By Martin Petty
SANTA CLARA, California, July 1 (Reuters) - A 104-match, 39-day World Cup held across three countries might be a heavy slog for the players, but spare a thought for the broadcasters.
The North American World Cup has smashed records with its revenue and reach, with over 100 different networks delivering soccer's showpiece to 223 territories, and FIFA anticipating more than six billion media engagements, a billion more than in 2022.
And the work going into cross-platform coverage of the expanded
48-team tournament is enormous.
Among the unsung heroes are match commentators, who are shuttling between the 16 host cities, each game requiring hours of meticulous homework to tell the stories of each team and player to audiences of millions.
For BBC commentator Steve Bower, the scale of this World Cup is a challenge on a level he's not experienced in three decades of broadcasting.
"This tournament is crazy," Bower told Reuters after the latest of the nine games he's covered so far across six cities and two countries.
"The number of teams, the volume of matches, the travel, the different nations ... this competition has tested our skills in new ways."
PINK BOOTS AND PERMUTATION PUZZLES
New challenges include identifying players, with commentary positions high up in giant NFL stadiums and players wearing the same fluorescent pink boots.
Focus amid drama is critical, Bower said, especially for simultaneous matches and fast-changing group stage permutations, made trickier by the new format's qualification provision for best third-place finishers.
Behind the composed and authoritative delivery are occasional nerves from the necessity to keep the audience on top of the big picture, and make big calculations under pressure.
"Experience helps you handle those situations better but the responsibility remains," Bower said. "The adrenaline gets you through the broadcast, but there's always a degree of nervous energy."
The four time zones, additional 16 teams and 40 matches mean host nation broadcasters have had to up their games — on an unprecedented level.
U.S. Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo has World Cup studios in Mexico City, Miami and New York, 80 on-air personnel, 1,400 production staff plus reporters and dozens of cameras in 16 cities.
Canada's Bell Media, which operates TSN, started preparations in 2023 and has sets in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, a team at FIFA's broadcast mission control in Dallas and multiple crews to maintain staying power in a 39-day marathon.
Shawn Redmond, its VP of sports, said as co-hosts, the World Cup was probably the biggest media event Canada has ever seen.
"It's a tremendously logistics-heavy operation," he said. "There's a responsibility and an obligation that we take seriously to get it right and do right by Canada."
'BEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE'
U.S. network Fox Sports broke its World Cup audience records with an average five million American viewers per group-stage match, up 92% from the Qatar World Cup.
Fox has gone big with 12 former top players as studio analysts and nine commentary pairings covering the 104 games.
Among those are Darren Fletcher and former England player Owen Hargreaves, a double act known for bright on-air banter, who are based out of Dallas, jetting back and forth to Toronto, Guadalajara, New York, Houston and Atlanta.
Fletcher, who also works with Britain's TNT Sports, adapts his commentary style for different audiences and prioritises identifying the eventualities and framing the relevance of each match.
Preparation is crucial, as is making constant improvements, which he does by watching re-runs of all his matches, scrutinising each commentary line.
"I try to concentrate, know all the eventualities as the big games start. I'm a fan like anyone and I'm likely to cock it up as much as anyone else is," Fletcher told Reuters.
"You've got to be across it. There's nothing genius about it."
Players' name pronunciations can be a headache, so Fletcher prepares phonetic spellings in his extensive pre-match notes, which he prints and laminates.
"Someone once spilled a drink all over my notes — they were unreadable," he said. "So now I'm prepared for that."
For all the challenges, BBC's Bower considers himself among the lucky few who witness football's big moments first-hand.
"I genuinely believe it's the best job in the world," he said. "I never complain."
Fletcher says the same, especially with so many fans marginalised by the World Cup's soaring ticket prices.
"We've got the best seats in the house, watching the World Cup next to my mate — it's more than you could ever ask for," he said.
"When you cover games, you're being invited all the time into strangers' living rooms. That's an honour for us. We're privileged and it's such a buzz."
(Reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Ken Ferris)
