BT Sport reveals plans to tackle fan-free TV football spectacle
The head of BT Sport has said games behind closed doors will give broadcasters an opportunity to innovate despite accepting the spectacle will have something missing when the Premier League season resumes without fans on 17 June.
BT will attempt to enhance the viewing experience with artificial crowd noise and plans to build a sense of community by having supporters in studios, but Simon Green admitted the product was not the same in empty stadiums. “It absolutely matters that the event is shown in the best way it can be shown,” he said. “Sport as a spectacle is far better with an atmosphere and a crowd. But at the moment we all understand that’s not possible. It’s a temporary thing and hopefully it won’t last too long. The demand for the sport is there. We want to be able to provide it in the best way possible.”
Green said audiences had reacted positively since BT added crowd noise to its live coverage of Bundesliga matches and added that Premier League fans would be given the chance to switch the feature off during games.
“I was surprised by how well received it was by our viewers, particularly on social media, and some of the feedback we’ve had from the press and radio as well,” Green said. “We are stepping forward and next weekend, after working with the Premier League and EA Sports, crowd noise will be offered as standard, with the ability for anybody who doesn’t want it to take it away. The option will be to remove it rather than to step into it.
“We believe that crowds are what hold sports together. We are looking at how to bring live fans into the coverage in a very restrictive and intimate way in some capacity across the studio coverage, whether it be the early kick-off before the first game we show next Saturday or in our post-match show.”
Green, who said BT had been hit financially during the coronavirus pandemic, is confident fans will watch games in empty stadiums. “It does impact us but there is an intrigue to it,” he said. “We’re working with the Premier League, we’ve worked with the Bundesliga and we’ve seen the effect of not having crowds.
“The viewing figures for the Bundesliga, the averages even now are well up prior to what they were before Covid. It’s the only live football at the
moment but there does seem to be a genuine interest in watching live sport, with or without crowds.
“Having watched the Bundesliga we are all acutely aware it’s not quite the product it was previously. But the emotional interest and attachment people have to football in this country is such that it will still be a very strong television product. Without crowds it does open up opportunities to use innovation to enhance coverage.”
BT’s first game will be Watford v Leicester on 20 June.