Behind the Scenes of FIFA World Cup 2026™: A Journey with FOX Sports across North America

By David Ureña Gomez, Head of Customer Success, North America

Producing 104 matches across North America

Across the globe, the FIFA World Cup™ is one of the world’s most-watched sporting events, with the Final being the most-watched of all. For FIFA World Cup 2026™, FOX Sports selected Appear’s X Platform for the production and contribution of all 104 live matches, over 39 days, in 16 host cities across Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

FOX Sports announced the Spain-Argentina Final drew 38.937 million viewers, including a peak of 51.685 million, setting the record as the most-watched English-language soccer telecast in U.S. history, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Leading customer success for FOX Sports

Supporting an event of this scale was one of the most significant milestones in Appear’s history, and perhaps the most important project the company has delivered. That work formed part of Appear’s wider support across the tournament for PSSI Global Services, Vivaro, Chilevisión, ClaroVTR, and Pixop. Serving as Head of Customer Success and leading Appear’s post-sales and support organization in the United States, while acting as the primary point of contact for FOX Sports, represented both an extraordinary challenge and a unique opportunity. My responsibility was to coordinate customer support, operational readiness, and rapid issue resolution throughout the tournament, helping deliver the reliability required for an event of this scale.

The contribution network

FOX Sports’ core production infrastructure was distributed across PICO in Los Angeles, the International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Dallas, and multiple host cities where the venue kits were deployed. To provide comprehensive on-site support throughout the tournament, FOX Sports chose PICO, the IBC, and SoFi Stadium as the locations for Appear’s leadership presence. The contribution network consisted of 60 JPEG XS TR-07 paths from the IBC to PICO, in addition to all venue contribution feeds used for pre- and post-match programming. A further 26 HEVC contribution paths connected the IBC to PICO, supporting the overall production workflow.

Deployment at a glance

Element	Detail
Event	FIFA World Cup 2026 — 104 matches, over 39 days, 16 host cities
Coverage	Canada, Mexico, and the United States
Platform	Appear X Platform — production and contribution
Core sites	PICO (Los Angeles), IBC (Dallas), venue kits across host cities
On-site leadership	PICO, IBC, SoFi Stadium
Contribution paths	60 JPEG XS TR-07 (IBC to PICO), plus all venue feeds
Additional paths	26 HEVC (IBC to PICO)
Support model	24/7 across North America and Oslo, rotating on-call, third-line from Los Angeles and Oslo

Preparing before the tournament

My role began well before the tournament. I supported the installation, integration, and commissioning of all venue kits at the Las Vegas staging facility, where our Pre-Sales team and I configured all Appear frames deployed across the IBC and host venues using our API and a dedicated automation script. Once the systems were commissioned and shipped, my focus shifted to operational readiness throughout the event, coordinating post-sales activities and providing technical leadership to maintain reliable operation across every location.

On-site leadership at every key location

Ahead of kickoff, Appear established simultaneous on-site leadership at PICO in Los Angeles and the IBC in Dallas, allowing us to support the first end-to-end tests between Host Broadcast Services (HBS), the Appear deployment at the IBC, and the Appear infrastructure at PICO. For the United States’ opening match in Los Angeles, our on-site presence expanded to include PICO and SoFi Stadium. As Head of Customer Success, I coordinated the deployment of our North American Customer Success team, assigning engineers across these critical locations while I led the operation from the IBC and later SoFi Stadium.

A 24/7 support model across two continents

Our commitment extended beyond on-site support. To provide continuous coverage during the tournament, I established a 24/7 support model combining our North American and Oslo teams. This included a rotating on-call schedule, third-line engineering support from our Los Angeles office and headquarters in Oslo, and the relocation of key Software and FPGA R&D engineers from Norway to Los Angeles. Having our development teams operating in the same time zone as the event enabled close collaboration on critical issues and, when required, rapid software and FPGA development. Here is how our third-line support engineers described the experience after the tournament.

“Being part of the team supporting the FIFA World Cup™ was a unique and rewarding experience,” said Mohamed Ismail, Senior FPGA Engineer. “As R&D engineers*, it was especially valuable to see firsthand how our products are deployed and used in a real-world production environment. Visiting FOX Sports at PICO showed us how our products fit into a live production workflow, from JPEG XS contribution feeds to the final broadcast. Working side by side with colleagues in our Los Angeles office also highlighted the value of close collaboration across Engineering, TSS, and Support, enabling faster investigation and resolution of customer issues. It was exciting to contribute behind the scenes to one of the world’s biggest sporting events and to see the direct impact of our technology in such a demanding broadcast environment.”

Why on-site presence and remote access mattered

Being on site, combined with secure remote access to every Appear deployment throughout the tournament, was one of the key factors behind the success of our support operation. Having engineers embedded alongside the customer helped us better understand the production workflow and respond rapidly when issues arose, while strengthening the partnership we built with FOX Sports. Supporting an event of this magnitude required close teamwork and coordination across Customer Success, Pre-Sales, R&D, and the customer’s operational teams. In addition, having remote access to every deployed system enabled us to monitor, troubleshoot, and assist without delay. Beyond its operational benefits, it reflected the confidence FOX Sports placed in our team and in the way we deliver customer support. That trust was instrumental in enabling us to provide a high level of service throughout the tournament.

A partnership from commissioning to the final

This success would not have been possible without the dedication, expertise, and collaboration of everyone involved across PICO, the IBC, and the field teams. I believe that working together from commissioning through to the final match builds the kind of strong partnership that makes a real difference on projects of this scale.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone at FOX Sports across all locations, my Customer Success team, our Pre-Sales engineers as well as Sales representatives, and the Software and FPGA R&D teams in Oslo, along with those who travelled to Los Angeles and supported us throughout the tournament. This is an experience I will never forget, both because of what we achieved together and because I had the privilege of watching my home country, Spain, lift the FIFA World Cup™ trophy here in the United States. I am already looking forward to the next opportunity to work alongside FOX Sports on another world-class event.

*World Cup R&D Team – Espen Næss, Jomar Brudeli, Gonçalo Carvalho, Emil Alan Pierzgalski, Adelina Ghindaoanu, Jørgen Henriksen, Steinar Andersen, Håkon Standal, Thomas Stenseth, Hans Ingeborgrud, Vegard Seim Karstang, Loan Guilbaud, Harald Bjelbøle Furuseth.
**World Cup NA Team – Ed McGivern, Quent Hanna, Geoff Bowen, Chris Parker, Sarah Boes, Sanjay Sharma, Tyler McGivern, Frank Li, Brian Dullaghan,