Virtual crowds in Nine’s AFL bid
Nine is so keen for Monday night AFL in the next broadcasting rights, it is willing to put virtual crowds into shots of arenas.
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The Nine Network is so keen for Monday night AFL in the next broadcasting rights, it is willing to put virtual crowds into shots of arenas to adjust for any low numbers.
“I think Monday night is the new franchise for the AFL, and we want it,” GTV9 Managing Director Jeffrey Browne told The Age. ”It’s a traditional timeslot in sports all around the world.
”Obviously, being a Monday night, you’d attract less people to the match. But there are some great technological innovations we can put around it to make it a fantastic game for television, and we’d show it live.
”People are being diabolically conservative about this. The fact is people are home on Monday nights and they are out on Friday nights.”
The AFL said the virtual audience would solve the TV problem but not the prospect of relatively empty Monday night stadiums.
Source: The Age
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44 Responses
I thought Rugby League was the only game where they would need to create a virtual crowd to fill up the stadiums.
what a load of crap! And that means if they play it live new 2.5 men would be out of schedule for mondays
I wonder if the ‘virtual crowds’ are made the same way as their viewers. 😛
I don’t see a need for fake crowds because the clubs will use it as a way to show they have lots of members. What next? Adding fake objects to news stories to try and increase viewers? Let’s leave the special effects to Hollywood, please.
Time for a virtual game, perhaps then it will become watchable.
Why would you bother? How about rather than wasting money on these “virtual crowds”, you put some into propper programming rather than the american crap.
Perhaps they could offer virtual co-ordination so that it’s not a non stop fumbleathon with wayward kiks that earn a point for missing.
What a silly and money-wasting proposal by Nine. I could not believe it when I heard the report on ABC Radio this morning! It seems to me that Nine is forcing fans to make up their mind: go to the game or I will superimpose virtual crowd on the screen! Viewers will easily spot the difference when a goal is scored, or when the winning team celebrates after the final siren. Plus if Nine wins the rights, it will need to find a new timeslot for The Mentalist, or even Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory, if they are renewed beyond 2012.
I don’t think you guys are seeing the most important thing in the article “we’d show it live” (of course this probably doesn’t apply to Perth or Adelaide). At least we get some guarantee to see live games rather than the usual Friday night and Sunday afternoon delayed games on Seven.
I personally don’t care if the stadium is filled with robots or the seats are empty, i’m too busy watching the game.
Steve Nine has said before it wants to show AFL live.
Yes this isn’t a late April fools joke is it?
Maybe it’s the only way they can get people to watch LOL
But seriously with Monday night football what will happen to it’s current line up?
‘and we’d show it live’….Yeah except in Perth do doubt.
Just slash monday night ticket prices in half and watch the crowd numbers go up. Would help a lot of people who can’t afford to take the family to the footy for example. And it needs to start at 7:10 at the latest. Nine can afford to dump 1 2.5 men repeat a week for the footy surely!
What a stupid idea! Yeah sure, it may add some atmosphere for television (all be it fake), but why would a broadcaster go to such trouble.
Do they really think we the viewing public would not notice the fakeness of virtual crowds in the stands? If no one’s at the game, then no one’s at the game, and that’s that!
It really is a bizarre concept, and I will eat my hat if it does happen.
Gotta love the way they combine ‘tradition’ with computer-generated crowds.
No thanks.
David, I applaud your restraint in not saying ‘the prospect of virtually empty Monday night stadiums.’
Monday nights i guess could rate well in theory, but every time it has been on Mondays so far it has rated pretty bad.
Reminds me of the old days of live TV shows where they would use mirrors in the audience to make it look as though there were more people there…. or HHIS which used cardboard cutouts to simulate an audience (some would argue that nothing has changed!).
If there’s no one there, that’s what you should show. What’s next? Virtual players if a team doesn’t show up???
Nine should stick to NRL, Ten to AFL, and Seven to ARU. Keeping the football all in one place makes it a lot simpler.
Although I wouldn’t mind nrl going to Ten, because then we’d get loads of coverage on OneHD
this is a rubbish idea. all they have to do is garuntee live fnf and they will win the rights back
Is it April Fools day again??? This is the most ridiculous idea I have ever heard, Jeffrey B being a former AFL guy can’t have said the virtual live crowd stuff…however he is right about Monday night Football it’s definately the way of the future however Afl not being a national ratings draw is going to fracture the network schedule in a major way.
Clearly Jeffrey Browne is experiencing side-effects from watching too many of Nine’s 3D telecasts…
An April fools joke in May.
Why can’t there be two Friday night games?
and as a football watcher, i dont like the idea of being blatently lied to like that. if there were monday night matches, why not offer discounts(subsides by channel 9) or give out free tickets to make it less empty. fake people is just not cricket!
Hey CH9 and Mr Gyngell, How about guaranteeing live matches and leave the photo-shopping out of the equation. It’ll just look stupid and give nothing to the game or people watching at home. Again ch9 treating viewers like dopes.
How convincing and authentic looking are virtual crowds on a TV screen?