FIFA Women’s World Cup Preview: Telemundo Deportes’ Eli Velazquez on Connecting Host Nations Via Roaming Studio Talent, Programming From Miami

All 64 matches will be televised live across Telemundo and Universo and streamed live on Peacock

Building on the success of the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Qatar, Telemundo Deportes is finalizing production and operations plans for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Two and a half months from the opening two matches, which will feature New Zealand vs. Norway at 3 a.m. ET and Australia vs. Ireland at 6 a.m. ET, the network is anticipating another stellar tournament. Telemundo Deportes EVP, Sports, Eli Velazquez sat down with SVG to discuss how the network planned for the upcoming tournament during the competition in Qatar, how the two host nations will be linked through studio coverage, how the team will overcome more than 14 hours of time difference, and more.

Telemundo Deportes’ Eli Velazquez: “All the moves that we’ve made demonstrate that we believe in this sport, we believe in the game, and we think it has arrived.”

How did you and your team plan for Australia/New Zealand while focusing on the FIFA Men’s World Cup in Qatar?
The reality with all of these events is that we plan them parallel [to each other]. This one in particular provided an interesting challenge because we haven’t had a World Cup spread out between two countries since Japan and South Korea in 2002. We had to ask ourselves how we would approach this from a reporter-deployment perspective. We realized we weren’t going to be able to do what we did in Qatar since [the action] won’t be as concentrated as it was in Doha, but we want to do something innovative that can connect with fans socially. My emphasis is on the Women’s World Cup, but, believe it or not, I’m already thinking about 2026. Interestingly enough, this tournament will provide me with a case study for how we go about planning for 2026.

How will operations for this tournament, being played in two countries, be executed?
We came up with this cool idea of amplifying the host’s role in the execution. We’ll have four hosts — Ana Jurka, Carlos Vizmanos, Miguel Gurwitz, and Carlos Yustis, who’s out of our San Jose[, CA,] station — and we’re actually going to have them roam. That way, we can highlight the best of these countries from a cultural-tourist perspective while also following the top matches and create constant movement in the coverage. In Qatar, it made sense to be centrally located in the Souq, with crowds in the background, because of the nature of that event: I knew that the majority of fans coming to the country would want to go to that location. In this tournament, I decided to move against that idea by not creating a fixed position. You’ll see smaller set pieces to accompany them, but we won’t have a full studio set in front of a particular iconic location in either country. We’ll have one support location in our headquarters in Miami, so we’ll have Zona Mixta again on the weekends. We’re also going to have one studio position in Miami to complement the roaming hosts for prematch, halftime, and postmatch analysis.

Will a certain set of cities be featured?
Yes and no. We’ll have a defined path [of cities] where the talent will go on a particular day based on the importance of the match that’s relevant to our space and our audience. We’re focusing primarily on Team USA since we’re the [Spanish-language] media-rights licensee for the country, but we’re also going to follow countries like Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, and Spain like we did for the FIFA Men’s World Cup. We’re going to give you enough of everything by following each of these teams’ progress throughout the tournament. If it takes us to Wellington, we’ll be in Wellington, but, if it takes us to Auckland, Sydney, or Brisbane, we’ll be there. This will be a new thing for us, so I applaud my team for coming up with this overall concept. [Telemundo Deportes SVP, Sports Content,] Roberto Pardo and [SVP, Sports Content Operations,] Chris Suarez-Meyers have worked really hard on this plan.

Will the drastic time difference be a factor in operations?
We look at the spread of matches, the dates, the logistics, the countries, the cities and say, “What’s going to tell the best story, and how are we going to convey the most excitement to the viewers who are staying up in different time zones?” I believe that the core fans of the sport will show up no matter what, but we’ll work with other divisions within our organization to create highlights and recaps of matches that someone may not have stayed up into the wee hours to watch.

We’ll have segments to help us promote the night matches, and, based on the success we had with Peacock for the last World Cup, we’ll stream everything on that platform and have on-demand opportunities for people to catch up. The real key for us is making all of our content accessible: for the first time in Spanish-language history, we’ll have all 64 matches on a linear network, with 33 matches on Telemundo and 31 on Universo. The 33 matches on Telemundo are the most in the history of the Women’s World Cup for an over-the-air broadcast network, regardless of language. All the moves that we’ve made to make it accessible is to demonstrate that we believe in this sport, we believe in the game, and we think it has arrived.

The United States Women’s National Team is vying for its third consecutive title. Do high expectations change the way the team is covered?
I think it’s an opportunity more than a challenge. We’re very proud to be the official home of U.S. soccer in Spanish language for both men’s and women’s national teams. That affords us an opportunity to work directly with the national team to have more-intimate coverage of their path towards this three-peat. I think [that pursuit for another trophy] is going to help us with our storytelling and take our coverage behind the scenes, which will benefit our viewers. We want [the team] to make it as far as they can, and, hopefully, they’ll be in the final. If they play as well as we know they can, everything will coalesce in the end.

You recently took on overall direction of Telemundo Deportes. As the first major production in your new role, what will this World Cup mean to you?
I’m glad it’s this one because I’ve worked very hard in my career, worn many hats, and performed numerous roles over the last 30 years. I never thought I’d be in this particular position, and I’m humbled and proud that I am, but I think it’s analogous to the growth of this sport in this country. Whether it’s athletes, managers, owners, broadcasters, or media-rights licensees, it’s a sport that people have worked really hard to grow in this country at different levels. Everyone has wanted this sport to get to the point that it’s at right now. When it relates to us at Telemundo Deportes, I’m excited that this is the event that the team I manage will be executing as our first production under my leadership.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.