Fox has signed up key sponsors for its coverage of the Women’s World Cup soccer tournament.
Fox’s World Cup Live is being presented by Verizon, World Cup Today by Volkswagen and World Cup Tonight by Hotwire.
The halftime sponsor is Coca Cola. And there will be an activation by Visa, which is one of the official sponsors of FIFA.
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With the strong American women’s team expected to have a deep run, sponsors are expecting the World Cup to attract a large and engaged audience, said Daniel Cohen, senior VP of media rights at sports agency Octagon.
Related: Women's World Cup on Fox, Telemundo
“I think that it's going to be massive. The Women's World Cup and what Fox and Telemundo have put behind this effort is unprecedented. And I think that we're also at a crossroads in both society and within the sports industry that women's sport has really taken a new place on the stage,” Cohen said.
“A lot of it depends on the the on-field success, but if you look at just ratings from last Women's World Cup, they blew away the men's games,” he said..
Last year for the men’s World Cup, Fox was disappointed when the U.S. men’s team failed to qualify.
For the women’s World Cup, viewers should tune in to see the powerhouse U.S. women’s team, which is favored to last deep in the tournament.
With Fox, and Telemundo both creating more programming on more platforms, “there's going to be more engagement, more impressions, more audience delivery than they've ever had before,” said Cohen, who said Octagon clients including Hyundai, Budweiser, Johnson & Johnson, MasterCard and LinkedIn have invested in the World Cup and are activating not just in the U.S., but globally as well.
Four years ago, the Women’s World Cup generated $40 million in ad revenue for Fox. That amount grew from lower initial estimates as the U.S. team advanced to win the title.
Telemundo sponsors including Boost Mobile, Coca Cola, Comcast (which owns Telemundo), DishLatino, L’Oreal Paris, Mazda, Vagisil, Verizon and Volkwagen have all worked with the Comcast-owned Spanish-language network to create special experiences for fans who will be following the Copa America tournament as well as the World Cup.
Telemundo has sold sponsors on “Summer of Soccer” packages that include both the Women’s World Cup and coverage of the Copa America tournament as well.
Since last year, Fox has increased the number of matches that will be seen on the broadcast network to 22 from 16 four years ago. Another 27 matches will appear on FS1.
Fox is pumping out 800 hours of cross-platform coverage, including the two daily TV studio shows.
Fox also has a relationship with Twitter, creating a show, Women’s World Cup Now, that appears only on the social messaging service.
