Zac Kenworthy said Thursday that Fox Sports is preparing to use halftime interviews and is still in talks with FIFA about how to handle the new three-minute hydration breaks that will punctuate every match at this year’s World Cup.
Kenworthy, speaking at an event in New York City, confirmed that those three-minute hydration breaks will appear in all 104 World Cup matches and that broadcasters will be discussing how to use them — including whether to cut away from live action. "Those conversations are still happening behind the scenes. There are very real-time conversations as well that we’re having with FIFA," he said.
The scale is immediate: FIFA announced hydration breaks for every game of the tournament, and the breaks were initially included for player welfare. Broadcasters will have options during those pauses; FIFA will allow cutting away to advertisements during the breaks, and Fox is weighing how to blend interviews, ads and live-game coverage without shortchanging viewers.
Kenworthy made clear Fox intends to put reporters on the air during halftime. He confirmed Friday that the network plans to carry halftime interviews during the tournament. He also outlined access beyond halftime: Fox will have the option to place host-broadcaster reporters on the field during a 10-minute pre-match window while players warm up, and broadcasters covering matches involving their own team — for example the USMNT on Fox — can get one reporter in the center circle during that window.
Those access points add new opportunities for storytelling and new inventory for advertisers at a moment when Fox controls the exclusive English-language broadcast rights in the United States and the tournament’s global schedule compresses a lot of marquee matchups into a short period.
But the plan carries friction. Broadcasters face a balance between monetizing short interruptions and preserving the integrity of the match feed. "Obviously it’s new, so it’s always going to be to the purist a bit jarring if that indeed does happen," Kenworthy said. He added that Fox is trying to avoid doing a disservice to viewers while adapting to a changing game: "On our side, there’s a recognition that the game does advance … FIFA is in charge of these things. You have to be aware of it. We are also figuring out at the same time how to make sure that we’re not doing a disservice to the viewer while moving with these events. You still have to be very smart about how you’re servicing the viewer at home. That is a balance."
The breaks themselves are notable for how uniformly they will be applied: FIFA will stage three-minute hydration pauses in every match, even in temperature-controlled venues, an insistence that has drawn questions about the justification and the optics of cutting away when a game is paused for welfare reasons.
Kenworthy said he expects the talks to conclude quickly. "I expect we’ll have some news in the next week or two, certainly before the tournament starts. But those chats are still going on behind the scenes about how that’s going to go," he said, setting a tight timeline for decisions that will shape both viewer experience and advertising plans.
That negotiation over short breaks matters to Fox’s broader commercial engine this weekend. Mark Evans, who runs ad sales at Fox Sports, said the network has been sold out for some time for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 ad inventory and that the pricing has reflected growing demand. "Coming off of the success of last year and quite frankly the investment that (Fox CEO Eric Shanks) and team have made in just making the schedule easier for viewers to find and us just being super excited about the ceiling that we feel IndyCar has, it really resonated throughout the marketplace," Evans said.
says its Indy 500 inventory produced a 73% cash increase year-over-year; the network plans to run 50-plus national ads and 10-plus local spots during the race. The green flag is set for 12:45pm ET on Sunday. Evans emphasized that the audience is not a one-off: "There aren’t many people that are just coming in to pick off the Indianapolis 500." Most of Fox’s national breaks for the race will run in a double-box format while local spots are expected to run full screen.
What happens next is straightforward: Fox must finalize how it uses the World Cup’s three-minute windows — as live interview time, advertising inventory or a hybrid — and announce that decision in the coming week or two. Those choices will determine whether viewers see more on-field reporting and sponsored content during scheduled pauses or a purer uninterrupted match feed with ads confined to traditional breaks. Kenworthy’s timetable leaves little room for second thoughts; the viewing experience the network airs at kickoff will be the one fans live with for all 104 matches.
