Last season, the NFL and its television partners reduced the amount of ad breaks from five per quarter to four. That was in hopes of stopping the silly score-commercial-kickoff-commercial sequence.
While it did reduce the number of those silly sequences, the change didn’t get rid of them totally.
Apparently one network feels the reduced amount of breaks worked last season and will continue to use them. At the annual NFL owners meeting, CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus said that he was happy with the changes to the game presentation that took effect last season. He added that there won’t be any more major changes coming to the way we watch NFL games on TV in 2018.
McManus also told Sports Business Daily that while TV ratings are down, that’s because there are now more ways to consume the National Football League:
“More people are consuming the NFL in different ways, TV ratings have been down marginally, but that doesn’t mean that there is not the same amount of people who are consuming the product, whether it is through Red Zone, whether it’s through the mobile app, or whether it’s through highlights on social media. The NFL is more popular than ever.”
The last line will get some people to scoff, but McManus sees numbers that we laymen don’t see.
The fact that the number of ad breaks won’t rise is a good thing. We’ll also see the side-by-side breaks that were introduced last season and if that keeps the number of score-ads-kickoff-ads sequence down, then that is definitely a good thing.
About Ken Fang
Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013.
He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television.
Fang celebrates the four Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.