Fox Sports to build FIFA Women's World Cup broadcasting studio at Jack Poole Plaza

Dec 19 2017, 11:09 pm

Fox Sports is building a two-storey temporary building at Jack Poole Plaza for their television set to cover the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.

The intricately-designed studio will be located at the elevated deck on the northern tip of the plaza, where the Olympic Cauldron is also situated, to provide broadcasts with a striking waterside mountain view of Vancouver.

The set will be erected and operational in time for the June 6 opening match between Canada and China in Edmonton. It will remain there throughout the tournament, until the sold-out July 5 championship final held at B.C. Place Stadium.

In addition, Fox Broadcasting Company will host free live public screenings of some of the Women’s World Cup’s 52 matches between 24 national teams on a large projector screen built into the exterior of the set.

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During the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the Vancouver Convention Centre was transformed into the International Broadcast Centre and Main Press Centre for 10,000 accredited media personnel from around the world. American Olympic broadcaster NBC considered building a similar temporary set at Jack Poole Plaza, but the network ultimately decided to have their studio inside the convention centre.

However, the convention centre is not slated to reprise its role as a broadcasting facility. While Vancouver will be the nexus hub of the Women’s World Cup’s production work, the International Broadcasting Centre is slated for the grounds of Concord Pacific Place at northeast False Creek, next to B.C. Place.

An 81,000-square-foot trailer park will be assembled at the site later this month to accommodate a number of rights-holding broadcast networks and nearly 500 staff.

Television ratings for the 2015 event are expected to grow considerably, largely due to the increase in the field of competition since 2011 Germany when there were just 16 teams and 32 matches.

More than half a billion people around the world are expected to watch broadcasts of the Women’s World Cup held across Canada and over 60 million people will watch the championship final in Vancouver.

About 750,000 of the 1.5 million tickets to the matches held at six Canadian cities have been sold. A total of nine matches will be played in Vancouver, and tickets are still available to all matches except the championship final.

Fox is the American television rights holder of all FIFA events from 2015 to 2026. CTV also holds the Canadian rights for the same period.

DH Vancouver StaffDH Vancouver Staff

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