FOX Sports and Tagboard Innovating in the Cloud with Multi-Year Relationship Expansion

The Summer of Soccer (UEFA Euro 2024 & CONMEBOL Copa America 2024) is underway, and with it comes continued productions from the team at FOX Sports. With content production in high gear, FOX Sports has renewed a three-year relationship with Tagboard. A fitting stage, as this collaboration began six years ago with the 2018 FIFA Men’s World Cup, and a mission to better engage a global audience of avid viewers. Since the summer of 2018, the relationship has grown massively, enhancing broadcast storytelling through real-time social media content and powering data-rich cloud graphics across every screen in the FOX Digital Studio. This includes utilization across all linear and digital FOX Sports properties, FOX Deportes, and the Big Ten Network.

The renewed deal enables FOX Sports’ US productions to fully leverage Tagboard’s Next-Gen Cloud Graphics platform, driving workflow efficiencies behind the scenes and engaging visual elements on screen across daily programming, supporting a robust library of live sports rights, and global tentpole events. 

Unleashing the FOX Sports Content Machine Through Production Efficiency

The Tagboard platform has been a bit of a secret production weapon in FOX Sports’ coverage, spanning multiple World Cups, the MLB Postseason, FOX NFL Sunday, Big Noon Kickoff, and thousands of digital shows. In 2023 alone, FOX utilized Tagboard across more than 1,000 live shows and is now tripling down with the product and team for Copa America, Euros, upcoming Super Bowl, Daytona 500, Indy 500, and future World Cup coverage. 

What started as a two-click workflow to bring social content live on-air for sports coverage has developed into an all encompassing graphics solution for the FOX Digital Studio. It bolsters shows like Bears Bets, State of the Union, Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour and multiple other productions with millions of viewers. The product enables teams to quickly collaborate and test new content possibilities, like the “Caitlin Cam” on TikTok live, which garnered universal industry praise. The foundation of the partnership will continue to feed big ideas with aggressive goals executed across the largest stages in sports.

“We are relentless in our daily pursuit to deliver a differentiated experience for sports fans” states Michael Bucklin, Senior Vice President of Digital at FOX Sports. “While our efforts are nothing short of ambitious, the speed and efficiency afforded to us along with the depth of program elements provided by Tagboard, empower our team to execute their creative vision with precision, resulting in record-breaking live content volumes and viewership.”

The collaboration has played a role in multiple awards across Emmy, Webby, Cynopsis, and Hashtag Sports. This includes a Sports Emmy win in 2018 for Outstanding Trans-Media Sports Coverage of the World Cup and a nomination for Outstanding Interactivity in 2023.

The user-friendly workflows of the Tagboard platform, automated design integrations, and cloud control room capabilities, which have enabled FOX Sports producers to collaborate on content production with teams separated by as far as 8,000 miles in some cases, are all at the core of unlocking new speeds of production for the teams at FOX Sports, the Big Ten Network, and FOX Deportes.

“With an intuitive interface and seamless integration with top technologies like Adobe and AWS, we’ve taken our storytelling to new heights in sports broadcasting,” states Rich Briant, Executive Director and Head of Studio Operations for FOX Deportes. “We are constantly strategizing for a competitive edge to produce high quality and high-volume content that resonates with our audience and the result is scalable and sustainable production workflows.”

All Eyes on Continued Innovation and Collaboration

As FOX Sports prepares for its coverage of major upcoming events such as UEFA Euro 2024 and CONMEBOL Copa America 2024, MLB Postseason, and NFL and College football in the Fall, the partnership with Tagboard will continue to play a crucial role in enhancing the viewer experience.

“The best partnerships are true collaborations, and that’s what we’ve established over the first 6 years working with FOX Sports,” says Tagboard CEO Nathan Peterson. “Our teams challenge each other technically and creatively to push the boundaries of creative excellence. I’m both honored and proud to see this relationship grow as we continue our shared commitment to innovation in sports broadcasting.”

“Our platform has seen major upgrades over the last several years, including automated integrations from Adobe, Sportradar, and AWS,” says Tagboard Chief Product Officer, Christine Chalk. “Many of those upgrades have come as a result of direct feedback sessions and consistent collaboration with the FOX Sports team. We build with a user-first mindset, so whether you’re an industry vet or a college intern, anyone can jump into our platform and produce elevated and engaging sports coverage.”