Study Reveals Sports Fan's Reaction To Fake Crowd Noise At Broadcasted Sporting Events

Study Reveals

With COVID-19 restrictions, Sports teams are playing in empty stadiums with sports fans represented by cardboard cutouts, digital screens, and artificial crowd noise. WESTWOOD ONE and HORIZON MEDIA commissioned MARU/MATCHBOX to conduct a study on how audiences at home react to artificial sports fan crowd noise when viewing or listening to sporting events. 

The study revealed that sports fans remain engaged, especially those listening on AM/FM radio. Video ads without supplemental crowd noise were preserved as less informative than those with it. Audio ads with crowd noise performed better in a broadcast than those without.

Even if fans cannot attend the event they want a participatory experience, crowd noise does restore some of the feelings and normalcy sounds. Forty-percent of fans says a big part of the game experience is the fans themselves – the chants, songs, and reactions. 

Despite scheduling changes, most sports fans continued tuning in to their usual sports, and younger fans were more likely to tap into new ones. Versus heavy TV viewers, heavy AM/FM radio listeners were three times as likely to try new sports this fall. When asked why sports audiences were somewhat lower this Fall, fans theorized that it was due to COVID-19, fanless games, sports season changes, politics and social justice in sports, and a lower priority for sports overall.

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