Industry leaders said that the worldwide viewing audience for the World Cup final “could exceed 1.5 billion.” Verizon SVP/Global Solutions Daniel Lawson, during a World Cup panel at the Connected America 2026 event at the Irving Convention Center, said the World Cup will “likely be the most-watched sporting event in the history of the planet, the most-watched live event in the history of the planet.” Lawson said if viewers “don’t notice us, then we’ve done a great job.” He added, “It should be an invisible experience.” Inside the Fox Sports’ offices in L.A. is a “countdown clock in the lobby marking the preparation time left until the World Cup kicks off.” Fox has been using “proactive monitoring for a few years to try to anticipate a degradation in signal and move it to an ‘alternate path’ ahead of the viewer ever noticing.” Fox Sports VP/Field Operations & Engineering Kevin Callahan said that they have “backup to survive even a ‘drunk fan cutting what they think is a rope that ends up being our fiber going back into the broadcast compound.’” Callahan: “We are hopefully prepared for every scenario, but every scenario has a different backup contingency” (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 4/17).
Industry leaders prepare for expected huge World Cup viewership
