TV time-wasting
During a previous life as a sportscaster, I spent a fair amount of time at NFL games. One of my vivid memories of those occasions was how slow and boring the games could become for ticket holders, because during frequent TV commercial timeouts, those in attendance had nothing to watch for several minutes at a time.
Fast-forward twenty years, and the commercial load during NFL games has reached an even more ridiculous level. During the first quarter of Sunday’s playoff game between the Vikings and Eagles, there was one period where one play was followed by a commercial break, followed by two plays and one more commercial break, and one more play followed by one more commercial break. Four plays, three breaks. I’m sure those who paid $80, $120, or $160 per ticket inside the Metrodome were thrilled to sit through that.
With one minute left in the third quarter – and with my interest in the game waning – I documented a similar chronology:
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Fumble, 1:50 commercial break
Incomplete pass, 1:40 commercial break
Running play, 1:50 end-of-quarter commercial break
Incomplete pass, punt, 1:40 commercial break
During that sequence, the clock inside the stadium said that one minute and 22 seconds of the game had elapsed. The clock in my TV room said that 13 minutes of my life had elapsed.
I know what you’re saying: “Commercials pay the freight so TV viewers can watch the games for free.” Consider those Thursday night games carried on the NFL Network, a cable channel you have to pay money to watch. They have excessive commercials during those games, too.
