Study: Half of UK football fans mute the commentary
July 8, 2026
Reaching for the remote and hitting mute has become a match-day ritual for millions of UK football fans – and a new generation is rewriting how the game sounds at home.
A study of 2,002 UK consumers, commissioned by AO, found that among football fans, almost half of them (49 per cent) admit to muting the TV commentary sometimes and one in five (22 per cent) go further, saying they’ll often switch off the sound during games.
Among the young, though, there’s an even greater discrepancy, with the study showing that the instinct to reach for the remote is sharply generational.
Fans aged 18 to 24 are three times as likely to mute the commentary as the over-45s: over a third of young viewers (38 per cent) turn it off often, falling to 37 per cent of 25 to 34s, 21 per cent of 35 to 44s, and just 13 per cent for anyone over the age of 45.
The older the fan, the more willing they are to take the pundits as they come.
Five ways a generation rebuilds the broadcast
When the commentary goes off, people are rarely sitting in silence. Instead of accepting whatever sound comes out of the broadcast, fans are building their own version of match day.
Nick Bunce, AO’s TV expert, says that while broadcasters struggle to come up with alternatives to the ‘traditional’ broadcast, fans are taking matters into their own hands:
“This is the Spotify generation watching football. They curate their music, their feeds and their box sets, so it is no surprise they want to curate the match too. Broadcasters are already chasing the trend, with streaming services beginning to offer alternative commentary feeds and ‘watch with’ options. But our research suggests many fans have not waited to be offered the choice – they have already built it themselves. Below are some of the most popular alternative sources fans are looking to when they mute the commentary,” commented Bunce.
Alternative commentary
Almost one in three (31 per cent) pipe in alternative commentary.
That is a combination of those saying that they listen to fan commentary (23 per cent) and opting for the radio instead (9 per cent) – with a plethora of fan podcasts now available, people no longer feel beholden to listen to who the broadcasters think they should.
Scoring the game
One in four (26 per cent) don’t bother with commentary at all, instead opting for their own music, soundtracking the match from their own created playlists.
The room is the new commentary box
Some 16 per cent simply talk to whoever they are watching with – the panel of pundits replaced by the people on the sofa or their friends on the phone. This is part of a wider shift to second-screen watching, where the running commentary has moved from the TVs to personal group chats or social media feeds.
Sit in silence
Ten per cent watch in total silence – football’s version of the ‘raw-dogging’ trend, where a younger generation deliberately strips back the noise and just takes in the moment.
This is one of the few ways of watching that is actually flipped across the age groups, with the over-55s twice as likely (23 per cent) to watch in silence.
Subtitles on
Ten per cent switch on the subtitles, bringing to live sport the habit that already defines how younger viewers watch everything else.
The common thread that runs through each alternative source is control – this is a generation that would rather build its own soundtrack than accept the one it is given.
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