Going Deep: NFL, TV networks disrespect fans
Whether it’s batters who constantly adjust the Velcro on their batting gloves, guys who can’t make foul shots, or broadcasters’ overuse of the word genius, there are plenty of pet peeves people have about sports.
Mine?
NFL commercials.
Most sports idiosyncrasies and clichés don’t really bother me. But something that often goes overlooked, and which goes beyond a pet peeve to the point that it’s insulting, is the amount of commercials TV networks jam into NFL games.
In Sunday’s playoff game between the Tennessee Titans and San Diego Chargers on CBS, for instance, there was roughly 1 hour, 18 minutes of commercials. I know because I kept track, just to see how much of my life I was wasting.
Regular season games aren’t much different. During the December 9 game between the Eagles and Giants on Fox, there was an estimated hour and 12 minutes of commercials.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football and ESPN’s Monday Night Football are the worst, often pushing 90 minutes of commercials. You could watch an entire movie in that time, or drive from Philadelphia to the Jersey shore, or enjoy a sit-down dinner at a nice restaurant — with dessert and a couple glasses of wine.
Plus, most of the commercials are shown over and over again. During the Chargers/Titans game, I saw the same car ad in four consecutive commercial breaks. Is that really necessary? (I don’t even remember which car company it was.)
It isn’t just the volume and mind-numbing repetitiveness of commercials that’s bothersome, it’s the frequency. The average NFL game has at least six commercial breaks per quarter and 24 to 30 commercial breaks per game (including halftime). Unless a team mounts a long scoring drive, rarely will you see more than five continuous minutes of football during an NFL broadcast.
Throw in the 40-second play clock, a time-out here and there, officials’ convening to discuss penalties and a couple of coach’s challenges, you’re hardly getting any actual football.
Although college football games often run longer than NFL games, commercial breaks are less frequent (excluding major bowls) and you get more actual football because the play clock is shorter (at least for now).
Baseball games are long, sometimes going four hours, but it’s not because of batters’ adjusting their gloves or other rhythmic ticks of the game, which have gone on since the inception of the sport. It is mainly because commercial breaks are so long. But at least in baseball you know when they’re coming — between innings and during pitching changes. That’s it.
For the NFL, it’s anytime. Sometimes you even miss portions of plays because the broadcast isn’t back yet. Most networks take a break after an extra point, come back for the kickoff, and then take another break. During that Eagles/Giants game, there was a stretch in which I saw one play in nine minutes. On Sunday, CBS took breaks at virtually every change of possession, including fumbles and interceptions.
And the NFL doesn’t mind networks’ doing this.
Not to mention, it’s not as if you can flip around to other games. Even on Sundays in the regular season, the most games you’ll get at once are two — unless you buy NFL Sunday Ticket, which is available on DirecTV and nowhere else.
(Maybe cable companies could agree to show NFL Network on their basic digital packages if the NFL allows them to offer Sunday Ticket. That way, everybody would win, including fans.)
I have nothing against people making a buck. But can’t the NFL and television networks cut down on the frequency and length of commercial interruptions and instead charge a little more for advertising?
Most hour-long shows, like House or Lost, run 44 minutes and incorporate 16 minutes of commercials. NFL Replay or other condensed versions of games On-Demand — which eliminate a lot of filler and run between 30 and 90 minutes — only add to the insult of what NFL viewers have to put up with on Sundays.
An average NFL game, including normal stoppages but excluding commercial breaks, would take about 105 minutes. Using the ratio of 44:16 that many hour-long shows use, NFL fans should not have to endure more than 38 minutes of commercials per game.
Instead, watching the NFL is like fighting freeway traffic for a weekender in Atlantic City.
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