows what’s going to happen in the Middle East, if that's going to get worse, but I at the moment we're very confident that we will deliver numbers sort of in line with last year."

To register for the show, visit https://show.ibc.org.

New data from Nielsen shows the New York Knicks triumph over the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals attracted the largest audiences since the Michael Jordan era in 1998, with all five games averaging 20.6 million for ABC and ESPN. That was up 157% over last year.

Saturday’s NBA Finals Game 5 on ABC delivered an average audience of 24.5 million viewers and peaked with 33 million viewers watching the closing moments of the New York Knicks Championship victory, the teams first in 53 years. It was the most-watched NBA Finals Game 5 since 1998 as well.

Game 5 also generated the largest viewing audience of the day across all of television and in every key male and adult demo, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel.

The Game 4, which saw the Knicks make a record breaking comeback from a 29 point deficit, was up 123% from last year’s Game 4 with 20.9 million viewers and peaked with 23.2 million viewers at 11:15 p.m. ET.

The XR Sports Alliance (XRSA) has announced that a new cohort of members has joined the strategic initiative: ActionStreamer, Antigravity, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Freeride World Tour, HOVERAir, Manchester United, Pico, Rezzil, San Diego Wave FC, Specs, Inc, and Trigger XR.

Founded two years ago in June 2024 by Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Host Broadcast Services (HBS), the XRSA is designed to accelerate time-to-market and commercialization of XR sports services.

The new members are the fourth group of organizations to join the XRSA, bringing the total number of members up to 33.

"Two years in, XRSA has started to build genuine momentum across sports, media, and technology,” Michael Lantz, CEO, Accedo, commented. “This fourth cohort reflects the breadth of what the alliance is becoming and continues to expand its capabilities across the immersive sports value chain. We are now several deployments in, proving our value as a structured testbed for real-world XR experimentation—with each new member strengthening what we can achieve together in accelerating the time-to-market and commercialization of XR sports experiences."

The new cohort of members spans rights owners, technology and hardware providers, and one of the world's leading sports and entertainment agencies—extending the alliance's reach across action sports rights, professional football, and aerial capture technology.

It includes ActionStreamer, a live-streaming software and wearable technology company, Antigravity, maker of A1, the world’s first 8K 360-degree drone for immersive capture; Creative Artists Agency (CAA), a global sports and entertainment agency; Freeride World Tour, the global series of competition for elite freeride skiers and snowboarders; HOVERAir, a technology and robotics company with a range of self-flying cameras; Pico, a VR technology company; Rezzil, a leading sports technology company focused on performance, insight, and engagement; San Diego Wave FC, a professional women’s soccer team, Specs, Inc. a technology company building the next generation of wearable computer; and Trigger XR, a sports and performance-focused agency. Manchester United, a UK Premier League football team, has also joined, as part of its partnership with Qualcomm.

"Bringing together organizations with expertise spanning capture technology, creative services, sports rights and fan engagement gives XRSA the range it needs to generate learnings that are genuinely transferable across the industry,” added Sylvain Lebreton, head of digital, HBS. “Meaningful experimentation requires diverse environments — different sports, different audiences, different production conditions. This cohort delivers exactly that breadth, and that is what will make our outputs valuable beyond any single deployment."

Fox Sports is reporting record viewing for early matches in the FIFA World Cup 2026, with 15,986,000 people watching the U.S. men’s national team beat Paraguay 4-1 across Fox, Fox One and Tubi on Friday June 12.

That made it the most watched USMNT FIFA World Cup English-language telecast in U.S. history, Fox reported, beating out the 7,763,000 people who watched USMNT playing Wales on November 21, 2022.

The 2026 match audience peaked at 18,860,000 viewers at 10:45-11 p.m. ET.

It was also the most streamed English language USMNT match on record, with 1,130,000 people viewing it on Tubi.

Fox also said Mexico beating South Africa 2-0 was the most watched opening English-language FIFA World Cup telecast in U.S. history with 6,309,000 viewers. The match peaked at 8,014,000 viewers.

With the FIFA World Cup 2026 now underway, a new study from Harris Poll finds that half of Americans plan to watch at least one match on TV, streaming, or social media over the next 39 days and that the World Cup is driving increased interest in soccer among Americans.

Slightly more than half (52%) of Americans say hosting major international sporting events in North America is making them more interested in sports they would not normally follow, a figure that is much higher among millennials (70%) and Hispanics (70%).

In the case of soccer, the presence of the FIFA World Cup 2026 in North America is driving a large new fan base for soccer. More than one quarter (26%) said they only recently started getting more interested in soccer and that their interest was specifically as a result of this year's World Cup.

Of this new U.S. fan base, 72% said it was because they watched matches on TV or streaming and 65% said they wanted to support the U.S. team.

The study also found that even before the start of the World Cup this summer, 39% of U.S. adults are already interested in the 2026 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.

Overall the study found that 27% of Americans are more interested in soccer than they were a year ago. Among this audience, millennials are the core audience, with 62% interested in the World Cup compared to 57% of Gen Z and only 24% of boomers. Hispanics are the most engaged group, with 63% interested compared to 37% of white Americans.

Caretta Research has released its latest forecast predicting record revenues for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

A record $8.9 billion in total revenue is expected, said the company, representing a 54% increase over the 2022 tournament. Growth will predominantly be driven by the rise in commercial and matchday revenues, with sports rights also having an effect.

FIFA’s decision to increase the number of teams from 32 to 48 is seen as a key driver for growth, with the number of games rising from 64 in 2022 to 104 this year, providing further opportunities to sell content. Commercial revenue is expected to rise by nearly $300 million, as traditional advertising opportunities are augmented with the inclusion of cooling breaks and an expanded half-time Super Bowl-style show.

Revenue from sports rights sold to media organizations is predicted to grow by $1 billion, a 32% increase on 2022, although its overall share will be reduced, falling below to per cent for the first time since at least 1998, said Caretta. The higher number of matches to be broadcast has diluted the rights value per game, which has decreased by 19%.

Regional time differences present a “significant difficulty for international media,’ said the company. The total volume of broadcast deals has fallen to 443 from 495 in 2022, a decrease of 11%. This highlights FIFA’s shift towards fewer broadcast partnerships with substantially higher individual values. Secondary broadcasters and sub-licensers have stepped away from the market, due to the challenges presented by time zone differences.

A clear regional split has been defined, with the total number of broadcast deals across Latin American and the Caribbean increasing by 18% while in Asia, the number fell by 21%.

Commenting on the findings, Evangelos Vrysellas, research analyst at Caretta Research, said, “Even though FIFA is set for record-breaking total revenue in 2026, the international broadcast landscape is becoming increasingly difficult. Media rights now represent a smaller portion of the overall revenue pie, with the value of each individual match dropping by 19%. The combination of middle-of-the-night kick-offs for major global markets and rising production expenses has discouraged many potential bidders, leading to a 11% drop in the total number of broadcast deals”.

This article original appeared on TV Tech sister brand TVBEurope.

With 11 host cities across the U.S., the 23rd edition of the FIFA World Cup requires intense coordination.

The global event began Thursday and runs through July 19. The Federal Communications Commission believes communications efforts are well positioned, thanks to what it described as a collaborative effort among multiple agencies.

In a release, Chairman Brendan Carr said that the agency’s experts spanning radio engineering, public safety and enforcement have partnered with federal, state and local officials to support the World Cup across the country.

“The FCC team has been working to support robust, resilient and secure communications networks across the host cities, including supporting the efforts of the private sector communications providers,” Carr said.

Those host cities and areas of New York/New Jersey, Dallas, Los Angeles, Kansas City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Seattle, Miami and Boston/Foxborough have all received support to conduct advance planning, testing and coordination, according to the commission.

Special efforts

In May, the FCC designated Louis Libin as special frequency coordinator and RF spectrum manager for the World Cup. He is the point of contact for coordinating Broadcast Auxiliary Services operations.

Those BAS stations, under Part 74 of the FCC rules, make it possible for radio and TV stations and networks to transmit program material between various locations.

FWC 2026, a subsidiary of Fédération Internationale de Football Association, anticipates that approximately 2,700 pieces of equipment, such as interruptible foldback systems for real-time communication, wireless intercoms and talkbacks for production crews and RF audio links for sound mixing and audio routing, will be used to support around 300 media agencies.

Spectrum sweep

As crowds connect to their devices, international sporting events naturally apply a great deal of stress to communications systems. The commission explained that this creates a congested environment where thousands of people are trying to receive and transmit information on wireless and broadcast networks.

Priority number one, the FCC said, is to ensure that radio spectrum requirements essential to the World Cup — including broadcast operations, public safety, event security and national security preparations — are supported.

For example, Libin told TV Tech that a large number of pairs and single 450 MHz and 455 MHz channels will be in use for the event, for both two-way communications and IFBs.

To identify harmful interference, the FCC has deployed what it described as a “networked constellation of advanced spectrum sensors” across U.S. venues to conduct remote monitoring.

STAs

The commission has also issued 10 special temporary authorizations to date for wireless devices and broadcast operations.

Libin told TV Tech that the STA process has been simplified for the event due to the involvement of the White House Task Force. He also cited cooperation from the North American Broadcasters Association.

[Related: “Wireless Microphone Spectrum Alliance Pushes for Spectrum Access”]

In addition, it granted waivers to allow low-power auxiliary operators to operate within protected contours within the designated event areas. Those LPAS devices operating below 941.5 MHz will not exceed 250 milliwatts, according to FWC 2026, and those in the 941.5–960 MHz band will not exceed one watt of conducted power.

Event security

In public safety, the FCC has been preparing for interference detection and response during matches and related events to help first responders and emergency communications systems operate without disruption.

It has also been working with federal partners and FIFA technology teams to support communications readiness and event security.

In the host state of New Jersey, for example, all State Police radio communications transitioned to full encryption on June 1.

The commission has also partnered with local authorities to support lawful counter-drone operations in accordance with the SAFER SKIES Act.

Area challenges

Both before and during the games, the FCC is working to prevent wireless interference by supporting communications network capacity to meet the localized demand.

“There’s definitely a difference between venues,” Libin said. “They’re all big challenges, but each one is unique.”

In Miami, for instance, where the topography is flat, signals can carry much further than in Seattle, where there is varying terrain. At MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., meanwhile, transmitters from across the Hudson River in New York City are line of sight.

The commission is also working with industry partners to support high-capacity wireless and 5G connectivity in and around host venues.

The effort lays the foundation for the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics and other future “mega-events” by strengthening national communications coordination frameworks, the FCC said.

MELVILLE, N.Y.—Chyron has introduced PAINT 10.4, the latest version of its illustrated replay and sports analysis platform.

PAINT 10.4 helps broadcasters create richer analysis, move faster to air and extend PAINT more effectively into the wider broadcast ecosystem with its deeper data-driven storytelling, faster operator workflows and stronger connectivity across the production environment.

The latest release includes pro football data integration, providing operators with synchronized player metrics for telestration and replay workflows. PAINT 10.4 also improves player-focused storytelling with an AI-enhanced Player Cutout feature that makes it faster and easier to isolate and emphasize key players in video.

It makes isolating a player faster and easier while keeping the process familiar for existing operators. AI helps identify players even in crowded scenes, including moments where a player is partially obscured, giving productions a stronger starting point for player-focused storytelling.

The pro football data integration enables PAINT 10.4 to expand football analysis by syncing video and player metrics through timecode on saved clips. Operators can access player-specific data on a per-play basis, making it easier to build visual analysis around the action on screen.

An automatic game selection list surfaces games happening today and over the next five days, helping teams get into the workflow quickly. Operators can then use key metrics, such as separation, air yards, time to throw, yards after catch, yards after contact, rushing data and expected player metrics, to create more compelling on-air storytelling. Graphics can also be styled through the data integration with VaultSync, which automatically pulls team colors and logos from the cloud.

PAINT 10.4 adds runtime chromakey mode switching, allowing teams to change between automatic and manual chromakey modes during production without restarting the application. The release also brings Formation Tool coordinate output into a released workflow, helping productions connect PAINT tactical analysis with external systems, such as virtual set and augmented reality (VSAR), to support more integrated on-air presentation pipelines.

This gives broadcasters new ways to repurpose analysis data for more immersive and visually connected presentations. It also helps teams create a smoother handoff between analysis creation in PAINT and downstream graphics or AR execution. Together, these updates help teams build richer analysis while connecting PAINT more effectively to the wider broadcast ecosystem.

“PAINT 10.4 is about making data-driven storytelling faster and more practical for live production,” said Andreas Olsson, product manager of PAINT. “With integrated pro football data available within just a few clicks, broadcasters can quickly access the information they need and turn it into clear, compelling analysis on air.”

More information is available on the company’s website.

DOWNINGTOWN, Pa.—PTZOptics and LayerJot will demonstrate how prompt-based AI, robotic camera control, and high-performance computing can work together to identify, follow, and respond to objects and events in real time at InfoComm 2026, June 13-19 in Las Vegas.

The demonstrations, which run on Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors, combine LayerJot’s purpose-built AI software application with PTZOptics’ SimplTrack3 cameras, featuring advanced auto-tracking capabilities. The demos will show how natural-language prompting can guide the system to identify and/or track objects in the room, then use PTZOptics camera control to respond automatically.

The collaboration is designed to show integrators, educators, broadcasters, and pro AV teams a practical path for building on-site AI video workflows, according to the companies. By pairing PTZOptics camera robotics with Intel Core Ultra Series 3 -powered compute and LayerJot’s agentic AI application layer, both exhibitors will demonstrate how Visual Reasoning can move from concept to deployable workflow without requiring large teams, custom hardware stacks, or cloud-only processing.

"AV and enterprise buyers today are asking the same question: how do we deploy AI that actually works in our environment, without building a data center or waiting on the cloud?” said Dr. Ben Cope, Principal Engineer, Intel. “Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors were purpose-built with that reality in mind, delivering the on-device AI compute performance that makes local visual reasoning practical at scale. Collaborating with PTZOptics and LayerJot lets buyers take that compute capability and turn it directly into deployable, prompt-driven camera workflows. Together, we're removing the barriers between AI potential and operational reality."

Visual Reasoning
For PTZOptics, the demo is part of its broader Visual Reasoning initiative, which focuses on turning video into actionable data by combining camera robotics, AI, and open integration. Visual Reasoning is designed to help systems describe, count, understand, and trigger actions based on what cameras see, supporting workflows across broadcast, pro AV, education, healthcare, manufacturing, houses of worship, and live events, the company said.

“Visual Reasoning becomes powerful when integrators and developers can adapt it to the needs of everyday environments,” said Matt Davis, CTO, PTZOptics. “This partnership shows what is possible when robotic cameras, local AI compute, and prompt-driven automation come together. Our goal is to inspire the pro AV community to build customized solutions faster, more affordably, and with more flexibility than ever before.”

LayerJot’s Agentic Visual Application (AVA) connects to the PTZOptics SimplTrack3 camera and uses AI prompting to identify and/or track objects in the space. The demonstration will show how developers can create custom AI workflows that connect directly to camera control, while giving users the freedom to direct camera actions using natural language.

“We’re focused on delivering advanced visual AI solutions that combine scene understanding, automation, and natural-language interaction to support critical workflows in real-world environments,” said Etay Gafni, CEO of LayerJot. “This demonstration shows how scene understanding and natural-language instructions can drive meaningful actions in live operations, enabling users to interact with complex systems in a more intuitive and efficient way.”

Example workflows include prompting the system to identify an object or person in the room, directing the camera to track that target, and showing how similar logic could be adapted for classroom automation, event production, training spaces, and other applications where small teams need consistent video coverage.

The demonstration also reflects a larger shift in the AV industry, the companies said. Cameras are no longer limited to passive capture. With Visual Reasoning, robotic cameras can become intelligent endpoints that help systems interpret what is happening, make decisions, and trigger workflows in real time. PTZOptics says it is working with a wide range of partners and integrators to combine their own domain expertise with PTZOptics cameras via open APIs – supporting teams and improving operations across multiple industries.

The live demonstration will be available at PTZOptics’ booth N8227 during InfoComm 2026. For more information, visit https://ptzoptics.com/book-a-demo/

WASHINGTON—National Association of Broadcasters President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt urged Congress to reform the Sports Broadcasting Act so that it “applies only to league-wide negotiations with media companies that will distribute games through broadcast television, not lock games behind streaming paywalls.”

The SBA, passed in 1961, gives the National Football League a limited antitrust exemption that allows it to negotiate TV rights deals with media companies on behalf of all of its teams.

In recent years, LeGeyt and others at a House subcommittee hearing argued, the NFL has pursued a policy of selling media rights to subscription streaming services that has enriched the league but harmed consumers.

“The Sports Broadcasting Act was built on a simple public-interest bargain,” he said in prepared testimony to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust. “Professional sports leagues received a limited antitrust exemption so they could pool and sell broadcast rights, and fans received broad public access to their games … For decades, that bargain worked. Fans could watch most games on free, local broadcast television. Leagues benefited from the unmatched reach of broadcasting.

“Yet today, it is increasingly apparent that the public access goals of that bargain are no longer being met,” he added. “Games from the four major professional leagues are now spread across Amazon Prime [Video], Netflix, YouTube TV and Apple TV. Fans increasingly need multiple paid subscriptions to watch their favorite teams, and survey after survey shows fans are confused and frustrated. Some estimates suggest that accessing every NFL game over the course of a season would cost a consumer well over $1,000. That’s a long way from the broad, free access Congress intended when it created the SBA.”

To remedy this, LeGeyt said: “NAB is not asking to eliminate the Sports Broadcasting Act. But this Committee should reaffirm that the SBA applies only to league-wide negotiations with media companies that will distribute games through broadcast television, not lock games behind streaming paywalls.”

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez also expressed serious concern about the way the NFL has sold media rights and handled its distribution strategy.

“The economics of how fans actually watch have shifted in ways that deserve serious attention,” she said. “What used to arrive through an antenna, available to anyone regardless of income, has increasingly migrated behind a growing stack of subscriptions and league-specific apps. For a family trying to follow their team through a full season, the cost of piecing together access across multiple platforms adds up quickly.”

Gomez also noted that the FCC is currently probing the state of sports rights on broadcasting.

“The FCC has a legitimate interest in helping gather information on how the Sports Broadcasting Act is functioning in a changing media environment, and I support efforts to ensure fans can access the games they love without paying a fortune,” she said. “When sports programming migrates behind paywalls, fans lose access, local broadcasters lose the revenue that keeps their stations alive, and the local journalism those stations produce loses the funding on which they depend.”

But she added that “I also want to be candid about where the FCC's authority ends. The Commission can gather information, raise concerns, and call out fouls where it sees them, but any meaningful update to the Sports Broadcasting Act will ultimately require legislative action.”

Also testifying was Jim Hallers, founder and managing partner of Tailgators Pub & Grill and Citizens Grill, a chain of sports bars in Texas, who blasted the NFL’s 2022 decision to sell the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market game package to YouTube. He said the general shift of sports rights to streaming has imposed significant costs on restaurants and bars.

“Because we promise customers every NFL game, we now have to figure out how to deliver multiple simultaneous streams across dozens of televisions,” he said. “One commercial video switch with enough inputs and outputs can cost in excess of $15,000. A full upgrade including equipment, wiring and the labor will cost $30,000 to $40,000 per restaurant. And then there is the bandwidth problem. It is one thing to stream a game at home. It is another thing to stream ten noon games at once while also running point-of-sale systems, credit card processing, security cameras, online ordering, music, office systems and customer Wi-Fi. When a game freezes during a key play, the customer does not blame the provider. They blame the restaurant.”

“Beginning with the 2026 season, EverPass is the commercial provider for NFL Sunday Ticket,“ he said. “But EverPass does not replace the rest of the programming my customers expect. I still need DirecTV, cable or another provider for the in-market football game, and all the other channels and programming that make a sports bar work. So instead of simplifying the business, the transition is adding another layer of cost and complexity. I cannot simply replace 40 DirecTV boxes in one venue with 40 streaming devices. It does not work like this. The internet capacity, hardware, control systems and reliability are not there yet.”

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be one of the most-watched sporting events in streaming history. It will also be one of the most complicated for viewers to navigate.

For fans, the question sounds simple: where do I watch the match? But across connected TV, the answer is no longer as straightforward as turning on a channel. Viewers may encounter the tournament through a smart TV home screen, sports hub, streaming app, platform search, voice navigation, YouTube preview, or AI-powered recommendation.

With 104 matches and 48 teams, combined with multilingual coverage across multiple platforms, YouTube’s first 10-minute viewing window, and connected TV operating systems playing a larger role in content discovery, the tournament is shaping up to be a major test of the modern streaming experience.

The Home Screen Is the New Sports Guide
Today, the TV home screen is becoming the front door to live sports. The apps a viewer sees first, the events promoted in hero banners, the matches surfaced in live sports rows, and the results returned through search can all influence where audiences go and what they watch.

That matters because live sports discovery is different from entertainment discovery. A movie can be found later. A series can sit on a watchlist. But a live match has a start time, a halftime, and a final whistle. If fans cannot quickly find the right destination, the moment may be missed.

Because of that urgency, placement, timing, accuracy, and context all matter. A World Cup match prominently promoted on a TV home screen has a very different discovery advantage from one buried behind multiple clicks or unclear app navigation.

Live Sports Merchandising Is More Complex
The scale of the World Cup will make this even more complex. The tournament will include multiple daily matches, different kickoff times, national teams with varying levels of audience demand, and different viewing preferences across language, region, and platform. FIFA has predicted that 6 billion viewers will watch the tournament.

A fan searching for “Mexico live,” “World Cup highlights,” “soccer on now,” or “watch Argentina” may expect an instant answer. Whether that answer appears clearly will depend on how well platforms organize, tag, promote, and surface live sports content.

Apps still matter, but operating systems increasingly shape the path viewers take before they ever open an app. Sports hubs, recommendation rows, search tools, voice assistants, and AI-driven prompts can all guide fans toward one viewing path over another.

YouTube Could Reshape the Funnel
For the 2026 World Cup, match discovery could increasingly begin on YouTube, where official media partners will have the option to stream the first 10 minutes of every match on their YouTube channels.

That model adds an important new dimension to the viewing journey. By giving rights-holding broadcasters a way to showcase the opening minutes live on YouTube, FIFA is creating a new top-of-funnel entry point for fans who may encounter matches through previews, clips, creators, search, or algorithmic recommendations.

YouTube could become a powerful discovery channel, particularly for younger viewers and casual fans. But the real test will be the handoff: once the preview ends, can viewers easily find the full match on the correct app, language feed, or platform destination?

The more friction involved, the greater the risk that viewers drop off before reaching the full match experience.

Small UI Errors Can Create Big Problems
The 2026 World Cup will also expose the operational challenges behind live sports merchandising. At Looper Insights, our data has found an average of 1.3 user interface errors per live sports event. These can include incorrect tiles, incorrect start time listings, outdated promotions, missing event information, broken navigation paths, or inconsistent placement across devices.

For general entertainment, these issues are frustrating. For live sports, they can be costly. When a fan is trying to find a match already underway, even a small error can mean missed viewing time, confusion, or abandonment.

The impact extends to advertisers as well. If fans miss the opening minutes of a major World Cup match because the game is difficult to find, brands lose access to some of the most valuable live viewing moments: pre-game build-up, kick-off, early in-game attention, and the shared urgency that makes sports advertising so powerful. For sponsors and media buyers investing in marquee matches, discovery friction can weaken the value of campaigns that depend on audiences arriving on time and at scale.

That is why verification will matter as much as promotion. Broadcasters, streamers, rights holders, and platforms will need to know whether placements appeared as planned, whether event information was accurate, and whether issues were resolved before they affected viewers. At the World Cup scale, a missing tile, outdated promotion, or incorrect start time can affect tune-in, advertiser value, and the overall fan experience.

The Winners Will Make Discovery Effortless
The companies that perform best during the World Cup will not simply be those with the biggest campaigns. They will be the ones that make the viewing journey effortless: surfacing the right match at the right time, guiding fans from previews to full-match viewing, and ensuring promotions accurately reflect what is live now.

As streaming becomes more fragmented, visibility becomes more valuable. For live sports, visibility is not just about awareness. It is about access, timing, and conversion.

The match may start on the pitch, but for millions of viewers, the journey will begin on the home screen.

READING, Pa. and CHESTERTON, In—Miri Technologies has just signed a new distribution partnership with Midwich, a distributor of audio-visual and unified communications solutions for the United States and Canada. The agreement reinforces Miri's channel partnership strategy for meeting the rapidly growing demand for the X510 dual-cellular bonding router and the new V410 4K live encoder/decoder in the world’s largest commercial market.

The Miri X510 router enables resilient internet connectivity anywhere by forging multiple wired and wireless links—including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, 4G, 5G and satellite—together to overcome speed limitations and withstand network disruptions even in challenging environments, according to the company. Powered by Speedify channel bonding technology from Connectify, the X510 bolsters internet connectivity for any type of data and supports use cases ranging from live streaming and remote broadcast contribution to trade shows and disaster response.

The Miri V410 live 4K encoder/decoder combines intuitive interfaces with rich functionality, robust connectivity and flexible format support for live streaming, IP-based production and AV-over-IP distribution. It can encode one 4K Ultra HD output at 60FPS or two simultaneous QHD (2560x1440) channels, and can also transcode from NDI® sources to streaming formats. As a decoder, the device can decode two 4K Ultra HD streams concurrently from most supported source formats.

Midwich sees Miri as a great addition to its offering in the Broadcast & Media/Entertainment sector.

“The channel partners we service are constantly looking to create the most complete solutions that solve problems, simplify workflows and open the door to new revenue streams,” said Rich D’Angelo, Midwich executive director of business management for Media & Entertainment. “Miri solutions will complement our existing brands in helping our resellers and integrators achieve these goals. Miri's approach to resilient connectivity and the powerful yet simple interfaces in their products combine with class-leading levels of flexibility and insight that truly set them apart.”

“We’re excited to expand the availability of our solutions by partnering with Midwich,” said David Cohen, vice president of sales and business development at Miri Technologies. “We see tremendous opportunities for synergy between Miri and the many brands that Midwich represents and we're looking forward to growing our footprint across the continent with their support.”

NEW YORK—While U.S. interest in soccer continues to grow and viewing of the FIFA World Cup 2026 is projected to rise, new survey data across seven major markets shows the nation still lags the Europe and Asia-Pacific regions in men’s World Cup viewing, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Only 13% of U.S. online adults surveyed said they “typically” watch World Cup matches, compared to nearly half of U.K. respondents and 28–43% of respondents in other surveyed markets.

Demographic patterns reveal a male-heavy audience, with splits approaching 70% men and 30% women in the U.S. and China and 57%-43% in India.

Cross-sport engagement is extensive. U.S. World Cup fans heavily favor football (78%) and basketball (70%), while cricket dominates India (89%), baseball peaks in South Korea (64%) and European markets show the strongest overlap with tennis viewership.

Younger cohorts show a more balanced gender mix, but the gap widens substantially among older viewers

EVS said it is changing its corporate name from EVS Broadcast Equipment to simply EVS.

Founded in 1994, EVS built its business with live replay systems that transformed sports production. Over the years, it has expanded its portfolio and capabilities.

EVS now delivers a product ecosystem spanning live production workflows, media infrastructure, content management, AI-driven capabilities and media production robotics. The simplified name better captures the broader portfolio and the central role EVS plays in bringing live moments to audiences worldwide, the company said.

While EVS remains deeply rooted in the broadcast industry, its technologies are increasingly deployed across a wider range of markets, including live news production, entertainment, corporate environments, venues and emerging applications.

The name change is closely aligned with EVS’s technology direction. As the industry accelerates toward software-defined architecture, cloud-enabled deployments and AI-powered workflows, EVS has positioned itself at the forefront of this shift. Its solutions are designed to operate seamlessly across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud environments.

“Our broadcast heritage remains a strong foundation, but our ambition extends much further,” EVS CEO Serge Van Herck said. “We now deliver a full ecosystem of solutions that enable our customers to produce and deliver live content in the most demanding environments, across industries and platforms. Simplifying our name is a natural step to better represent this transformation and to support our continued international growth.”

More information is available on the EVS website.

COLOGNE, Germany—Qvest has introduced two new solutions that the company says will help drive more efficient processing in software defined architectures.

The two new open-source projects—mxl-k8s and go-mxl—address key challenges of modern broadcast architectures in the context of Dynamic Media Facilities (DMF) and advance their practical implementation in Kubernetes-based environments.

Qvest says its solution addresses one of the key scalability challenges in DMF-based architectures. Multiple applications often access the same stream simultaneously, leading to significant bandwidth inefficiencies, rising costs, and increasing complexity that grows with each additional application.

“With uncompressed UHD streams in the range of 10 Gbit/s and more, this is not a marginal issue but a major economic factor,” says Daniel Clasen, Practice Lead – Custom Software Solutions at Qvest. “Our approach ensures that streams are processed at most once per node within the cluster. This lays the foundation for more efficient and future-proof media platforms.”

Qvest addresses this challenge with mxl‑k8s, which enables scalable, converged use of MXL across multiple nodes within a cluster. Media flows are shared within a node, regardless of how many applications access them.

On a technical level, Qvest extends the DMF architecture with a cluster-wide orchestration layer for MXL: As a software layer, MXL provides a standardized mechanism for exchanging media flows between applications and can be directly integrated into products.

The automated orchestration of this exchange across multiple nodes and systems is deliberately outside the scope of the MXL core and has so far been implemented on a project-specific basis—with corresponding effort for vendors and integrators that can be significantly reduced using mxl‑k8s.

With mxl‑k8s, crossnode transport of MXL becomes available for the first time as an automated cluster feature, without the need to implement it within each media function, according to the company. This removes a key scalability limitation of modern media architectures. For applications, the need to account for the origin or routing of a flow is eliminated.

go‑mxl, Qvest’s Go binding for the MXL libraries implemented in C/C++, further simplifies integration into modern software stacks and makes the technology accessible to a broader developer base.

“MXL is designed as a layer for integration into software products. Across multiple systems, an additional orchestration layer becomes essential. This is exactly the layer we are now adding, enabling fully automated operation across the entire cluster. Initial feedback from the industry confirms the strong demand for this type of orchestration,” summarizes Daniel Clasen.

Qvest is providing both projects as open source, enabling the industry to further develop the approaches and integrate them into their own systems.

As part of Qvest’s broader industry engagement, in May 2026, the company upgraded its membership in the industry association AMWA to General Member and is now contributing this technical expertise more actively to the development of industry standards – including throughthe Joint Task Force on Dynamic Media Facilities (JT‑DMF).

Find mxl-k8s and go-mxl on GitHub: https://github.com/qvest-digital/go-mxl

FIFA+ will launch exclusively on DAZN, bringing the FAST channel to hundreds of millions of soccer fans, soccer’s global governing body and the streaming service said.

FIFA+ on DAZN will feature some 8,500 live matches per year from around 100 FIFA member associations, alongside original programming and archive content.

“The integration of FIFA+ into DAZN represents a key milestone in our ambition to make football truly global and accessible,” Mattias Grafström, FIFA secretary general, said. “Following the successful collaboration at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, we are now taking the next steps in building the Global Home of Football, bringing together competitions, content and storytelling on a single platform while creating new opportunities for our FIFA Member Associations to grow their audiences worldwide.”

The move creates a single global destination for thousands of FIFA-related live events, archival content and original programming. This new service brings FIFA’s extensive portfolio of global soccer content together with DAZN’s portfolio of soccer rights from the top leagues and competitions around the world.

In addition to around 8,500 live events in selected territories annually, the offering includes content from FIFA member associations, extensive data and select archive content from past FIFA tournaments, including the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women’s World Cup, with fans able to watch full match replays, highlights, goals, collections, plus curated content that uses unseen angles and historic footage.

In addition, the 2026 offering includes the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland, the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Morocco, the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar, and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup in certain territories.

SAN FRANCISCO—Peacock will stream Telemundo’s live Spanish-language coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos with Dolby AC-4.

“As the leader in live sports streaming, Peacock is known for our unmatched reliability and quality,” said David Bohunek, senior vice president of global video engineering at NBCUniversal. “Fútbol fans will love watching Telemundo’s FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage on Peacock in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos with Dolby AC-4—it’ll be a truly stunning viewing experience they can’t get anywhere else.”

A joint team of engineers from NBCUniversal and Dolby Laboratories worked together for more than a year to fine-tune how Peacock brings Dolby Vision to live sports, combining Dolby’s latest streaming tools with NBCUniversal’s expertise in native HDR production.

All 104 matches will be delivered in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos with Dolby AC-4, a first for the event. Peacock’s presentation of Telemundo’s World Cup coverage is also believed to be the first commercial deployment of Dolby AC-4 by a video streamer.

Dolby AC-4 delivers clear sound with up to 50% greater efficiency than traditional codecs, enabling delivery of Dolby Atmos at the highest possible fidelity.

“There is no bigger stage in sports, and now Peacock viewers will experience every moment the way it was meant to be seen and heard," said John Couling, senior vice president of entertainment at Dolby Laboratories. "From the energy of the crowd to the emotion on the field, every goal scored, Dolby helps bring fans closer to the experience."

More information is available on the company’s website.

BOSTON—Regional sports network NESN has tapped Fahad Haider as vice president, operations and engineering, leading its broadcast operations, broadcast engineering and studio production operations organizations.

NESN televises Boston Red Sox baseball games, Boston Bruins hockey games and other events to a territory comprising the six New England states. Its programming is also available via direct-to-consumer app NESN 360.

A 20-year industry veteran, Haider most recently served as vice president and general manager of operations for FanDuel Sports Network. He also held engineering leadership roles at Spectrum’s SportsNet LA and had previously been NESN’s VP of broadcast engineering and CTO.

“Fahad is one of the most accomplished operations and engineering leaders in our industry, and his track record building and running large-scale live sports operations is the leadership NESN needs as we keep modernizing how we deliver content across every platform,” said David Wisnia, president and CEO of NESN and Sportsnet Pittsburgh. “We’re thrilled to welcome him back to the team.”

Over his career, Haider has been responsible for high-visibility live broadcasts for more than 50 Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and National Football League teams, NESN said, earning three Emmy Awards for live productions, operations and engineering.

“NESN holds a special place in my career, and returning to lead its operations and engineering organizations at this moment is a tremendous opportunity,” Haider said. “The network is building towards an ambitious future across linear and streaming, and I’m excited to help shape how NESN delivers that experience to fans.”

Lenovo has detailed how its deployment of a near-real-time AI-powered infrastructure platform for this year’s FIFA World Cup will enable ultralow-latency IPTV, better operational control and new fan experiences for billions of viewers.

As FIFA’s official technology partner, Lenovo has deployed servers and other solutions at the International Broadcast Center in Dallas to support the most expansive broadcast operation in FIFA World Cup history.

More than 17,000 Lenovo and Motorola devices and 200-plus engineers deployed across venues and Team Base Camp training sites will help ensure professional execution, Lenovo said.

The deployment is part of Lenovo’s larger push to expand its sports technology investments. In March, it launched a dedicated sports vertical designed to support organizations operating live, global and mission-critical environments. By integrating AI infrastructure, edge computing, devices, and services into a unified model, Lenovo said it aims to help sports organizations shift from fragmented systems to real-time, end-to-end operational control.

For this year’s World Cup, Lenovo’s technology solutions have reduced latency within IPTV infrastructure, with IPTV delays now under five seconds, enabling near-real-time access to live match action and more synchronized viewing experiences, the company said.

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR635 V3 servers and technology will also help manage massive volumes of live video data coming in from stadiums across North America and power FIFA’s IPTV live feed by ingesting, processing, and distributing all match content in close to real-time via ten channels to over 1,000 screens throughout FIFA venues.

Beyond broadcast, Lenovo’s technology will be deployed at FIFA’s Technology Command Center in Miami and the Tournament Operation Center for the duration of the World Cup. This hub, where all the technology powering the games is monitored and managed in near-real-time by experienced engineers and FIFA management, serves as the central “mission control” for the tournament.

With the help of Lenovo’s enterprise solutions, FIFA’s Technology Command Center and Tournament Operation Center will ensure organizers can quickly observe and address operational issues across a tournament footprint of 16 venues across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“Lenovo’s AI infrastructure is redefining the FIFA World Cup experience, delivering near real-time highlights, multi-angle views and insights at unprecedented global scale,” said Ashley Gorakhpurwalla, president of infrastructure solutions at Lenovo. “Together with FIFA, we are running AI under the world’s most demanding conditions—solving latency concerns and bringing billions of fans closer to the action than ever before, setting a new standard for live sports.”

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will also showcase Lenovo’s real-world AI advances in sports production, the company said. Lenovo products will manage complex on-premise edge computing, the company said, significantly reducing latency in cases where cloud-only solutions failed to meet broadcast requirements.

More specifically, during the World Cup, technologies powered by Lenovo ThinkSystem servers, engineered for high-density, mission-critical environments requiring massive throughput, and near real-time operational performance will support:

• Near real-time monitoring of stadium and tournament wide tech systems
• Live broadcast, streaming, and IPTV delivery
• Rapid incident detection and issue resolution to minimize disruption and downtime
• Enhancing the fan experience with real-time insight and transparency

Lenovo said it is also enabling a more immersive and understandable viewing experience through AI-driven innovations.

AI-enabled 3D player avatars will provide clearer, real-time visualization of complex decisions such as offside calls, Lenovo said. Built using advanced GenAI and real-world player data, these avatars are designed to help fans better understand the game as it happens. These avatars will also be an additional value input to support FIFA match officials in their offside decision-making during matches, Lenovo said.  

To improve the in-venue experience across three countries, Lenovo said it will deploy solutions designed to enhance safety, efficiency,and engagement, including: AI-driven navigation systems to reduce congestion and improve movement across venues; AI-driven stabilized “Referee Views” to give a first-person perspective with up to 50% less motion distortion; and immersive digital and holographic experiences to create new ways for fans to engage with the game.

In addition, Lenovo will deploy the FIFA AI Pro platform, a next-generation AI-powered knowledge assistant giving tactical insights to coaches, players and analysts. Built using Lenovo’s AI Factory, the platform will be provided to all 48 competing teams.

NEW YORK—They may have fallen short in the Western Conference finals, but the Oklahoma City Thunder topped the list of most-watched NBA teams in 2025-26, drawing 1.8 million viewers per game in the regular season, according to Nielsen viewing data.

The No. 2 team was the Los Angeles Lakers—the team that boasted the most-watched player, per Nielsen, in LeBron James—followed by the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks.

Another participant in this week’s NBA Finals, San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, trailed James as the league’s second-most-watched player.

Nielsen’s Spring 2026 “Tops of Sports’ report also noted double-digit growth in viewership across pro basketball (up 27%), NHL hockey (25%), auto racing (44%) and golf (12%*), fueled by new streaming and broadcast options, the massive popularity of global stars and changing ways that fans follow their favorite teams.

More specifically, the NBA’s average audience for regular-season games was up 27%, with the early rounds of the playoffs seeing a 10% bump. The league benefited from new media-rights deals that helped it reach younger viewers on streamers Prime Video, Peacock and ESPN Unlimited while still drawing larger audiences on broadcasters ABC and NBC and cable network ESPN.

The NHL is also experiencing a major boost, with average regular-season viewership up 25% to 540,000 viewers per game, and the first round of the playoffs up 77%, to 1.2 million viewers. The growth was bolstered by significant cultural moments involving hockey, such as the gold medal wins by the U.S. men’s and women’s ice hockey teams at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, Prime Video’s hit series “Off-Campus” and drama series “Heated Rivalry” on HBO Max, which notched nearly 2 billion streaming minutes in the first quarter, Nielsen said.

Followers of the NHL’s official TikTok account were up 83% this season, Nielsen reported. Further demonstrating America’s growing interest, the national TV debut of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) drew about 133,000 viewers to Ion, with 45% of the audience women 18-plus. In addition, demonstrating the buying power of hockey fans, NHL viewers rank No. 3 in median income among all sports watchers.

Last year’s Indianapolis 500 averaged more than 7 million viewers, the most in 17 years. The 2026 IndyCar season is already off to a strong start, with the first five races averaging 1.2 million viewers, 44% higher than the same period in 2025. Viewer interest is also rising, with 19% of respondents reporting being somewhat or very interested in IndyCar this March, up from 15% in March of 2023.

So far this year, the PGA Tour is averaging 1.5 million viewers. Efforts to evolve the franchise’s social media presence may be paying off, as Nielsen Scarborough data shows a steady increase in interest since 2023. *An influx of young Asian talent like Collin Morikawa, Akshay Bhatia, and Si Woo Kim looks to be helping to expand the tour’s audience, with Asian viewership to PGA Tour events up 12% so far this year.

PHILADELPHIA—Comcast’s Xfinity has announced expansive plans for its FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage that will provide Xfinity X1 TV subscribers with access to RealTime 4K feeds of all 104 games with Dolby Vision and Atmos, along with a host of features like Multiview, Fan View, AI-powered highlights that will make it easier to find, access, interact and watch the games.

In parallel, Xfinity also announced that it is launching Fox One on Xfinity Xumo Stream Box, giving Xfinity Internet customers access to every match in English alongside Peacock’s Spanish-language coverage.

“We’ve been on a deliberate journey to reimagine how fans experience sports in the home, rolling out new capabilities that make watching more immersive, intuitive and aligned with how fans engage today,” Comcast Vice President, Sports and Entertainment Vito Forlenza said. “The World Cup is the latest example of how Xfinity combines premium picture quality, low-latency streaming and interactive features to create a truly standout sports viewing experience, powered by our most intelligent and reliable Wi-Fi.”

The launch builds on efforts by Comcast to improve the live viewing experience for recent high profile events like the Olympics, NFL, the Super Bowl and NBC’s NBA coverage where the operator rolled out higher resolution video formats and features like Multiview, Fan View and AI-powered highlights.

It also comes at a time when consumers are increasingly frustrated by the difficulty of finding content, particularly sporting events, that are airing on a variety of different streaming platforms and Comcast is facing growing competition from mobile providers for broadband subs and pay TV subs.

That makes the new features an important test case in the operator’s efforts to convince consumers that its high-capacity networks can offer a host of features—such as low-latency 4K video and seamless access to both streaming and pay TV content without switching apps—that can’t be matched by competitors.

“The coverage shows we have the technical capabilities, we have the devices, we have the network, we have the wherewithal to provide the best sports experience in the market,” Forlenza said in an interview. “Our FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage is really the visual articulation of the value that we're bringing to our customers.”

As part of the coverage, the operator has created World Soccer Hub. Xfinity TV customers can simply say “World Cup” or “Copa Mundial” into the Xfinity Voice Remote to launch the hub, an aggregated, bicultural tournament destination that brings all live and on demand coverage from across networks and streaming services into one simple, seamless experience. The destination also provides quick access to Xfinity’s most advanced sports viewing features.

Comcast described the other notable features available for its World Cup coverage as follows:

• The fastest stream, sharpest picture and best audio with RealTime4K: All 104 matches from Fox and FS1, plus a match of the day from Telemundo will be available in Xfinity’s new RealTime4K technology. Delivered to the home over Xfinity’s superior network just seconds behind the action on the pitch, RealTime4K offers stunning contrasts, brilliant colors and lifelike detail with Dolby Vision and an immersive audio experience with Dolby Atmos.
• Never miss a moment with Create Your Own Multiview: Fans can watch up to four live events at once, selecting from World Cup matches and other simultaneously airing events to build a customized Multiview experience.
• Discover while watching with Fan View: A personalized, interactive companion experience, Fan View gives viewers an easy way to discover and immerse themselves in all the tournament action, without taking their eyes off the big screen. Customers can select their favorite countries to create a tailored viewing experience centered around the action that matters most to them, or browse the latest scores, stats, standings, and odds from across the tournament. Fan View also serves as the launchpad for Xfinity Clips, a new short-form video experience that makes it easy to watch highlights, features and key moments in a format inspired by the simplicity of leading social media platforms.
• Record and catch up quickly with AI Highlights: Available on DVR recordings of Fox’s and Telemundo’s game coverage, AI highlights automatically tag key moments like goals, penalty kicks, and amazing saves so fans can quickly catch up on the biggest action of the day.
• Take the tournament to go with Xfinity Stream and Xfinity Mobile: With the Xfinity Stream app, customers can watch live World Cup matches and coverage wherever they are. And with Xfinity Mobile, they can tap into Xfinity WiFi’s more than 23 million hotspots to get speeds up to 1 Gbps and stay connected to every moment on the go.

The FIFA World Cup also marks the launch of Fox One, the official English-language streaming platform of FIFA World Cup 2026, on Xfinity Xumo Stream Box, expanding how Xfinity Internet customers can watch the tournament.

With Fox One now available, streamers can watch every World Cup match in English alongside Spanish-language coverage via Peacock, bringing the entire tournament together in one streamlined, voice enabled experience.

The company also stressed that this coverage is part of its ongoing push to improve the viewing experience for sports fans that will impact its future coverage of the NFL, NBA and other sports.

The FIFA World Cup 2026 also builds on Xfinity’s broader commitment to the global game. Beyond the tournament, Xfinity serves as a year-round destination for soccer, aggregating top European leagues, Latin American competitions, international tournaments, and domestic club matches into a single viewing experience.

It also offers World Soccer Ticket, a video package custom-built for soccer fans that includes nearly 60 channels and Peacock Premium, customers can enjoy more than 1,500 matches from the world’s top leagues, including Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Major League Soccer, LALIGA, Liga MX, the FIFA World Cup, and more, all in one place.

NEW YORK—A new study from S&P Global Market Intelligence is predicting that FIFA World Cup 2026, the first three-nation-hosted and expanded-format tournament, is projected to generate $9 billion in revenue, including $3.9 billion in media rights.

The record levels of revenue are being driven by an enlarged 48-team, 104-match schedule, premium US-hosted ticketing, and strengthened global media partnerships across major markets according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The researchers noted that FIFA World Cup 2026 introduces the first format expansion in 28 years, increasing participation from 32 to 48 nations and total matches from 64 to 104, while being hosted across 16 cities in the US, Canada and Mexico.

That will drive projected revenue of approximately $9 billion for FIFA in the 2026 World Cup year, anchored by about $3.9 billion in broadcasting rights and complemented by strong growth in marketing rights and a substantial uplift in hospitality and ticketing.

For the four year cycle between 2023 and 2026, total revenue will hit $13 billion, up from $6.5 billion between 2019 and 2022.

The report also predicts global viewership and engagement are expected to reach unprecedented levels, with FIFA forecasting 6 billion engagements across TV, streaming and digital platforms, building on the 1.5 billion viewers for the Argentina–France 2022 final and surging digital consumption. In addition, more than five million in-stadium attendees are anticipated.

Other key highlights include:

• Non-men’s World Cup properties significantly bolster FIFA’s commercial cycle, with the Women’s World Cup, youth tournaments and the FIFA World Club Cup elevated through deals such as a $1 billion rights contract with DAZN in 2025 and a new USA–Canada streaming agreement with Netflix from 2027
• Strategic four-year planning and tier 1 marketing rights allocation across cycles enable FIFA to lock in long-term commercial partners, while confidence in US, Canada and Mexico as hosts supports forecasts that ticketing and hospitality for 2026 will outperform Qatar 2022 and exceed World Cup 2030 ticketing by $950 million.

DALLAS—FIFA has opened the International Broadcast Center (IBC) for the FIFA World Cup 2026 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, with FIFA President Gianni Infantino hailing the facility as "the most technologically advanced and top of the art international broadcast center that the world has ever seen."

The facility will serve as the global broadcast operations center for 180 broadcasters covering the tournament set to take place across 16 host cities in Canada, Mexico and the USA from June 11 to July 19 2026.

It is the second time that Dallas has been designated this prestigious function, having also hosted the IBC during the 1994 FIFA World Cup USA.

"It's absolutely incredible to be here in Dallas at this fantastic International Broadcast Centre – it's getting better and better," said Infantino. "There's more and more technology, AI power, people, experts. It's incredible to see how much work, how much passion, how much expertise, how much high-level technological input there is to bring the FIFA World Cup to billions of fans all over the world.

Addressing some of the 2,000 broadcast media representatives who will be based at the facility, he also said stressed that "not everyone can travel to the United States or in the past to other countries to witness the FIFA World Cup, but everyone can see it back from home thanks to the IBC and thanks to the broadcasters," he said.

At the opening, Dallas Mayor Eric L. Johnson said that the city, which will host nine FIFA World Cup 2026 matches, had made targeted investments to support the operation and the thousands of international visitors.

"Having toured the operations here myself a few days ago, I can attest to the cutting-edge technology, including AI and innovation, that will be transforming this facility into a world-class media hub," Johnson said, according to a blog post posted by FIFA describing the opening.

The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center was selected as the IBC for FIFA World Cup 2026 in part because of its central location across the three-nation tournament footprint, making Dallas the ideal hub for a broadcast operation spanning Canada, Mexico and the United States.

The facility spans 45,000 square meters (485,000 square feet) and will serve as headquarters for FIFA's host broadcaster and Host Broadcast Services (HBS), all FIFA Media Partners, FIFA's Video Content Production Department, FIFA's Football Technology and Innovation Department as well as housing the video assistant referee (VAR) room, the post noted.

"Four years ago, when we opened up the IBC in Qatar, our President was challenging us….and saying: 'We need to continue to push the bar as high as we can in order to remain a reference for everybody in the world in how we can deliver high-quality, our competences to all our broadcasters, to our partners,’” said Romy Gai, FIFA's chief business officer. “And I am happy to say today that what you can see all around us is the result of capitalizing on all our experience from the past, trying to improve and to do more in order to better serve our 180 broadcasters from all around the world."

HBS has delivered broadcast services for the six most recent editions of the FIFA World Cup, and broadcaster infrastructure is fully integrated into FIFA's stadium projects, covering camera positions, interview positions, the mixed zone, studios, media tribune, broadcast compound and press conference rooms.

In a blog post, FIFA said that a key pillar of the IBC's operation is the partnership between FIFA and Lenovo, FIFA's Official Technology Partner, which is providing complete IT solutions across the FIFA World Cup 2026 ecosystem.

Lenovo is deploying servers at the IBC in Dallas to deliver the computing power, devices and AI-driven solutions needed to bring every moment of every match to global audiences. More than 17,000 Lenovo and Motorola devices are deployed across venues and Team Base Camp training sites, supported by over 200 Lenovo engineers across all venues.

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR635 V3 servers manage massive volumes of live video data from stadiums across North America, powering FIFA's IPTV live feed via ten channels to over 1,000 screens at all FIFA venues. Lenovo's technology has also reduced latency within FIFA's IPTV infrastructure to under five seconds, enabling near real-time access to live match action.

As FIFA’s official technology partner, Lenovo has deployed servers and other solutions at the International Broadcast Center in Dallas to support the most expansive broadcast operation in FIFA World Cup history.

The deployment is part of Lenovo’s larger push to expand its sports technology investments. In March, it launched a dedicated sports vertical designed to support organizations operating live, global and mission-critical environments. By integrating AI infrastructure, edge computing, devices, and services into a unified model, Lenovo said it aims to help sports organizations shift from fragmented systems to real-time, end-to-end operational control.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will also showcase Lenovo’s real-world AI advances in sports production, the company said. Lenovo products will manage complex on-premise edge computing, the company said, significantly reducing latency in cases where cloud-only solutions failed to meet broadcast requirements.

FIFA's Gai also highlighted two specific AI-powered innovations that will enhance the broadcast experience at FIFA World Cup 2026.

The first is AI-enabled 3D player avatars, which represent a major development in semi-automated offside technology. Players will be digitally scanned on arrival – a process that takes approximately one second per player – to create precise 3D models that capture highly accurate body-part dimensions. These models will be incorporated into the host broadcast, enabling offside decisions determined by the VAR system to be displayed more realistically and in a more engaging way for fans both in stadiums and watching at home around the world, the blog post explained.

The second innovation is a stabilized referee view. Building on a successful trial at the FIFA Club World Cup™ in 2025, AI-powered stabilization software will smooth footage captured from the referee's camera in real time, reducing motion blur caused by rapid movement. The footage will deliver a higher-quality, first-person perspective for audiences, enhancing transparency, understanding and engagement throughout matches, he reported.

"Thanks to AI, we've introduced some innovations that will be highlighted through the broadcaster for the fans," Gai said. "These are just a couple of examples. We will have more to say, more to tell."

The FIFA World Cup, the pinnacle of live sports excitement for hundreds of millions of fans who watch from every corner of the globe, is coming to North America this month, arriving at a scale broadcasters have never before had to handle.

Between the opening games on June 11 and the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., participating countries—from defending champion Argentina to heavyweights France, England and Spain to Iran, Haiti and New Zealand—will play 104 fiercely contested soccer (aka “football”) matches in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, spread across 16 host cities and several time zones.

For fans, that means more than a month of football that will roll from city to city, stadium to stadium and screen to screen. For Fox Sports and Telemundo, the two host U.S. broadcasters, it means building coverage that can follow the tournament wherever it goes.

That’s the fun of this World Cup, and also the challenge: The coverage needs to feel close to the action in each city, with commentators and presenters plugged into the atmosphere on the ground while managing vast scale and maintaining consistency.

For American viewers, the end result should feel pretty simple: turn on the TV, open the app, catch the highlights and follow the story. Behind the scenes, it will take one of the most complex live sports production operations ever mounted.

To help make sense of this mammoth broadcasting event, TV Tech spoke with two key operators—Kevin Callahan, senior vice president of field operations and engineering for Fox Sports, and Miguel Lorenzo, senior vice president of sports for NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises—about their plans and their vision for how the World Cup can run smoothly.

The Broadcast Chain
Before Fox Sports and Telemundo add their own presentation, the World Cup tournament starts with the host broadcast.

For this World Cup, that role sits with Host Broadcast Services (HBS), FIFA’s appointed host broadcaster, which is responsible for the core match coverage that global media partners receive and build upon, a role it has held for the last six men’s tournaments. The central hub for that operation will be the International Broadcast Center in Dallas, which acts as the tournament’s broadcast nerve center from as early as January through the end of July.

To step back for a moment, HBS provides the shared foundation: the match pictures, the stadium coverage and the technical backbone that allows broadcasters to follow the tournament from city to city.

Rightsholders, such as Fox and Telemundo in the U.S. or BBC and ITV in the U.K., then turn that feed into their own coverage, adding commentators, graphics, studio shows, interviews, streaming output, digital clips and the editorial voice their audiences expect.

Across a tournament of this size, that shared foundation keeps the operation coherent as matches move between 16 host cities. The IBC gives the broadcast chain a central point of coordination, while rightsholders use their own hubs to shape the final program.

For Fox, the English-language rightsholder, that means connecting Dallas with production facilities in Los Angeles; for Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo, it means linking match operations with Telemundo Center in Miami alongside its teams on the ground across North America.

Fox’s Remote Production Model
The scale of the tournament has shaped Fox Sports’ editorial plan and its production model.

“The size of the 2026 FIFA World Cup is unlike anything else we have done,” Callahan said. “The distances covered in the tournament—as well as the number of hours of programming—have forced us to shift the way that we’re thinking and how we’re producing this event.

“All 104 matches will have commentators in-venue, which in and of itself is a feat,” he said. “But our studio show will be traveling to venues across the three countries as well.”

Taking this approach gives Fox a presence inside each stadium while keeping much of the production engine in familiar facilities.

“Fox Sports is leaning on our HRP workflows for both our match and studio coverage,” Callahan said. “The matches themselves are produced by HBS on behalf of FIFA. Fox will pick up that feed at the International Broadcast Center in Dallas and send it to production facilities in L.A.”

Upgraded for the monthlong event, Fox Sports’ HRP (Home Run Productions) REMI infrastructure is a standards-based IP workflow that uses Appear’s X platform to support both JPEG XS and low-latency HEVC on a single platform.

“The commentator audio from the venues will also travel through the Broadcast Contribution Network to the IBC and then to our production facilities in L.A.,” Callahan said.

In Los Angeles, Fox will bring those pieces together for its final match coverage: commentator audio and Fox graphics will be combined in a match control room, while studio programming will be produced from two control rooms as presenters move between venues.

The technical bridge between those traveling studio teams and the L.A.-based hub will include Fox’s BRISK systems, which Callahan describes as ST 2110-based flypacks that integrate with the company’s permanent facilities, with JPEG XS encoding from Appear used to support low-latency feeds from venues back to the control rooms.

In practical terms, the model allows Fox to keep the live feel of a stadium production without having to replicate the same full-scale setup in every city. Commentators and hosts can remain close to the action, while core production staff work from a consistent base.

For viewers, the result should be a broadcast that still feels rooted in the stadium, while relying on centralized workflows to keep the overall operation manageable across more than a month of matches.

In a win for those who love high-fidelity TV, Fox said all studio and match content will be produced in 1080p and available via 4K distribution.

Telemundo’s Local and Platform Approach
For Telemundo, the scale of the tournament is tied closely to the communities hosting it.

“The scale is unlike anything we’ve seen before,” Lorenzo said, echoing Fox’s Callahan. “With 104 matches across three countries, this is the largest World Cup ever, and our production reflects that.

“For Telemundo, it means a significantly expanded footprint...more matches, more cities, more talent, more resources and more content across every platform,” he added. “We will have a presence at every match and a much broader operation overall, but the focus remains the same: delivering an authentic, expert, entertaining and high-quality experience for fans.”

Telemundo’s approach is built around making that expanded footprint feel local. Lorenzo describes 2026 as “the most local World Cup ever,” with on-site teams and commentators capturing the atmosphere inside stadiums and across host cities.

“Being on-site is critical for us,” he said. “This historic World Cup is taking place in our country, our cities and communities. It’s the most local World Cup ever and our coverage needs to reflect and tap into that local excitement.

“We want audiences to feel the energy throughout all our coverage and for our commentators to channel the atmosphere in the stadium directly to audiences,” Lorenzo added. “That’s a big part of what makes our coverage unique.”

Telemundo Center in Miami gives the Spanish-language broadcaster’s on-the-ground operation a central base. Lorenzo said the facility allows the broadcaster to connect studio shows, digital and streaming while keeping teams close to the action at the venues.

Lorenzo said Telemundo Center also allows the broadcaster to “scale efficiently” while connecting “studio shows, digital, and streaming,” with NBCUniversal’s wider resources used to “ensure quality, speed, reliability and scale.”

“It’s a hybrid approach that gives us the best of both worlds: authenticity on the ground and the ability to deliver comprehensive coverage across platforms,” he said.

The mix of platforms is a major part of Telemundo’s World Cup plan: Every match will be available across broadcast, streaming service Peacock and the Telemundo app, with FAST channels, social and companion formats extending coverage around the live games.

“The goal is simple: deliver more games, more content, more access, and a seamless viewing experience across every screen,” Lorenzo said.

Test Case for Future Live Sporting Events
The 2026 NAB Show provided a preview of how broadcasters will handle World Cup coverage, with sessions covering live production, streaming scale, platform resilience and the next wave of digital fan experiences.

For Fox and Telemundo, those ideas are already moving from conference talking points into production plans. The World Cup needs people close to the action, with commentators in stadiums, presenters moving between host cities and coverage that picks up the noise and personality of each venue and moment.

Importantly, it also needs centralized control rooms, remote links, IP workflows, and platform teams capable of serving TV channels, streaming apps, digital clips, social feeds and highlights across 104 matches.

That balance makes the upcoming World Cup a useful test case for the next phase of live sports production under an increasingly hybrid model: Enough on-site presence to keep the coverage alive and enough centralized infrastructure to make a geographically scattered tournament feel joined up.

As Lorenzo rightly pointed out: “In the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, all stadiums were basically within a 35-mile radius. In 2026, the closest two stadiums are between New York [East Rutherford] and Philadelphia. The largest distances are between Miami and Vancouver.

“That is a lot of ground to cover but it’s also an amazing and unique position to be in because of the incredibly diverse storytelling opportunities,” he said.

For viewers, the best version of that future should feel straightforward. The match is on, the app works, the highlights arrive quickly and the coverage feels connected to the city where the game is being played.

Behind the scenes, the production chain will be doing far more work than ever to make the biggest World Cup yet feel easy to watch from anywhere in the world.

Whoever you are rooting for, have a fantastic World Cup. Your author will be in Guadalajara to see South Korea vs. Czechia on opening day and cheering on England to the final.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—At Badger & Combes, we specialize in delivering high-quality live production for sports and broadcast, focusing on scalable, remote workflows that support complex, multilocation events. Our team regularly works on fast-paced productions where reliability, flexibility and efficiency are critical to success.

One example of that is the Dubai Rugby Sevens, an international tournament featuring top men’s and women’s teams from around the world. During the 2025 event (Nov. 28-30), 664 competitive matches were played across a large multisport venue. Every game was captured and streamed live on YouTube, the Dubai Sevens official website and the official event app.

Remotely producing a live global sporting event on the scale of the Dubai Rugby Sevens is no small feat. With hundreds of matches played across multiple locations, a production hub thousands of miles from the venue and zero tolerance for downtime, delivering uninterrupted live coverage to a global audience is a major challenge.

Livestreaming Every Match
For the 2025 tournament, we took on the challenge of live­streaming every single match using a fully remote production workflow built for seamless worldwide distribution.

A Haivision-powered workflow, designed for high scalability, efficiency and rock-solid reliability, formed the backbone of our production. With Haivision’s contribution solutions and the SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) protocol, we delivered a resilient, continent-spanning broadcast network built to meet the intense demands of live, fast-paced sports.

Rather than deploying a large-scale broadcast setup at the venue, we relied on a flexible and lightweight contribution model using Haivision live video contribution solutions powered by SRT, a protocol developed by Haivision for low-latency, secure and reliable videostreaming over unpredictable networks, enabled the live production to be driven from a central hub in Manchester, England, while postproduction infrastructure operated live in Dubai.

On-site in Dubai, we deployed 12 cameras connected to a range of Haivision mobile video transmitters across eight pitch locations. The main stadium was supported by a Haivision Pro460 mobile transmitter, handling multiple camera feeds through its multiview feature. A second Pro460 was positioned at the engineering station, ingesting feeds from additional pitches alongside an RF camera, enabling real-time bidirectional communication between teams in Dubai and Manchester.

Across the remaining pitches, we deployed seven Haivision Air mobile transmitters and a Falkon X2 transmitter at individual camera positions, providing reliable, low-latency live video contribution from each game, along with return feeds so engineers could monitor activity across all pitches.

A Haivision Air unit was also used to support audio communications and file transfer. Our team in Manchester communicated directly with the on-site team in Dubai through the Air, allowing roaming crew members to coordinate production from over 3,000 miles away. This same infrastructure supported file transfer, consolidating workflows into a unified Haivision ecosystem.

All camera feeds were sent over the internet using SRT with latency as low as 1.5 seconds, arriving at Haivision StreamHub receivers in Manchester. From there, feeds were sent to EVS for replay, graphics, and postproduction before delivery to digital platforms.

The system proved highly reliable. Every incoming feed was recorded as it arrived, creating a backup archive of all camera footage for post-event use. The flexibility of the Haivision solutions allowed full visibility of the entire production across both locations.

Really Remote Workflows
Despite the distance between Dubai and Manchester, the camera-to-production workflow enabled effective live switching, replay and real-time communication across continents.

What would once have required large crews and significant on-site infrastructure was achieved through a centralized workflow built on Haivision technology and SRT. By the end of the weekend, we successfully delivered live coverage of all 664 matches with no major technical issues, using a production footprint small enough to fit into just three cases.

The equipment was lightweight, easy to deploy and highly cost-effective, enabling us to deliver full-scale production with a minimal on-site footprint and significantly reduced operational costs.

More information is available on Haivision’s website.

NEW YORK—CBS Sports has announced that Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women’s Super League matches through the 2029-2030 season.

Beginning with coverage in September 2026, Paramount+ will live stream 183 matches each season, the most matches in the newly expanded competition’s history. CBS Sports Network will air one match per week with select matches also airing on CBS Sports Golazo Network.

In addition to CBS Sports’ coverage of live matches, CBS Sports Golazo Network will provide Barclays Women’s Super League coverage on its dedicated women’s soccer show “Attacking Third”, alongside its other studio programming “Morning Footy”, “Golazo Matchday” and “Scoreline”.

With the addition of England’s top women’s league, CBS Sports bolsters its women’s soccer rights across CBS, Paramount+, CBS Sports Network and CBS Sports Golazo Network.

Those rights now include the NWSL, UEFA Women’s Champions League, Concacaf W Champions Cup, Concacaf W Gold Cup, Concacaf W Championship, Concacaf W Nations League, Serie A Femminile and select UEFA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers.

The deal was negotiated by WSL Football’s international media rights representative, IMG.

LONDON—The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup is set to generate the highest sponsorship revenue in the competition’s history, with combined media rights and sponsorship revenues expected to exceed $6 billion, per research firm Ampere Analysis.

The expanded 48-team tournament, to be held June 11 to July 19 across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, has created significant opportunities for brand promotion, Ampere said. The United Kingdom-based research estimates that it will generate at least $3.8 billion in rights fee revenues and $2.4 billion in sponsorship revenues.

Much of that commercial growth has been driven by the U.S. role as a host nation, Ampere said, with the value of stateside media rights up 94% from the 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar. U.S.-based brands now account for more than half of World Cup sponsorship revenue, Ampere said.

“This edition of the FIFA Men’s World Cup is attracting record levels of sponsorship investment due to the increase in participating teams and the expanded number of matches,“ Chloe Ng-Triquet, analyst, sponsorship at Ampere, said. “Hailed as the ’biggest’ Men’s World Cup ever, brands have identified every opportunity to capitalise on innovative activations. With the additional hydration breaks during each game’s quarter, brands have more space to advertise. Despite no major sponsors for the events headquartered in Canada or Mexico, the U.S. houses some of the biggest brands globally, helping drive the sponsorship revenue to an all-time high.”

Ampere currently estimates media rights revenues for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup at $3.8 billion, up 22% from the 2022 tournament, with some deals still to be agreed for markets in Asia. Traditional linear broadcasters are still the dominant rightsholders, Ampere said, but streaming services are investing more in the competition. DAZN, for instance, will stream the World Cup in three major markets, Japan, Italy and Spain.

Ampere expects sponsorship revenues to reach at least $2.4 billion, a 37% increase from Qatar 2022. Spending is being driven by new sponsors such as DoorDash, Bank of America and ADI Predict Street, as well as historic sponsors like Adidas, Coca-Cola, and Visa. U.S.-based brands account for 52% of sponsorship revenue, up from 36% in 2022. No companies based in Canada or Mexico have signed on as sponsors yet.

“While we estimate that FIFA is currently under its target for media rights revenue for this Men’s World Cup, deals have yet to be confirmed for some markets in Asia,” Ampere Senior Analyst, Sports Media Rights Danni Moore said. “However, even without those agreements in place, the 2026 edition of the tournament is generating the highest media rights values FIFA has achieved to date as a result of growth across several markets. As the country with the highest investment in sports rights globally, the growth in the US market, driven by its role as one of the host nations, has had a considerable impact on the overall value of the 2026 event.”

DMC Production Germany has been appointed as the technical service provider and studio partner for MagentaTV’s coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

MagentaTV is Deutsche Telekom's IPTV and streaming service in Germany and that country’s World Cup TV rightsholder.

All content will be delivered in UHD with Dolby Atmos and accessibility features, including audio description. For the first time, the entire production chain will operate fully in HDR.

MagentaTV’s coverage will be centred around two studios: one in Munich, Germany, and the other at 1 World Trade Center in New York, which will serve as the main studio hub.

Munich will also serve as the central control hub for the remote production workflow from the U.S. studio, with all live production operations managed from Germany, said DMC.

The company is responsible for the complete internal production infrastructure of both studios, which will feature “innovative, high-end scenic design, advanced analysis graphics and premium LED wall integrations.”

DMC Production Germany’s role also includes IP-based signal management and conversion, playout and feed enhancement, gallery production for all three MagentaTV’s FIFA World Cup channels, as well as ingest, recording and file management services.

“Together with MagentaTV and thinXpool, we are implementing international production architecture designed for maximum flexibility and efficiency,” DMC Managing Director Holger Ensslin said. “Our ambition is not only to provide the technical foundation, but also to actively contribute to setting new standards in sports broadcasting and enabling innovative production formats.”

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand TVBEurope.

LOS ANGELES—Fox Sports, America's English-language home for the FIFA World Cup 2026, and Fox Corporation have announced community impact initiatives leading up to the tournament that include a $500,000 commitment to Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA).

The investment expands Fox Sports' dedication to growing access to soccer for youth and is part of a broader, multi-year community impact platform collaboration with BGCA and nonprofit organization, Common Goal, designed to create lasting opportunities for young people through soccer across the United States, the company reported.

"As Fox Sports prepares to present the largest FIFA World Cup in history, we have a unique opportunity to ensure the tournament's legacy is measured not only by unforgettable moments on the pitch, but by the lasting impact it creates in communities nationwide," said Eric Shanks, CEO and executive producer, Fox Sports. "We are honored to support the efforts of Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Common Goal, U.S. Soccer Foundation and others to expand access to soccer and create opportunities for the next generation both on and off the field."

The $500,000 investment will support youth soccer programming offered by BGCA, expanding access to the sport and creating new opportunities for young athletes nationwide. The legacy commitment is expected to engage more than 26,000 new youth across the country, while helping to train coaches and create job opportunities for Club teens as referees. The donation also enables local clubs nationwide to host Soccer Forward Fests, community-based events designed by U.S. Soccer to celebrate and deepen engagement in the sport.

"Soccer can open up new opportunities for youth and this collaboration with Fox Sports will allow us to support young athletes across the country," said Jim Clark, President and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. "This monumental donation will allow us to uplevel our support for players, coaches, referees and more, contributing to their success on and off the soccer field."

Building on its efforts from FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and FIFA Women's World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023, Fox Sports is expanding its community initiatives ahead of the 2026 tournament through such organizations as Common Goal, U.S. Soccer Foundation, and its own long running Fox Sports University program.

The company said that these combined efforts will increase access to the game, support mental health and create pathways for the next generation of players and professionals.

Fox Sports also noted that it is the only national broadcaster to take Common Goal's 1% pledge, committing one percent of its tournament coverage since 2022 to tell the story of soccer for social good across its platforms.

Together with Common Goal, Fox Sports will continue using the power of soccer to drive positive social impact through initiatives focused on inclusion, well-being and access to the game. This includes the company's commitment to the next chapter of "Create the Space," the mental health initiative led by Common Goal and launched in 2023 together with U.S. Women's National Team defender Naomi Girma and Fox Sports and Fox Corporation during the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023. The initiative delivers youth-focused mental wellness training programs to soccer-based youth organizations across North America and the Caribbean, equipping the next generation with the tools to thrive both on and off the field.

"I'm proud of the work we've been able to accomplish at Common Goal to bring more awareness around how mental health impacts athletes. This support from Fox Sports and Fox Corporation allows us to make even stronger and more meaningful impact and change for good," said Girma.

DENVER—Leading Argentina-based sports media company Torneos y Competencias S.A. (Torneos) has significantly upgraded its playout operations, implementing a fully redundant, multichannel environment centered on Imagine Communications’ Versio integrated playout platform and ADC automation.

The modernized infrastructure provides a flexible foundation that enables Torneos to preserve trusted, existing workflows and at the same time opens up a clear path for future improvements, the two companies reported.

Headquartered in Buenos Aires, Torneos has more than 40 years of experience producing sports content across Latin America, delivering more than 19,000 hours of programming annually for major networks. The company also operates the DSports network, which will provide live match coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with pre- and post-match programming, highlights, and match replays across its linear channels and the DGO streaming platform.

With 10 live on-air channels to manage, Torneos was looking to upgrade its core playout systems with resilient solutions that would allow them to maintain their familiar automation workflow and evolve toward IP-based production and UHD content delivery when the time was right — without requiring a costly, wholesale replacement of their existing SDI infrastructure.

After careful market evaluation and extensive testing, Torneos selected Imagine’s fully software-based Versio integrated playout platform as the new foundation of its broadcast operation.

“Our goal was to modernize our playout operations without disrupting the workflows our teams rely on, so we needed a partner we could trust and a solution that our teams could operate without missing a beat,” said Pablo Mascitelli, CTO of Torneos. “We’ve worked with Imagine for many years, and that relationship mattered as much as the technology. They understood our environment, preserved the workflows we rely on, and gave us a path forward that makes sense for our business."

At Torneos, dual-channel Versio systems support 12 main and 12 fully redundant backup channels, each integrating playout, branding, master control switching, loudness control, SCTE insertion, and audio processing with SDI I/O. An upgrade of the organization’s existing ADC automation layer introduced playlist redundancy, enabling operators to control live switching, file-based playout, and branding from a single unified interface — with graphics preview and rapid source switching across all 12 on-air control positions. This integrated approach gives operators a consistent user experience and streamlined workflow from creation to air.

To ensure continuous on-air delivery, three Selenio Network Processor (SNP) devices with automatic changeover (ACO) provide seamless failover using content-aware metrics. All servers connect to Imagine's IOX Express high-availability shared storage, allowing capacity and bandwidth scaling without taking the system off-air.

"Modernizing broadcast infrastructure doesn't have to mean starting from scratch,” said Sergio Yanez, LATAM sales director at Imagine Communications. “By building on what Torneos already had and knew, we were able to deliver a dramatically more capable environment — and a clear runway to UHD and ST 2110 — without the disruption that often comes with a platform change."

The Imagine playout solution at Torneos was implemented in association with local Imagine Communications partner and systems integrator Viditec.

Visit www.imaginecommunications.com for more information.

Apple TV will be breaking new ground this Saturday, May 23, by streaming a special live Major League Soccer match captured exclusively on iPhone 17 Pro.

The streamer is billing the production as "the first time that iPhones will be used to capture the entirety of a major professional live sporting event broadcast."

The milestone broadcast will feature the LA Galaxy vs. Houston Dynamo FC streaming live on Apple TV from Dignity Health Sports Park during the final weekend of MLS play before the regular season pauses for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

iPhone 17 Pro will capture live footage throughout the match, including team warmups on the pitch, player introductions, in-net goal angles, and the atmosphere inside the stadium. A total of 15 iPhones will be used in the production.

With iPhone cameras positioned throughout the venue, Apple reported that the broadcast will deliver the pristine video quality fans expect, alongside dynamic new perspectives that bring viewers closer to the action, made possible by the small form factor of iPhone.

The move to capture an match entirely on iPhones builds on extensive work by Apple TV in using the smartphones for production.

Apple TV first incorporated iPhone into a live sports broadcast workflow during a September 2025 “Friday Night Baseball” matchup between the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers.

During that game it used iPhone 17 Pro to capture select moments from the game and cinematic in-stadium footage. The milestone production earned recognition from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which added an iPhone used in the broadcast to its permanent collection.

iPhone 17 Pro features three 48MP Fusion cameras, offering the equivalent of eight lenses in a compact form factor and pro-level video features like Apple Log 2 used for this weekend’s broadcast.

Following strong fan response to the “Friday Night Baseball” production, Apple expanded the use of iPhone across additional sports broadcasts, including the MLS Cup in 2025. It then further integrated the technology into the regular production rotation for “Friday Night Baseball” and MLS broadcasts throughout the 2026 season.

This Saturday’s LA Galaxy vs. Houston Dynamo FC match marks the next leap forward: the first live professional sporting event captured entirely on iPhone. Fans can see the results by tune in to Apple TV at 7:30 p.m. PT to see iPhone 17 Pro in action.

Chyron is introducing PRIME Scorebug, a purpose-built scorebug solution suitable for any sport. Built on the company's PRIME Platform, PRIME Scorebug offers Chyron broadcast-grade graphics along with ease-of-use,, flexibility and unparalleled data integration. Additionally, Chyron LIVE now offers a SaaS scorebug with purpose-built scorebugs and specialized controls as part of its all-in-one workflow.

“In working closely with our sports customers across all tiers, it is clear that the scorebug is the most important graphic element of any live sports production. Scorebugs are not ‘just another graphic.’ They have to be highly dynamic and accurate, and enhance the viewer experience,” said Steve Papadakis, senior vice president of sales, Americas, at Chyron. “Our product offerings are always evolving, and are always based on our customers’ priorities, regardless of whether in the cloud, on-prem, SaaS, subscription or perpetual licensing.”

Key features of PRIME Scorebug include intuitive operator control orchestration, complete API-based data integration, and client-specific choreography.

Since PRIME Scorebug is built on the PRIME Platform, creative teams can easily apply the same assets to scorebugs that they use for all their live graphics overlays, ensuring efficiency and brand consistency, Chyron said. PRIME Scorebug and PRIME CG offers the additional advantage of redundancy, since a single system could be configured to run both the scorebug and CG graphics. Alternatively, organizations may elect to lower costs by investing in a single system to run both PRIME Scorebug and PRIME CG with a single operator.

“Prior to today’s official release, several key customers have successfully put PRIME Scorebug through its paces in real-world sports events and now use it on a regular basis,” states Mark Friedman, vice president of sports sales, North America. “From my career in graphics and design for professional sports broadcast, to the commercial conversations I have now with broadcasters and regional sports networks, I know this is an unbeatable solution for scorebugs. We take the simplicity of specialty scorebug products and blend that with the power of PRIME graphics to offer an ideal solution.”

Scorebugs have also been added to Chyron LIVE, which typically serves lower-cost broadcast needs by offering SaaS all-in-one camera switching, graphics and replay. A primary segment for Chyron LIVE is mid- and lower-tier collegiate sports, one-off events, and large organizations or events that may need to occasionally scale up from their existing control-oom capacity. Recognizing that scorebugs play an important part in the visual storytelling and data display for these audiences, Chyron LIVE now includes purpose-built scorebug graphics, data integration services and dedicated scorebug controls, according to the company.

“Sports audiences across all tiers are more sophisticated and demanding than ever before,” says Friedman. “At Chyron, we ensure that broadcasters of any size can exceed viewer expectations, attract sponsors and advertisers and keep costs low with efficient workflows.”

For more information, visit chyron.com.

PITTSBURGH—NEP Group has launched Supershooter 11 and Supershooter 65 expanding its mobile production fleet and reinforcing its commitment to delivering flexible, customer-driven production solutions.

“We’re investing in the future of live production—one that is more connected, flexible and scalable than ever,” said Mike Werteen, president of NEP Americas and NEP Group’s global chief commercial officer. “These launches reflect our continued commitment to delivering one of the most advanced and versatile fleets in the industry.”

Supershooter 11 is the latest addition to NEP’s U.S. fleet of more than 50 mobile units supporting customers coast-to-coast. It continues the specialized line of Supershooter units that provide a standardized, familiar environment for streamlining workflows across productions.

Built for premium, large-scale events, the unit is powered by NEP’s Total Facility Control (TFC) broadcast control system and features a fully IP-based infrastructure supporting 1080p and HDR production.

The unit debuted in April supporting golf’s first major championship of the year and will next support the 2026 FIFA World Cup this summer. Supershooter 11 will then support multiple clients before it becomes a core facility for the NBA on NBC.

Supershooter 65 expands NEP’s REMI-focused fleet, enabling remote and distributed production workflows that reduce onsite footprint while increasing efficiency and scalability. The unit is already supporting major broadcasters, including Turner Sports and Major League Soccer.

Together, these additions reflect NEP’s strategy to build a full-spectrum fleet to ensure its customers have the right infrastructure for every production—from the largest global events to highly efficient REMI workflows.

The new units are part of NEP’s ongoing investment in innovation and fleet development, including a commitment to introduce multiple new mobile units each year. Additional investments this year include HDR upgrades across the fleet, the deployment of more than 100 new Sony HDC-5500 cameras, new builds supporting customers, including WWE, and an upcoming production expansion unit.

“We’re committed to introducing new mobile units each year, building up standardized NEP solutions aligned with our clients' needs. We’re also decommissioning some units with a broader focus on building a complete ecosystem that supports every production model—from rightsholders and streamers to leagues and federations,” said Werteen.

“By investing across our fleet of major event IP facilities, field acquisition units, software solution, and core media infrastructure, we’re enabling our customers to produce live content however they need.”

This approach is further supported by the recent launch of NEP Platform, a next-generation software orchestration system designed to enable more agile, hybrid workflows. Supershooter 11, Supershooter 65 and other new NEP mobile units are designed with the flexibility to integrate with NEP Platform, enabling scalable software capacity as production needs evolve.

More information is available on the company’s website.

(Editor's note: Michael Davies will be the featured speaker during tomorrow's TVTech Talk webinar on sports production. He will discuss Fox Sports' preparations for Indy 500 and 2026 FIFA World Cup coverage. Register here to attend.)

SPEEDWAY, Ind.—The crash involving drivers Alexander Rossi, Pat O’Ward and Romain Grosjean during Indianapolis 500 Qualifying Monday once again demonstrated to race fans what in-car cameras bring to coverage as driver view shots from inside O’Ward and Rossi’s cars gave viewers the closest experience they’ll ever have to a smashup at more than 200 mph.

Those shots, however, are only one of multiple different in-car angles viewers can expect May 24 during Fox Sports’ coverage of the 110^th running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

New for this year’s race coverage from the cars are what the broadcaster has dubbed “Top Gun” cameras, miniature RF cameras pointed at drivers in the cockpit, and what it is calling a Buckeye Camera mounted on the rear quarter panel of Indy cars.

“Inspiration for our ‘Top Gun’ camera comes from some of the films about racing,” said Michael Davies, Fox Sports executive vice president of technical and field operations. “F1: The Movie was a fantastic inspiration to see what we could do, and our director [Mitch Riggin] thought of how to get this amazing shot of the driver’s head looking straight on.”

The addition of the rear quarter panel camera brings another angle to engage the audience with new views of racing and pit action, he added.

“There’s just a lot of inspiration that goes into figuring out how to not only get the cameras that show you the X’s and O’s and the strategy, but also the emotion of it—the kind of thing you might see in a cinematic production,” said Davies.

These two new camera angles join the Racing Force micro-cameras embedded in drivers’ helmets at eyeline for Driver’s Eye shots, which Fox Sports used during its inaugural Indy 500 coverage last year and which captured yesterday’s qualifying round crash in such detail, as well as on-board forward and rear hoop angles and sidepod and suspension views.

To augment the Driver’s Eye shots, Fox Sports will key on its heads-up display (HUD) telemetry, including throttle, brake gear, speed and other key data.

(Editor’s note: Live coverage of the Indy 500 begins at 10 a.m. EDT on Fox. The green flag drops at 12:30 p.m. EDT. Coverage is also available via Fox One and the Fox Sports App.)

By The Numbers

Production of the Indianapolis 500 is a massive undertaking—not only in terms of the technology used to cover the race from the 1,000 acres Speedway property, but also the number of people in attendance. About 350,000 people are expected, including 235,000 in the stands, 100,000 in the infield and about 12,000 workers.

To capture the race, Fox Sports will deploy cameras at about 70 positions around the Speedway to supply more than 100 camera fees. Ten cameras will run at up to 240 fps 4x HFR to deliver what the broadcaster is calling “cinema-grade” slow motion. Fourteen RF handheld cameras and six pit-box cameras from NEP Broadcast Sports International (BSI) will provide roaming shots. The broadcaster will also provide some 30 ISO replay channels from five EVS systems.

Fox Sports is producing the race in 1080p HDR with a crew of about 200 production personnel, some of whom have worked on the IndyCar tour for decades. It will distribute its show in 4K UHD.

Drones and Digital Cinema

Fox Sports is adding a third drone to its airborne complement of cameras for this year’s race. Beverly Hills Aerials, which the broadcaster has turned to for major tent pole events, including NASCAR and IndyCar races, is providing the drone camera platforms and piloting them.

“The thing about Indy is it’s just vast,” said Davies. “To get around very quickly on the track, there’s no real substitute for utilizing drones. Motorsports is one of those sports that lends itself to using drones for actual coverage of the sport, not just beauty shots.”

The three drones and a Helivision helicopter will provide first-person view (FPV) shots, aerial coverage of pre-race events and shots of “some of the more histrionics” of the day at the Brickyard, he said.

The use of drones has evolved over time. While Fox Sports will not fly drones of the track during races, drones have become safer with the addition of features like parachutes and other safety equipment that not only ensure safety but make it legally allowed to fly over people, he noted.

“Certainly, from where we were a few years ago, the drone space and the flexibility in how they are used have opened up, and IndyCar has been a fantastic partner in understanding the importance of drones in the coverage and the overall presentation of the of the product,” Davies added.

For its Indy 500 remote studio show, Fox Sports is deploying more than 10 ARRI digital cinema cameras specially outfitted by The Helm to eliminate operational complexity and enable the broadcaster to integrate them into its live production pipeline, he said.

“We've been convinced these cameras have some interesting properties that can help us in terms of light tolerance and the ability to dial up and down a shallow depth of field, depending not just on the look we want but also because there may be things we don’t want viewers to see,” said Davies.

On-Site Production

As with its coverage of last year’s race, Fox Sports again is partnering with Indy Motor Sports (IMS) Productions, which has rolled its HD-5 IP-based mobile production unit to the speedway. The broadcaster is augmenting HD-5’s capabilities with Game Creek’s Ovation mobile unit, which also serves as Fox Sports’ flagship truck for NASCAR coverage.

NEP BSI, which provides end-to-end, turnkey RF and microwave services for race coverage, has brought a truck to the track as well, as has CE+T, which is providing Fox Sports with power. The broadcaster will use about 2 MWs of power, including primary and backup, across the production compound and its remote sets.

Infinite Structures has also built temporary remote offices and broadcast facilities for the production crew. In all, Fox Sports is deploying 12 mobile units for race coverage.

These units make this year’s Indy 500 a rather “old-school” remote production setup, “but it’ll probably be the last one,” said Davies.

“One of the things we saw when we came in to do our first year of IndyCar was that besides Indy itself [the Indianapolis Motor Speedway], there was virtually no other tracks that had the fiber need to even consider doing distributed production,” he said.

Over the past year, Fox Sports has worked with Lumen Technologies to outfit IndyCar tracks with the fiber optic infrastructure needed to support distributed production. “Indy has always been the outlier in that respect because they always had it [fiber] there,” said Davies.

Even though there are some 20 miles of fiber optic cable is in place around the speedway, “we wanted to sort of crawl, walk and run on this, and didn’t sink too many resources into distributed production methods,” he said, adding that next year will be different.

Remember The Future

Distributed production isn’t the only thing Fox Sports is teeing up for next year’s Indy 500 race coverage. Managing RF cameras more efficiently is also planned. “We’re testing a lot to see what we can bring back, maybe not in terms of the number of cameras, but rather in a more intelligent way,” said Davies. “Even if you were able to bring back five cameras from a car—whether it’s an IndyCar or NASCAR—I’m not sure what you’d be able to do with all of that.”

How those remote camera signals are managed is only one part of the next generation of the connected car, however. Radio and location technology are others, he noted.

Currently, Fox Sports relies on SportsMEDIA Technology for GPS location data and is looking at how it is evolving. “Whether it’s NASCAR or IndyCar, we only have two channels of audio coming back from the cars. We need more.”

All of these sources rely on RF connectivity, and Fox Sports is working with Verizon on using a private 5G network to augment that.

“We’ve been working with Verizon to help understand what their technology can do,” said Davies. “You know, the interesting part is that if you’re going to test something and it has to work at the biggest events, then it’s absolutely essential to bring a testing environment into the Indy 500, because if it doesn’t work there or at the Daytona 500 or Talladega, then it doesn’t work.”

SAN FRANCISCO—Fox’s free streaming service Tubi has launched the 2026 FIFA World Cup Fox Hub as a destination for fans and unveiled plans to simulcast live in 4K the FIFA World Cup 2026 opening ceremonies and two matches: Mexico vs. South Africa on Thursday, June 11, and U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) vs. Paraguay on Friday, June 12.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup Fox Hub on Tubi is free, requires no subscription and is available across connected televisions, mobile devices and web now and throughout the tournament.

“Nearly a century ago, the World Cup was born out of a desire to bring the world together through sport,” said Deirdre Hesseldieck, senior vice president of product at Tubi. “That mission has never been more relevant, and technology has never been better positioned to extend it. The FIFA World Cup Fox Hub is Tubi’s contribution to that legacy: a free destination designed for a seamless fan experience, where viewers can easily navigate from live coverage and highlights to creator commentary, player interviews, and expert predictions. We built it so fans never lose the thread.”

The 2026 FIFA World Cup Fox Hub is accessible directly from Tubi's home page and offers such content as:

• Live broadcasts of the opening ceremonies and two matches: Mexico vs. South Africa (June 11) and USMNT vs. Paraguay (June 12)
• Cutdowns, highlights and select replays
• Recaps of the tournament’s best goals, saves, and plays
• A 24/7 feed that includes a combination of Fox Sports’ live digital original programming and best-of-show highlights from the day
• "Destination World Cup 2026" charts the highs and lows in the lives of elite players Weston McKennie (USMNT), Marc Cucurella (Spain) and Harry Wilson (Wales), as they navigate their individual journeys leading up to the tournament.
• “The Other Football” follows Fox Sports’ Rob Gronkowski and Jameis Winston as they take on a new crash course during this weekly vodcast series airing throughout the 2026 World Cup. Each episode will be packed with special guests, pop culture highlights, and lots of comedy. Come along as Gronk and Jameis turn themselves (and America) into diehard soccer fans before the tournament is over.
• Premium Sports Entertainment
• “Twenty Twenty Six” (BBC) is a six-part comedy series starring Hugh Bonneville, who reprises his role as Ian Fletcher to provide a satirical look at the behind-the-scenes chaos of organizing an international soccer competition.
• “Summer of '94” (Fox) chronicles the underdog journey of the 1994 USMNT, a squad that defied the odds on home soil and helped ignite America's love for the sport.
• “Alexi Lalas' State of the Union” (Fox Sports) delivers in-depth analysis of every match throughout the tournament, led by former USMNT player and Fox Sports soccer analyst Alexi Lalas alongside his co-host, soccer guru David Mosse.
• A trio of Fox Sports roundtables (Fox Sports) gathers some of the most influential figures in soccer ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026™, including former USMNT’s coaches and players, to preview the tournament’s highly anticipated return to North America this summer.
• “Deestroying The Pitch” is a high-energy competition series where YouTube sensation Deestroying assembles soccer’s most passionate fans from this year’s host cities and puts them head-to-head in intense 1v1 matchups to prove whose pride, skill and style truly reign supreme.
• “Jesser's Ultimate Kick Off” follows Jesse “Jesser” Riedel and friends as they take on soccer challenges, ranging from scoring goals to competing against increasingly difficult defenders; available exclusively on Tubi.
• “How to Win the World Cup” (talkSPORT) breaks down soccer's biggest tournament with the people who have actually won it, like Emmanuel Petit and Kléberson alongside greats including Stuart Pearce and Brad Friedel, all hosted by award winning comedian Matt Forde.

LOS ANGELES—CBS LA has concluded a new multi-year agreement with the Los Angeles Rams that will make it the NFL team’s official hometown television partner in the Southern California market and provide it with exclusive rights to air preseason games and other programming.

More specifically, the agreement brings exclusive local broadcasts of Rams preseason games to CBS LA, along with a slate of weekly year-round programming, including a coaches show featuring head coach Sean McVay and original Rams content available exclusively across CBS LA platforms.

In addition to game coverage and weekly shows, the partnership also establishes a joint year-round collaboration focused on community initiatives serving Southern California.

“With nearly 90 hours of news and sports programming every week, CBS LA is uniquely positioned to deliver more Rams coverage than any other media outlet in the market,” said Tim Wieland, regional president and general manager of CBS LA and CBS Colorado. “This partnership is about serving fans, celebrating Los Angeles and extending our shared commitment to the community. We’re proud to once again be the Home of the Rams.”

The agreement marks a return for the Rams to CBS LA.

“CBS LA partnered with us in 2016 when we returned to Los Angeles and helped reintroduce our organization to this city,” said Los Angeles Rams president Kevin Demoff. “We are thrilled to once again team up with CBS LA to bring fans closer to Rams football through our preseason games and exclusive content year-round. This partnership will enable us to deepen our connection with Angelenos through CBS’ dynamic programming as well as shared efforts that will make an impact on the community we all call home.”

When most people talk about artificial intelligence (AI), they usually mean Generative AI (GenAI). While this has brought a great deal of flexibility and freedom to video, audio and text creation, it is also responsible for a substantial amount of ill-conceived or poor-quality material. This has not only sullied the reputation of AI but also overshadowed the potential of a more practical form of the technology, agentic AI.

More of a background technology than GenAI—which has also been around a lot longer, the modern iteration being formalized between 2014 and 2017—agentic AI is less generally known, even though it began to appear around three years ago. The crucial difference between the two is that while GenAI reacts to prompts or triggers to create content, agentic AI is intended to autonomously establish and control a function or situation.

AUTONOMOUS WORKFLOWS
In the context of broadcasting, agentic AI is regarded as key to the development of applications—known as “agents”—to run specific technical tasks, such as monitoring, dealing with system faults or failures, and manage a variety of functions across production and distribution chains.

"Unlike GenAI, which creates content on demand, agentic AI orchestrates entire content workflows autonomously," explains Stephanie Lone, global leader of solutions architecture, Media and Entertainment, Games and Sport at AWS. "This means systems can coordinate complex multi-step processes without constant human intervention at each decision point."

The basis for this, Lone adds, is multiple "specialized agents" working together proactively to natural language requests. This combination—and simultaneous operation of applications— forms the basis of systems from other developers, including Witbe's Agentic SDK, which was launched in February this year. Intended as a "test automation framework" to run and scale monitoring, testing and validation over video workflows, Witbe chief executive Mathieu Planche describes it "a suite of different agents" designed to automate test processes.

"Test automation used to be a script that people had to develop," he says. "We have moved away from this manual process into something that is, while not human-less because we still have [a] human to control what the Agentic SDK is doing, but it's a process that is largely simplified."

The first of the agents in the suite is Test Designer, which was developed to understand the testing strategy of the video service being analyzed and then write test cases based on that. "Agentic AI technologies can observe inputs, plan… actions and do most of the heavy lifting in different workflows that are otherwise taken care of by people," Planche adds.

As with previous methods of automation, the developers of agentic AI systems are quick to emphasize that the aim is not to replace human operators. Fares Birke, principal practice lead for Applied AI at Qvest, comments that the goal is to enable people to "work better, faster and with fewer interruptions" by automating tasks that are either repetitive or require a lot of coordination.

"Agentic AI is about achieving outcomes, while GenAI is primarily about creating outputs – text, audio, video—in response to prompts," Birke says. "This makes agentic AI far more relevant for complex media environments where speed, reliability, compliance and coordination matter as much as creativity."

‘ENRICHED METADATA’
Agentic AI-based systems are now proliferating in the broadcast sector for a variety of applications. These include: searches of archives, transcripts and live feeds; managing ingest, logging, review and delivery; triggering MAM, newsroom, post-production and distribution systems; and ensuring operational and editorial rules. This can be seen in the number of recent system launches, including ThinkAnalytics' ThinkMetadataAI. Launched at IBC 2025, with a U.S. debut at last month’s NAB Show, it uses agentic AI to automatically create "enriched metadata" for content catalogs.

ThinkAnalytics co-founder and chief technology officer Peter Docherty comments that over the past 20 years the company had focused on deep metadata enrichment for personalization and viewer engagement but in the last three to four years has moved into targeted advertising.

"A lot of agentic processes enable automation and operational efficiencies that weren't there before," he says. "That's obviously quite different from GenAI because agentic AI helps streamline operations. What we've done with our Metadata AI is combine GenAI with Agentic and other capabilities to automate processes that were previously manual. This enables huge automation at scale but with intelligence behind the decision-making."

At the NAB Show last month TVU Networks showcased “TV Cortex,” a service that uses Agentic AI to aggregate and manage the audio and video content used to create news stories. TV Cortex has the power to act autonomously and purposefully to achieve an outcome independently of our interaction with it. In theory, operating this way may involve less “human shading” of events and more factual coverage.

According to TVU Networks President Paul Shen, TV Cortex is intended to augment human productivity, not to replace it. If used effectively, the system frees up producers and editors to focus more on the creative aspects of news production, like crafting compelling stories and providing more human context.

“TV Cortex leverages agentic AI, deploying a hierarchy of master and subordinate agents that dynamically scale to handle the volume and complexity of incoming stories,” Shen said. “These agents automate the retrieval, categorization and scoring of stories based on factors such as recency, relevance, market size and customizable editorial priorities.”

KEEPING QUALITY—AND THE TRUTH IN CHECK
A crucial area of broadcast and streaming distribution that has undergone a high level of automation and streamlining in recent years is compliance and Quality of Service (QoS) monitoring. AI—and agentic in particular—is now offering the potential to take this further through new systems such as Bitmovin's Observability, which was introduced last October.

"We're leveraging AI in different areas of our product range, including the Observability product for looking at sessions, playback, QoS metrics, root cause analysis and error debugging," explains Jacob Arends, product manager for playback at Bitmovin. "AI is really good at summarizing data, for example, so we are using that in our Observability products to make it easier for customers to understand complex datasets [and] what actually went on in a session."

In the last year or so, doubts have arisen surrounding GenAI chatbots, especially with systems “hallucinating”—basically making things up— or just agreeing with a question. Because compliance monitoring is a crucial failsafe in the broadcast distribution chain, there can be no such doubts; any automation technology must be 100% trustworthy.

"Our Agentic SDK is not creating bugs within our customers' platforms," states Witbe's Mathieu Planche. "They detect errors and flag them for people to review and analyze. Then people decide if they are escalating them internally or if they just discard it."

As for the future, Planche acknowledges that agentic AI technology for broadcast is still "new for everyone" and that media control rooms, staffed by operators, are "not going away right now."

At AWS, Lone observes that the potential for Agentic AI in media production "is massive" but says the broadcast sector does have to be careful with it. "The industry still needs to establish strong guardrails around data governance, transparency, content provenance and responsible automation practices," she comments. "Once these are firmly in place, companies can have more confidence in AI-driven decisions and feel comfortable deploying the technology on a broad scale."

Standards and oversight are absolutely necessary for such an autonomous technology as agentic AI could be. But, right now, the broadcast sector appears to be weighing up whether there is already enough automation in key processes or if these new agents are the key to more efficient and fault-free operations.

DETROIT—The Detroit Pistons have announced a new local media television rights agreement with Scripps Sports beginning with the 2026‑27 NBA season. The deal returns Pistons basketball to local free, over‑the‑air television for the first time since 2005

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The agreement is part of an ongoing push by Scripps to expand its sports programming. Notably, the deal is Scripps’ eighth with a major professional league franchise and its first with an NBA team.

In addition to the Pistons, this lineup includes: WNBA (Las Vegas Aces), NHL (Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, Vegas Golden Knights, Utah Mammoth, Nashville Predators) and NWSL (Denver Summit).

Under the agreement with the Pistons, WMYD TV20 Detroit, owned and operated by The E.W. Scripps Company, will become the official local broadcast home of the Detroit Pistons. TV20 Detroit will produce and air all locally available pre-season and regular season games.

Fans will be able to watch games for free via over‑the‑air television as well as through participating cable and satellite providers in Detroit, the Detroit metro area and the state of Michigan.

Scripps, which operates both TV20 Detroit and WXYZ (Detroit’s ABC affiliate), said it will pair WXYZ’s award-winning local news leadership with TV20 Detroit’s broadcast platform to deliver comprehensive Pistons coverage for fans throughout the market.

“This partnership with Scripps Sports is an exciting moment for the Detroit Pistons,” said Arn Tellem, vice chairman of the Detroit Pistons. “Basketball has always been deeply woven into the fabric of our city, and we’re proud to expand access to our games. We look forward to partnering with Scripps to deliver outstanding broadcasts and programming that reflects the energy, pride and passion of Detroit.”

“Over-the-air broadcasting has proven to be one of the most powerful ways to connect sports teams with their fans,” said Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports. “As we are seeing right now, the fandom around the Pistons is high and every fan deserves to have access to Detroit Pistons games. Scripps Sports is proud to partner with the Pistons to deliver their games to more fans than ever before – because the best team in the East deserves the best broadcast platform in the NBA.”

As part of the partnership, the Pistons and Scripps Sports will produce comprehensive game‑day coverage, including pregame, in‑game and postgame programming. The agreement also includes a weekly, half‑hour Pistons show, along with original team‑focused content integrated across broadcasts and digital programming across Scripps’ family of channels.

Netflix has announced a major expansion of its NFL coverage in 2026 and beyond, with additional games, holidays, rivalries, and more starting in Week 1 and continuing through Super Bowl week.

Under the expanded Netflix and the NFL’s four-year deal that runs through the 2029-2030 season, Netflix offer five games, beginning with the first regular season game live from Australia featuring the Los Angeles Rams vs. the San Francisco 49ers. Then it will stream its first Thanksgiving Eve matchup (the Green Bay Packers vs. the Los Angeles Rams), two games on Christmas Day and a game in Week 18 during the 2026-2027 season.

Netflix will also rights to stream the NFL Honors during Super Bowl week in 2027.

The news continues an ongoing shift of games to streaming that has prompted some calls from the Federal Communications Commission, President Trump, Congress and broadcasters to protect consumer free access to games.

Netflix’s NFL games in 2026 will be available in over 200 countries around the world. These games will also be available on local, over-the-air broadcast television in the respective team markets.

In addition to the on-field action, Netflix will also stream the NFL Honors globally, showcasing the league’s annual awards presentation the week of the Super Bowl.

During its 2026 Upfronts presentation, Netflix also announced that starting in 2027, Netflix’s ads plan will expand to 15 new countries, including Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Indonesia, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and Thailand, giving members more affordable plan options and advertisers more opportunities to reach our audience.

Amy Reinhard, Netflix’s President of Advertising said, “we’ve got cutting-edge technology, we’ve got great entertainment across shows, movies, podcasts, and live events, and we’ve got the most engaged and attentive audience. We’ve proven we’re effective, and now we’re expanding ads to more places and we’re ready to compete with anyone.”

Netflix with ads now reaches more than 250 million global monthly active viewers. These viewers are deeply engaged: over 80% of ads members are actively watching every week.

The presentation Netflix also announced a number of improvements to its ad-technologies.

It is expanding programmatic capabilities to Pause Ads and Live using our Dynamic Ad Insertion technology. Clients can now buy both via their preferred DSP partner, making campaigns even more targeted and personalized. These will be available this summer in the US and Canada, and other countries by the end of this year.

In addition, it is enabling programmatic audience targeting for all ad-supported countries on Amazon DSP by June 1 and Yahoo DSP in the months to follow. And, it is expanding optimization tools for advertisers, including the ability to maximize conversions and outcomes to deliver the best possible results for Netflix buys.

It also stressed that it continues to expand its AI-capabilities for advertisers.

The streamer said it is now offering AI-driven tooling to develop and optimize media plans based on brands’ objectives, and are testing AI agents to manage, optimize, and purchase ads on Netflix.

In addition, it is leveraging AI to adapt existing advertiser assets so they look great in different canvases across the service – like vertical video ads or pause ads.

Last year, Netflix began using AI to marry advertiser ad creative with the shows, films, and worlds that are popular with its subscribers. It recently tested those capabilities with DoorDash, Target, and TurboTax, and have significantly improved the quality and execution. It is now bringing this capability to every ad-supported region by the end of the year.

MONTREAL—Grass Valley has announced that U.K.-based systems integrator dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass that feature Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras and K-Frame production switching technology.

The trucks will be used for live sports production across the UK.

Designed for high-end sports broadcasting, the compact, fast-deploy OB units combine UHD, HDR and high-frame-rate production capabilities with a modern IP-based infrastructure. The trucks support centralized production operations and evolving remote and distributed production models, enabling Cloudbass to deliver premium-quality coverage across top-tier football and major live sporting events.

The deployment features 32 Grass Valley LDX 150 native IP camera systems, delivering the imaging performance, operational flexibility and Native-IP connectivity required for premium live sports production. The cameras support SMPTE ST 2110 workflows directly from the camera head and are designed to help production teams transition efficiently to scalable live production environments.

The project also incorporates Grass Valley’s Creative Grading tools to support centralized camera shading workflows, alongside K-Frame production switching capabilities as part of the overall live production architecture.

“Sports broadcasters and production providers are increasingly looking for ways to expand UHD and HDR capabilities while maintaining operational efficiency and flexibility,” said Mark Gardner, senior vice president of sales, EMEA at Grass Valley. “These new Cloudbass trucks demonstrate how native IP production, centralized shading workflows and scalable live production technologies can be combined in a compact environment built for the realities of modern sports production.”

The new units feature fully IP-based workflows and are designed to support remote operations, dynamic configurations and evolving broadcast requirements. The integration was led by dB Broadcast, a long-standing Grass Valley partner with extensive experience in complex broadcast systems integration.

“This project was about delivering a future-ready IP architecture without compromising the operational practicalities of live OB production,” said Mike Bryan, technology director at dB Broadcast. “By standardising on Grass Valley’s LDX 100 native IP camera platform, Creative Grading and K-Frame technologies, we can provide Cloudbass with a consistent production environment from acquisition through to live production switching.

Supporting around 15 cameras per truck, including UHD and HDR high-speed production workflows, the new units are optimized for long-term sports production contracts while maintaining the flexibility required for evolving sports production workflows.

Grass Valley will be showing these and other solutions at booth B55 at MPTS at Olympia London on May 13–14, 2026.

BOSTON—CBS Boston has inked a deal with the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) to televise weekly live games this summer beginning June 27 on WSBK-TV.

Weekly broadcasts of the Cape Cod Baseball League Game of the Week will air Saturday at 7:00 p.m. on WSBK-TV, with six games scheduled through Aug. 1, including coverage of the league’s All-Star Game on July 18. Each broadcast will be preceded by a 30-minute pregame show, Inside the Cape League, at 6:30 p.m.

The Cape Cod Baseball League is widely regarded as a top collegiate summer baseball league. It features top collegiate players from around the country competing exclusively with wooden bats. The list of alumni who transitioned from "The Cape" to "The Show" includes some of the greatest names in baseball history, such as Frank Thomas, Carlton Fisk and Thurman Munson, as well as current stars Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwarber and Paul Skenes.

“With this partnership, CBS Boston brings elite summer baseball to viewers across the region while highlighting one of the most respected leagues in the sport,” said Johnny Green, regional president and general manager of CBS Boston and CBS New York. “We are proud to bring excitement to fans while strengthening our ties to communities across the region.”

“We are incredibly excited to partner with CBS Boston to bring the magic of the Cape Cod Baseball League into homes across New England this summer," said Andrew Lang, president, Cape Cod Baseball League. "This agreement represents a significant milestone for our league, allowing us to showcase the world-class talent on our diamonds to a broad audience. Fans can look forward to seeing the unique atmosphere and tradition that makes the Cape League so special, while generating greater visibility of the best college baseball players in the country."

Under the agreement, the CCBL will provide a fully produced broadcast, and CBS Boston will serve as the exclusive local linear television broadcaster of Cape Cod Baseball League games in the Boston market.

SAN JOSE, Calif. and NEW YORK, NY—Roku has announced that it will be the North American streaming home for the inaugural Enhanced Games on May 24.

The Enhanced Games are an elite sports competition that aims to celebrate athletic excellence while exploring the limits of human performance with scientific innovation and medically approved performance enhancement usage.

The first-of-its-kind sporting event, available for free on the Roku Sports Channel in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Hosted by former NFL player and sports media star Emmanuel Acho, the Enhanced Games will also feature documented longevity expert Bryan Johnson as a Human Enhancement Analyst.

Participating athletes include the legendary Hafþór Júlíus “Thor” Björnsson, known for his role as “The Mountain” on “Game of Thrones,” British Olympic medalist Ben Proud, American Olympic medalist Fred Kerley, and Olympic weightlifter Boady Santavy. Olympic gold medalist swimmer Hunter Armstrong of the U.S. and sprinter Tristan Evelyn of Barbados will also take on the field as non-enhanced athletes.

The Enhanced Games will take place in a purpose-built 2500-seat venue on the grounds of Resorts World in Las Vegas, with swimming, sprinting, and weightlifting events occurring in one arena. Las Vegas’ own The Killers are set to headline the closing ceremonies.

“We look forward to bringing Roku users across North America the excitement and energy of this one-of-a-kind competition,” said Joe Franzetta, head of sports, Roku. “Congratulations to Enhanced Games on their inaugural event, and we’re excited to work together to bring this live event to millions of viewers.”

“As a new and innovative live sports property, we are ecstatic to have Roku as our official North American partner,” said Maximilian Martin, CEO of Enhanced. “Roku provides us immense reach and helps establish a solid foundation as we aim to revolutionize sports with our inaugural event.”

The Enhanced Games endeavor to ensure the athletes’ safety through rigorous medical supervision and scientific oversight. Athletes have been monitored under an approved clinical trial for 16 weeks while training in the UAE. All athletes have the autonomy to compete either naturally or through the Enhanced Medical Program (clinical trial). For more details, see www.enhanced.com.

The Enhanced Games is a Van Wagner production in association with Lionsgate Alternative Television.

WASHINGTON—The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is applauding a resolution adopted by the 50 state broadcasters associations, along with the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, urging Congress to reexamine the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to preserve broad fan access to sports programming as more games move behind streaming paywalls.

“Across the country, broadcasters are standing with fans frustrated by the rising paywalls and growing confusion surrounding live sports,” NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said. “For generations, free, over-the-air broadcast television has brought Americans together for the games that define our communities and our culture. That access should not depend on a household’s income, broadband connection or ability to juggle multiple streaming subscriptions.

“[The] Sports Broadcasting Act was enacted nearly seven decades ago to govern the relationship between major sports leagues and the nation’s broadcast networks, which were and remain freely available to all Americans,“ LeGeyt added. “More than six decades later, Congress should examine whether today’s increasingly fragmented sports marketplace is still serving fans…Policymakers should put fans first and ensure that the future of sports distribution preserves broad access through free, local broadcast television.”

NAB noted that the resolution reflects growing concern that sports programming is increasingly fragmented across exclusive digital platforms, forcing fans to purchase multiple subscriptions, maintain reliable broadband access and navigate a maze of services just to follow their favorite teams. The broadcaster group called on Congress to assess whether these evolving distribution practices are covered under the law, serve the public interest and preserve broad fan access to sports programming.

The unified action from state broadcasters’ associations also comes amid rising bipartisan scrutiny of sports rights deals that move games away from free, over-the-air television and an ongoing Federal Communications Commission probe into sports rights.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr and policymakers have expressed concern about rising costs and increasing confusion for fans as games that were once easy to find become scattered across paid apps and exclusive streaming services.

NAB said it continues to engage with policymakers to emphasize the enduring value of broadcasting as a free, local and trusted platform for live sports and other essential programming.

About one month out, the behind-the-scenes work that makes coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup possible is beginning to swing into high gear.

One critical component is the coordination of limited spectrum to support all of the wireless mics, IFBs, cameras and other devices used to bring matches to a worldwide audience that’s expected to reach nearly 6 billion people.

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission designated Sinclair vice president of spectrum policy and engineering Louis Libin as special frequency coordinator and RF spectrum manager for the 2026 FIFA World Cup (June 11-July 19).

In this Q&A, Libin discusses the challenges of coordinating RF use at the 11 World Cup venues in the United States, the effect of having President Donald Trump as chair of the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026 on frequency coordination, an ongoing effort by the North American Broadcasters Association to establish a point person at the FCC for spectrum use during special events and which procedures World Cup-approved broadcasters must follow at the venues.

(Editor’s note: In an email after the interview, Libin said requests for frequency and entry into the FIFA RF portal, as well as answers to questions about the RF schedule, should be directed to Juan Morales, head of spectrum for FIFA, at juan.morales@fwc2025.org.)

(An edited transcript.)

TV Tech: Louis, the World Cup is being played at 11 U.S. venues. You’ve been the FCC-designated frequency coordinator for many major events over the years, but 11 different venues has to be a unique challenge. How are you approaching those challenges?

Louis Libin: I work with the people who are going to be at the venues. There’s a structure created. Any kind of RF problems are handled by a local manager who deals with the frequency coordinators. If a problem needs to be escalated, then a regional manager gets involved.

Hopefully, we have an organization in place that will work sort of automatically. We tried something like this for the FIFA Club World Cup tournament last year.

TVT: To what degree will the local Society of Broadcast Engineers frequency coordinators be used in this structure?

LL: I don’t know the exact numbers, but about half.

TVT: Fox has the broadcast rights to the World Cup in the U.S. I am guessing the biggest share of frequency coordination will be devoted to managing the spectrum needs of all of the media coming from around the world to cover the event.

LL: That’s correct. It's interesting because frequency coordination at the same stadiums, where football games are played, is tight. But it’s not as tight as it is for an event like the World Cup or an Olympics.

There’s so much planning that’s done beforehand [for those events] that there’ll be no what we call “Game-Day Coordinators,” like for the NFL. There will be no game-day coordination happening. There’s game-day enforcement and game-day stickering of equipment that’s already approved.

It’s a little bit of a simplified RF coordination process. I don’t want to say it’s easier. Nothing’s easy. But it’s done beforehand, and it's done very formally.

It works out because there is so much going on at the event itself. For example, the one I’m closest to is at MetLife Stadium [renamed New York New Jersey Stadium for the World Cup].

I can't even tell you how many [channels will be used], for two-way communications, IFBs. It’s an unbelievable number of pairs and single 450 [MHz] and 455 [MHz] channels, almost every one is in use. And I’m able to reuse them, even though it’s just across the water from the city [the stadium is in East Rutherford, N.J., some 10 miles the Hudson River from New York City]. But I’m able to successfully reuse them, and a lot of it has to do with aiming antennas away from the city.

TVT: That crowded RF environment—and others around the country where the World Cup is being played—must require Special Temporary Authorizations from the FCC. Is getting STAs for coverage for the different venues difficult?

LL: It’s very difficult. But the STA process is a little bit easier for us because of the involvement with the administration. We have the president, who is chairing the World Cup. [President Trump is chair of the White House Task Force on the 2026 FIFA World Cup, not the chair of FIFA.]

TVT: Does that trickle down to making your life a little easier?

LL: Well, what it trickles down to is the FCC wanting to make sure that what we do goes through speedily. So, it’s very good.

It’s interesting because I’m working with NABA [the North American Broadcasters Association] as well.

We have a new project: To work with the FCC to get an office of special events. I would love that, but it won’t happen. That literally requires an act of Congress—you know, the cliché—but it does require an act of Congress.

So, what we’re trying to do is work with the commission to get a point person at the FCC for special events. And we're having a lot of luck [with] the OET [the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology] because it really transcends many, many bureaus.

STAs come from all over the place. They can come from wireless [the Wireless Bureau], from all over the place.

So—and this has nothing to do with the World Cup—the FCC is very, very cooperative. It’s not an official proceeding yet. But why wouldn’t they want to make it easier for us as well as easier for themselves?

They put in some very interesting ideas. For example, they would like data to be collected, so that they’ll learn more about events. So, the next time there’s an event, we don't have to start from scratch. I thought that was a great idea.

TVT: So this will not be an office. How do you think it will be structured?

LL: Right, it won’t be an office. It will be a process. I’m not even sure which office it will be with. But it’ll be a process where the bottom line is we’ll have a number to call, and we’ll have a person to talk to.

If there’s a challenge, if there’s a problem, if on event day somebody needs to do something, there’s a number to dial.

I love this because we have this in other countries. You know, in the U.K., in Canada, it’s a much simpler process that’s geared towards events and temporary use.

TVT: Can you describe how some of these event-day problems arise?

LL: You know, when we apply for STAs, there are actually a few different ways of applying, and it might be experimental, even though it’s not always exactly experimental.

This could be a great way of, No. 1, educating people and, No. 2, having everyone go through the same process.

Today, I could go to an event and there could be three different STAs that came through three different [FCC] bureaus, and we won’t know about it.

TVT: That’s surprising.

LL: People can show up with equipment that’s licensed on some kind of, let’s say, experimental [use STA], but not from OET, and I wouldn’t even know about it.

TVT: So just to be clear, you said this new role at the FCC would deal with the authorizations related to special events like the World Cup or the Olympics, but not more regular sorts of events such as a Sunday NFL game.

LL: No, it could be that, too. I’m not speaking for the NFL or any other league. But for example, this weekend there’s a NASCAR race at Watkins Glen, N.Y. [Sunday, May 10] or next week the PGA Championship. That’s going to be in Philadelphia, but typically a golf event or even NASCAR racing is in an area where there’s not much RF.

All of a sudden, it becomes a mini RF city. That’s how much RF there is. So, I would say that for golf events, for NASCAR, for racing events and all these kind of events where you wouldn’t necessarily think [there’s RF congestion], it could be a big help because of where these events are located.

Sometimes you go to the Daytona 500, and you’re 100 yards from the Daytona International Airport.

TVT: Getting back to the World Cup, I imagine the amount of RF congestion will vary dramatically from venue to venue.

LL: There's definitely a difference between venues. They’ll pose their own challenges. You know, Seattle is varying terrain. You know that is good and bad.

Miami is Miami, and so it’s flat. Signals go forever over there. That also means you’re receiving a lot of signals. You go to MetLife Stadium, and you’re looking straight at the transmitters from the city. They’re all big challenges, but each one is unique.

TVT: To what degree has LTE and 5G relieved some of the congestion for video that traditionally was transmitted on Broadcast Auxiliary Service (BAS) channels in general and specifically as relates to the World Cup?

LL: We’re still at the beginning of it, and it’s still a challenge and it still doesn’t have the same reliability right now. In other words, it’s still emerging, but I could see it coming more and more into use.

But even the COWs [Cell on Wheels], when they come to a temporary event, have to be set up. You would expect them to be set up, and everything is great.

We’ve found that oftentimes, including at recent events, they have different challenges themselves. They set up in one location. Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile [COWs] are within 100 feet of each other. That’s kind of not great.

That said, they all have their links that are attaching them to someplace else—on 3.9 GHz, for example. Are they as clean as they should be? Well, they should be because they are specific to them.

Did they mount their antenna in the right direction? That’s never perfect, and it’s only a temporary event. So, we often have to live with that. It’s not terrific. And that impacts the reliability of those systems operating in the cellular bands.

I have a feeling that all of the new Wi-Fi—in the 6 GHz and 7 GHz bands—coming in now are encroaching on the massive amounts of wireless microwave channels that broadcasters use for events. I’m not saying that in an FCC/legal manner, but I feel they are encroaching.

There’s only a limited amount of shifting and playing Jenga with the channels that we can do. Eventually, something’s going to have to give and unfortunately, Wi-Fi is going to win, because it’s ubiquitous.

TVT: What do broadcasters who have followed the procedures to use spectrum at World Cup venues have to do when they arrive on-site? Do they check in? What is the procedure?

LL: When they get into the venue, if they're already approved—and they would have a piece of paper that says they’re approved to get inside the venue—then they come in through one entrance where they’ll follow signs.

There will be a desk and a couple of people. The frequency coordinator and another person will check equipment and put approved stickers from FIFA onto equipment.

If they’re not approved, or if a foreign broadcaster comes in, then they can stay in the parking lot and use their wireless mics. Nobody can stop them.

But if they are approved to get inside the venue, they’ll follow signs to the desk.

TVT: You have a lot of experience serving as the FCC-designated frequency coordinator for major events. If you look back over the political conventions, sporting events and other major events covered, has coordination gotten any easier over time?

LL: No, RF coordination is becoming more and more complicated because everything is wireless now and everybody wants to be wireless for everything.

The only thing that is helping in terms of frequency coordination is that many ENG crews are now using Wi-Fi/2 GHz devices. That’s a big help.

RALEIGH, N.C. & NEW YORK, N.Y.—PlayMetrics, a major provider of operations management software for youth sports organizations, has completed its acquisition of substantially all the assets of SportsEngine from Versant Media Group, Inc.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The transaction includes SportsEngine's full suite of software and payments products, including its club, league, tournament, and studio management platforms.

Prior to the spinoff of NBCUniversal spinning off its cable networks into Versant in early 2026, SportsEngine had been part of NBC Sport Next.

"PlayMetrics has redefined what technology can do for youth sports — and this acquisition accelerates that mission further and faster than we could before,” said Mike Doernberg, CEO of PlayMetrics. “SportsEngine customers can expect the same great service they rely on today and will gain access to the full depth of technology offerings PlayMetrics has built. Our goal is singular and we won't stop until we've achieved it: build the best platform for youth sports operators.”

The addition of SportsEngine strengthens PlayMetrics' capabilities as a comprehensive operating system for clubs, leagues, tournaments, and governing bodies, expanding its services across the youth sports segment and bringing new organizations and users onto its platform, the companies said.

SportsEngine provides scaled technology and services to simplify and grow youth sports. Its portfolio of software offerings includes SportsEngine HQ for club, league, and team management; SportsEngine Motion for studio and class-based sports; SportsEngine Tourney for tournament management; SportsEngine Play for live and on-demand video and training content; and SportsEngine AES for volleyball competition management.

Ropes & Gray acted as legal counsel and LionTree Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to PlayMetrics. Gibson Dunn acted as legal counsel and Lazard acted as exclusive financial advisor to VSNT.