Women’s World Cup: As the U.S. Women chase a repeat World Cup title, the team at Fox Sports is on a path to repeat as well. In May, Fox Sports took home a Sports Emmy for “Outstanding Transmedia Sports Coverage” — referring to their ability to tell a single story experience across all platforms. A much deserved honor for their work covering the 2018 Men’s World Cup across all their platforms (FOX/FS1/FoxSports.com). Two weeks into the Women’s World Cup and it’s clear, much like team USA, Fox Sports will be hard to dethrone — presenting a well rounded attack across all platforms.
The Fox Sports daily lineup throughout the Women’s World Cup includes pre/post-game and late night wrap up shows on broadcast TV, and a daily 5pm(ET)/2pm(PT) show, Women’s World Cup NOW, that streams live on Twitter. The end result is a singular story across all platforms and what feels like a non-stop supply of content.
Team USA opened their World Cup action with a 13–0 take-down of Thailand. A dominate victory that stole headlines across the country after a contingency felt the U.S. players disrespected their opponents by celebrating too much after goals 6 through 13. It brought about the tournaments first major storyline and yielded a textbook example of why Fox Sports received recognition for their transmedia approach. Each show invited their audience to engage in the discussion and then carry that audience and storyline onto different shows throughout the day. It was talked about on their Twitter livestream…
… and then the conversation continued on some of their linear broadcasts. With all debates being clipped and shared across social and available on-demand at FoxSports.com.
Want some quantitative data on the success of Fox Sports’ approach to storytelling? The numbers never lie. Fox Sports PR team released stats after the U.S. played their first game and reported record numbers. Noting that daily viewership for their Twitter livestream was up 49% from the 2018 Men’s World Cup. What plays into that success is the Fox Sports team leveraging their great access to the U.S. national team. Like bringing one of the teams stars, Megan Rapione, on set and having her react to questions tweeted from fans/viewers.
Each day of the tournament Fox Sports sources social media like the digital water cooler it is — everyone is included in the discussion. Highlighting diverse perspectives to help tell the most accurate and authentic story across all their platforms. Countless examples to highlight, from “Turning up the AC” with questions from fans, to partnering with girlsinc.org for a good cause through their #JuggleChallenge. There’s no stoppage time when it comes to Fox Sports World Cup Coverage.
The action on the pitch is proving that new technology doesn’t always make things better, just look at VAR (Video Assistant Referee)*YIKES* — But it can. Fox Sports is boosting their coverage with innovative and interactive storytelling across all platforms, linear, livestreams and digital. To that, I give a hat tip to their hat trick of transmedia storytelling.