Pilot episode for The Athletic's World Cup 2026 coverage

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Project Overview

The Athletic - one of the biggest names in sports journalism - approached us to produce a pilot episode for their World Cup 2026 coverage. With the tournament fast approaching, they needed a creative partner who could take ownership of the entire production pipeline: from editorial planning through to final delivery.

The pilot needed to set the tone, visual language, and production standard for an entire series that would run throughout the tournament. No pressure.

What We Did

• End-to-end production of the pilot episode - concept, scripting, and storyboarding
• Full editing and post-production including colour grading, sound design, and graphics
• Custom motion graphics package and title sequence design
• Visual identity development for the series - setting the look and feel for all subsequent episodes
• Planning and pre-production for the wider World Cup content strategy

Results

The pilot set the creative direction for The Athletic's entire World Cup 2026 video output. Our work on the pilot demonstrated that a lean, external creative team could deliver broadcast-quality sports content at the speed and scale required for tournament coverage.