Fake fans’ cheers & empty arenas: This is the new normal of watching sports on TV

Avid sports follower David Wilson switched on his television last Friday night to watch the

titanic Champions League

tie between Bayern Munich and Barcelona at a high volume. He was keen to hear the vivid description of each dribble of

Barca’s Lionel Messi

, and every sharp header by Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski, as he did during the closed-door Test match series between

England

and

West Indies

.

As the match kicked off in the empty Lisbon arena, cheers of fans started reverberating in David’s Salunke Vihar home. “I was shocked and walked to the other room to check if my brother was watching some old game on his smartphone. But the ‘Man U’ follower was fast asleep,” said David, a Messi fan.

As Barcelona’s 2-8 drubbing started soon after, the cheering in German turned louder. The teenager muted the TV’s sound.

Vivek Sathe echoed David. “I wanted to listen to the commentary on Neymar Junior’s cut-ins during the Champions League quarterfinal between Paris Saint-German and Atalanta, but the noise of fake fans frustrated me,” said Sathe, a techie.

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the strategy of beaming of live closed-door matches. Sports fans are divided, too, over the artificial crowd noise.

Unlike Sathe and David, management trainee Sanjay Admane — a cricket enthusiast — sounded keen on the TV channel broadcasting the Pakistan vs England Test series making “some noise”. “Some cheers, even if they are artificial, are better than hearing the echoes around a quiet stadium,” said Admane.

With live sport on hold for over two months because of Covid-19, international broadcasters spent a lot of time thinking about how to make the telecast of closed-door ties interesting. A senior official of Sky Sports said, “We want the viewers to have the best possible viewing experience — even if they can’t be in the stadiums or watch matches with their family and friends.”

A source familiar with the making of the fake cheers of fans said Sky Sports, BBC and some other channels worked with ‘FIFA 20’ video game publisher EA Sports to create a suite of club-specific crowd noises. The artificial noise, called EA Sports Atmospheric Audio, would create an atmosphere tailored to the occasion, she said.

“So, there would be lot of noise in the final of this edition of the Champions League, though PSG and Bayern would lock horns amid empty stands. I will love it,” Debashish Mukherjee, a follower of German football, said.

What’s in store during the upcoming Indian Premier League? “I expect some fun,” smiled Admane, waiting eagerly to watch Indian cricketers back in action after a long hiatus.