More Than Just Games, Sports TV Shows - Fiction and Documentaries - Rely on Authentic Audio From Welcome to Wrexham to Winning Time, sound teams balance authenticity and cinematic By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Monday, October 23, 2023 - 11:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
A look at channel listings these days suggests that there are almost as many fictional and documentary sports productions as actual broadcast and streamed games and events. Examples range from comedies like the occasionally harsh IRL of Welcome to Wrexham and the optimistic comedy of Ted Lasso to Netflix's Formula 1 opus Drive To Survive and HBO's Succession-like Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.
Sports have long been a fascination for Hollywood, from 1942's melodramatic Pride of the Yankees to the grandaddy of primetime network sports series, Friday Night Lights. And both fiction and non-fiction productions have seen increases lately: Full Swing, which debuted this year and tracks top golfers through a season, was followed by a behind-the-scenes TV series on the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the Tour de France, and the Invictus Games. Sitcoms and dramas are also well-represented, with such titles as Glow, Necessary Roughness, The League, The White Shadow, and Ballers.
And all this content is increasingly marked by the same thing: both fictional and real-life portrayals of sports share broadcast's emphasis on the audio.
We might be able to enhance some of the sounds of a game on the show, such as the impact of a kick of a ball sounding like a cannon shot in a slo-mo scene, says Jon Schell, sound effects editor on Welcome to Wrexham and three-time Prime-Time and Sports Emmy Award nominee for shows including The Playbook and Wrexham. The sound of sports on television is already pretty cinematic, with microphones on the athletes and on places like the rim of the [NBA] basket. They do seem to be working off each other. We can play with [processing] like reverbs, but, like the people who mix the actual games, we do everything with the intent of telling the story.
Welcome to Wrexham audio mixer Mark Jensen: If you heard every ball catch, if you heard every tackle, if you heard every footstep, [it would be] bizarre. It just sounds fake.
Wrexham, which runs on FX and streams on Hulu, has a lot of audio, much of it ambient sound that creates the backdrop for neighborhood shots and sets the tone for the narratives. But the sports-effects audio strives to be authentic. According to Schell, a local sound crew captured the crowd sounds from three games at the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham AFC's home, ahead of the show's last season, giving him and audio mixer Mark Jensen a lot with which to fill the 5.1 surround field the show is mixed in.
(Hulu automatically streams in 2.0 stereo; however, some devices can also play certain live content and on-demand titles in HD 5.1 surround. Badges during live playback or on the title's Details page identify when 5.1 is available.)
The Crowd Is an Essential Element Crowd sounds, recorded in discrete four-channel audio - two mics pointing left and right forward-facing, two pointing left and right but rear-facing synced on four discrete audio tracks, assigned LF-RF/LS-RS in the final mix - have given mixer Jensen a lot to work with. It was an audio element that was lacking in Wrexham's first season, he says, but has been a star of the show's second.
The crowd and all the songs they sing and the energy they bring is an aspect that no other show has, he explains. The songs that they sing are very specific, and there are songs for every player, and when [a particular] player scores a goal, they sing a specific song. It's amazing, and I was, like, we have to get this! So they recorded eight hours' worth of crowd audio for us. If you watch Season 2, keep your ears peeled because there's going to be moments when you're, like, Wow, I feel like I am in this stadium. Audio-wise, it's mind-blowing.
What You're Not Hearing Although fictional and documentarian representations of sports might accentuate certain sounds of games, Jensen, an Emmy Award nominee who mixed audio for football-coach documentary The Playbook, says it's also important to recognize what viewers don't hear.
If you heard every ball catch, if you heard every tackle, if you heard every footstep, he says, you'd be, like, this is bizarre. It just sounds fake, and, for me and, I think, for a lot of viewers, it would be a big turnoff.
In fact, he adds, he has heard sports productions resort to sonic clich s, such as using the same impact sounds on every tackle, not unlike a sports version of the famous Wilhelm Scream, heard in thousands of movies since it was first recorded in 1951.
At times, he says, I have to push back and say, Guys, look, this shot of this tackle is taken from the camera that was up in the stands, like 200 yards from that tackle; you're just not going to hear anything from that. Perspective has to inform how I mix and what you're going to hear. So I have to pull all that back and replace all the [clich ] tackles with my own tackles, which we now have lots of that we can throw in. Even then, it's very light. You want it detailed but not hitting me over the head. It's a tricky balance.
The Ted Lasso Perspective Apple TV's Ted Lasso comes at sports as a situation dramedy. So sound designer/sound effects editor Kip Smedley has a bit more flexibility in representing the sound of English football when the show's eponymous character tries to use his naturally sunny disposition to overcome the inexperience he was surreptitiously hired for to enable the owner's revenge against an ex-husband and, in spite of that, builds a winning team.
Ted Lasso sound designer Kip Smedley: [With] a
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
26/11/2025
A cinematic snow sculpture at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Randall Michelson...
26/11/2025
Book podcasts are booming. On Spotify, you'll find everything from celebrity book clubs to deep dives with bestselling authors. And in markets where audiobo...
26/11/2025
Mumbai, November 24, 2025: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, JioStar, in collab...
26/11/2025
LONDON Factual content producer ITN Productions has launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins....
26/11/2025
MIAMI TelevisaUnivision said it struck a new multiyear distribution agreement with YouTube TV that includes distribution of TelevisaUnivision's U.S. network...
26/11/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leader in software-defined data storage and data services, today announced the launch of the Atlas Corporate Creative Solution. This new Atl...
26/11/2025
Disguise, the industry-leading company powering the world's biggest live performances, is partnering with pioneering LED wall manufacturer DVS to give atten...
26/11/2025
HighField AI, the pioneer in agentic and multimodal automation for broadcast and media production, today announced the expansion of its global channel partner n...
26/11/2025
As high-stakes Premier League fixtures approach and additional premium content launches, with MONO positioning themselves to dominate Thailand's sports stre...
26/11/2025
Hosting a wide variety of events from high-intensity NHL games to complex live music concerts and major entertainment productions, Montreal's 21,000 capacit...
26/11/2025
Vizrt, the leader in live production technology revolutionizing viewer engagement and experience, releases AI-driven advances focusing on speed, intelligence, a...
26/11/2025
ITN Productions, an award-winning factual content producer, today launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins. Responsible for delivering a leading...
26/11/2025
Ikegami reports ongoing advances throughout 2025 in developing and delivering coordinated television production solutions that maximize quality, versatility and...
26/11/2025
Following the Nov. 21 blackout of NBCUniversal channels on Fubo, the two sides have traded barbs about their inability to reach a new carriage deal....
26/11/2025
LONDON As TV sports rights become increasingly important for both broadcasters and streamers, Ampere Analysis predicts global investment in the genre will surpa...
26/11/2025
LOS ANGELES Vubiquity said it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Entertainment Competency as part of the AWS Partner Network (APN). This designa...
26/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau said it has entered into a consent decree with Comcast calling for the cable company t...
26/11/2025
Berklee Named to the Hollywood Reporters Top Music Schools List The publication highlights the college's screen scoring program, industry partnerships, and ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
Animated Series Love Through a Prism' Casts New Light on ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
NALIP Unveils Fifth Cohort of Director Incubator
Social Impact
26 November 2025
United States
Link copied to clipboard
The National Assoc...
26/11/2025
YouView Achieves Greenly Gold Certification for SustainabilityNov 26, 2025
YouView is proud to announce a Gold Certification award from Greenly for our perform...
More Than Just Games, Sports TV Shows - Fiction and Documentaries - Rely on Authentic Audio From Welcome to Wrexham to Winning Time, sound teams balance authenticity and cinematic By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
