ITV unveil New York skyline studio - as BBC broadcast from 'green box in Salford'

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Evening Standard

·12 June 2026

ITV unveil New York skyline studio - as BBC broadcast from 'green box in Salford'

The BBC and ITV have unveiled their studios for the World Cup.

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ITV have flown their presenters and pundits to Brooklyn, New York, with their studio offering a backdrop of the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty.

Meanwhile, the BBC will broadcast from Media City in Salford - in a move that has attracted plenty of criticism.

ITV officially unveiled their studio during coverage of England’s warm-up match against Costa Rica on Wednesday.

The ITV studio

Paul McNamara, ITV Sport’s executive director and producer, told the Telegraph that they hadn’t considered following the BBC’s lead and remaining in the UK.

He said: “I want to take the viewer somewhere they can’t go. We’re an entertainment channel and we’re trying to entertain the viewers. The World Cup’s the biggest show in the world. I’m trying to take the viewer to the event and say, ‘This is what it feels like’.

“We made a real effort to make sure the Statue of Liberty was over Mark’s shoulder; the traffic was coming just behind Wrighty on the bridge. There was so much detail and testing done on that.”

Many have mocked the BBC for their “work-from-home” studio, which features a panoramic screen to create an illusion that it overlooks whichever of the host cities a match is being broadcast from.

BBC's studio in Salford

Former BBC host Gary Lineker said he would be spending the tournament hosting his The Rest is Football podcast while "overlooking Times Square", while his previous employers remain "in Salford in a green box".

Another former BBC man Dan Walker said: "As ITV unveil there [sic] super-snazzy Brooklyn studio for the World Cup I do feel a bit for the BBC who will be broadcasting games back in Salford.

"The location will have cost ITV a fortune and the BBC can’t win… if they go then there is criticism every day about the cost and, if they don’t go, they get hammered for staying at home. Must feel very distant at the moment though."

And TV critic Boyd Hilton wrote on X: "Terrible decision by the BBC to cover the World Cup from Salford. It’s a massive cultural event. Broadcasting the games from a virtual studio in England is weak sauce."

Their TV rivals also got some digs in during their coverage on Wednesday.

Talking with presenter Mark Pougatch and fellow pundit Roy Keane, Ian Wright said: “It’s amazing, unbelievable set. It’s the World Cup, it should be this, it should be grand, massive.”

Pougatch had begun the coverage by walking through downtown New York, and boasting the studio offers “a great view of Lower Manhattan”.

He added: “You are thinking it must be AI; I promise you it is real.”

Director of BBC Sport Alex Kay-Jelski has defended the decision to remain in the UK, saying they had saved “millions” in licence-fee-payers’ money by staying in Salford.

Alex Kay-Jelski, director of BBC Sport

Kay-Jelski said: “It’s not a green box in Salford. It’s a beautiful state-of-the-art studio. No one’s seen it until now. It’s completely fine to assume that what was there before was what it was going to be. And I’m really proud of this.

“The actual end product people are getting at home, I don’t really think it’s that different. If these people were sitting somewhere else, would your viewing be massively changed?

“If I was standing here saying, ‘Everything is going to be done from a studio in Dallas’, you would rightly be saying to me, ‘How can you justify that spend?’”

With matches spread out across Mexico, Canada and the US throughout the tournament and involving significant air travel for those covering the games on the ground, the BBC have confirmed that remaining in Salford was due to both environmental and budget reasons.

Gary Lineker has criticised the BBC’s setup

Kay-Jelski said: “The money and sustainability are massively linked, especially with this World Cup being so sprawling, it would have been very difficult."

“I don't think the answer from a financial or sustainable point of view is to go ‘everyone can go’. I don't think that's a very clever way of me using the licence payer's money.

“The budget isn't infinite, and we have to make sensible and difficult decisions sometimes, I don't even see this as difficult, it's just sensible."

“Right now I’m incredibly happy with it. It’s a six-week, high-profile tournament. We’re going to get some stuff wrong and we’re going to get, hopefully, way more right. We are doing more than we've ever done before and it's going to be incredible."