Skip to main content

Premier League broadcaster will use FIFA to fill stadiums with fake cheering

When Premier League soccer starts up again on June 17, there won’t be any fans in the stadium seats, but the U.K. broadcaster that’s airing the match is partnering with EA Sports to fill that void.

Sky Sports is working with EA’s FIFA team to create a collection of “bespoke and team-specific” crowd noises and chants to air during the games, the network announced.

Recommended Videos

Viewers will have the option of watching a channel with the added sound or one that will not incorporate it into the matches.

The addition of artificial crowd sounds could add a layer of intensity to the games, especially as Liverpool looks to clinch its first title in 20 years.

“Sky has always been a leader in innovative sports broadcasting, and we’re excited by this opportunity to share something really special with the whole nation,” Robert Webster, Sky Sports managing director, said in a statement. “We want Sky Sports viewers to still feel it all and have the best possible viewing experience — even if they can’t be in the stadiums or watch with their family and friends.”

Sky Sports will air 64 live Premier League games once the season resumes, including 25 made available for free.

FIFA is one of EA’s most successful franchises. The last version – FIFA 2020 – was played by more than 10 million people in its first two weeks of release. The game continues to top the U.K. sales charts.

Chris Morris
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Chris Morris has covered consumer technology and the video game industry since 1996, offering analysis of news and trends and…
Baseball is back — with virtual crowds to fill up empty stadiums
baseball is back with virtual crowds to fill up empty stadiums fans

After months of uncertainty, baseball is finally starting back up again — but this time the stadiums will look much different than we are used to. 

Fox Sports will add “virtual fans” to its Major League Baseball (MLB) game broadcasts, starting when the Milwaukee Brewers take on the Chicago Cubs at 10 a.m. PT on Saturday, July 25. The lifelike fans are made a reality in collaboration with Silver Spoon Animation and SMT by using pixotope software to create photorealistic graphics. 

Read more
This modular Pebble and Apple Watch underdog just smashed funding goals
UNA Watch

Both the Pebble Watch and Apple Watch are due some fierce competition as a new modular brand, UNA, is gaining some serous backing and excitement.

The UNA Watch is the creation of a Scottish company that wants to give everyone modular control of smartwatch upgrades and repairs.

Read more
Tesla, Warner Bros. dodge some claims in ‘Blade Runner 2049’ lawsuit, copyright battle continues
Tesla Cybercab at night

Tesla and Warner Bros. scored a partial legal victory as a federal judge dismissed several claims in a lawsuit filed by Alcon Entertainment, a production company behind the 2017 sci-fi movie Blade Runner 2049, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit accused the two companies of using imagery from the film to promote Tesla’s autonomous Cybercab vehicle at an event hosted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Studios in Hollywood in October of last year.
U.S. District Judge George Wu indicated he was inclined to dismiss Alcon’s allegations that Tesla and Warner Bros. violated trademark law, according to Reuters. Specifically, the judge said Musk only referenced the original Blade Runner movie at the event, and noted that Tesla and Alcon are not competitors.
"Tesla and Musk are looking to sell cars," Reuters quoted Wu as saying. "Plaintiff is plainly not in that line of business."
Wu also dismissed most of Alcon's claims against Warner Bros., the distributor of the Blade Runner franchise.
However, the judge allowed Alcon to continue its copyright infringement claims against Tesla for its alleged use of AI-generated images mimicking scenes from Blade Runner 2049 without permission.
Alcan says that just hours before the Cybercab event, it had turned down a request from Tesla and WBD to use “an icononic still image” from the movie.
In the lawsuit, Alcon explained its decision by saying that “any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account.”
Alcon further said it did not want Blade Runner 2049 “to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”
But according to Alcon, Tesla went ahead with feeding images from Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to yield a still image that appeared on screen for 10 seconds during the Cybercab event. With the image featured in the background, Musk directly referenced Blade Runner.
Alcon also said that Musk’s reference to Blade Runner 2049 was not a coincidence as the movie features a “strikingly designed, artificially intelligent, fully autonomous car.”

Read more