World Cup EP David Neal On Leading Fox Sports’ Decade-Long FIFA Partnership To Engage U.S. Audiences In Soccer
deadline.comThe 2023 Women’s World Cup drew record viewership for Fox, despite challenging time zones and an early elimination for the U.S.
team, ending with the most-watched non-USWNT final ever for English-language U.S. television. The accomplishment capped a decade-long career milestone for executive producer David Neal, who has been dedicated to making soccer a mainstay in the U.S.
since Fox acquired the English-language broadcasting rights from FIFA in 2011. “I think that other than the U.S. players themselves, the person who deserves the most credit for the Women’s World Cup becoming a major event in this country is David Neal,” Michael Mulvihill, Fox’s president of insights and analytics, told Deadline while speaking about the challenges that the broadcaster faced this year with the Women’s World Cup. “He knows how to produce him in a way that makes it a cultural touchstone.” Before joining Fox, Neal spent three decades producing live sports for NBC, including nine Olympics, four NBA Finals, two World Series and a Super Bowl pregame show.
And over the past decade, Neal has largely contributed to the rise of interest in professional soccer in the Unites States. This year’s WWC numbers followed a record breaking audience for the 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and France.
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