WBD Sports Bring Cabled Aerial, Live Drone to Its First Ever On-Site Production of SheBelieves Cup
Nearly 20 cameras were deployed at six matches as USWNT secured its sixth SheBelieves Cup
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The U.S. Women’s National Team secured its sixth SheBelieves Cup on Wednesday, caping a tournament that, for the first time in its seven-year history, was produced by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports and carried live on HBO Max and TNT.
Warner Bros Discovery Sports produced live match coverage over the past week as the U.S. Women’s National Team won the SheBelieves Cup. (Photo: Kristian Hernandez, SVG)
WBD Sports utilized RF Steadicams, a pitch-side studio desk (for pregame and halftime shows), and microphones on select players and coaches to establish a more intimate feel in its first foray producing USWNT match coverage.
“From Day One, it was about capturing the passion, the emotion, and national pride of the US women’s team,” says Lee Estroff, Director, Technical Operations for WBD Sports. “We are committed to giving fans at home access and to being loyal to the sport and its true followers.”
The weeklong tournament visited three venues, bringing WBD Sports to Exploria Stadium in Orlando (Feb. 16), GEODIS Park in Nashville (Feb. 19), and Toyota Stadium in Frisco, TX (Feb. 22).
The broadcaster brought on the Orlando-based packager Broadcast Service Group to help handle operations, logistics, and crewing for the SheBelieves Cup broadcasts. WBD Sports has also brought on veteran American soccer talent to help bring consistency and legitimacy to its first foray into the sport. That has included turning to some veteran soccer talent including producer Shaw Brown and director Jim Daddona, as well as lead tech manager Matt Martin.
Game broadcasts featured as many as 18 game cameras, including a live drone (at the final game in Frisco; a first for a U.S. Soccer match in the States), a two-point cabled aerial camera, two super slow mos, and Pole Cams behind each net (which also could be used to provide slow motion replay looks). In addition to live shots provided by the drone, WBD Sports also pre-produced a fly-through of Toyota Stadium, which is also home to the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
Alex Morgan scores her 121st USWNT goal in style 🚀
Watch USWNT vs. Brazil on @hbomax pic.twitter.com/Li5G6zghrO
— B/R Football (@brfootball) February 23, 2023
Back in March of 2022, the U.S. Soccer Federation struck a deal with then-Turner Sports to give TNT/TBS and HBO Max the exclusive English-language rights to more than 20 Women’s and Men’s National Team matches each year. That deal officially went into effect when the calendar turned to 2023. In January, WBD Sports carried USWNT games played in New Zealand, but simply took the clean feed from the host broadcaster. The first on-site soccer production in the company’s history (Turner Sports was a previous rightsholder of the UEFA Champions League but was not responsible for the production of those live games) came on January 25 when the U.S. Men’s National Team played Serbia at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
The addition of soccer to the portfolio is an exciting one for Estroff and the WBD Sports crew.
“Its important that we have a diverse offering of content that appeals to a lot of different people,” says Estroff. “US Soccer has a passionate and spirited fan base. I think that they’re going to really enjoy how we approach it and the seriousness in which we take it. We really trying to be authentic to their brand.”
