NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the public in a pre-Super Bowl press conference on Wednesday. He covered many issues including the possibility of the league reducing the number of commercials during a game. The task at hand would be to shorten the time it takes to watch an entire NFL game.
He elaborated a bit more on the possibility.
“This is not a competition committee issue but an issue with our leadership and broadcast partners,” Goodell said, per Zac Jackson of Pro Football Talk. “We are trying to do it with the right balance that can improve the quality for our fans in the stadium and also the quality of the broadcast.”
Anyone who has sat through an entire NFL game knows it takes anywhere from three to possibly four hours to view 60 minutes worth of playing time. The average length of an NFL game in 2016 was three hours and eight minutes. With overtime, the games could be inching nearer to that four-hour mark.
Thank goodness the NFL Network re-plays the condensed versions of the games the following week for those who simply don’t have time to watch the real time version. But because there are other methods in which to view the games, the NFL’s television ratings dropped dramatically this season.
In order to improve ratings and keep viewers interested, the league is also pondering some other changes. Per Jackson, the television timeouts might be reduced to four instead of five. Another item the league is considering is whether it will still feature all 32 NFL teams in Thursday Night Football, per the report.
This might not seem fair, but a New England Patriots game against the Green Bay Packers is going to draw far more attention than watching the Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Chargers square off on a Thursday evening.
As for cutting the commercials, most of us are likely on the same page of thought.