Fox Sports, the sports arm of the US national television network that holds rights to soccer’s premier national teams tournament the FIFA World Cup until 2026, has extended its content partnership for the competition with the social media platform Twitter.
The new deal will cover the upcoming 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar (November 21 to December 18) and the 2023 Women’s edition in Australia and New Zealand.
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It builds on previous collaboration between Fox Sports and Twitter for both the 2018 men’s tournament and the 2019 women’s tournament.
Through the agreement, the two will work together to deliver near-real-time match highlights (including every goal of the tournament) original content, weekly live analysis on Twitter Spaces, interactive Q&As with Fox Soccer personalities, and hand-curated Twitter moments, among other content, via the @FOXSports and @FOXSoccer accounts.
Video clips published on those accounts will be made available for advertisers to sponsor through both Fox and the Twitter Amplify program.
Fox acquired the rights to the World Cup in 2011 when it outbid ESPN for the 2015-22 cycle, after which it extended its deal with FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, in 2015.
TJ Adeshola, head of US sports partnerships at Twitter, said: “We are excited to work with Fox Sports to bring the biggest moments from the men’s and women’s FIFA World Cup to Twitter. For the first time ever, fans will be able to join Twitter Spaces to hear all about the games, bringing them closer than ever to the action in Qatar, Australia, and New Zealand.”
Michael Bucklin, senior vice president for digital content at Fox Sports, added: “Fans will be watching all the World Cup matches live on Fox, Fox Sports 1, and the Fox Sports App, discussing every moment as it happens on Twitter.
“We want to be there with them, fostering interaction in tried-and-true ways like match highlights, but also new and inventive ways like Twitter Spaces. It’s great to work on this collaboration with Twitter who shares in our mission in being ‘live’ and setting high watermarks for World Cup coverage on social.”
