The Athletic ($) Ran the Numbers on the New Length of CFB Games
I found this article from The Athletic over at /r/cfb. I'm not a subscriber, so I could not read it myself. However, the helpful (?) commenters at /r/cfb pull-quoted some of the relevant numbers:
The Alabama-Texas game officially lasted three hours and 24 minutes, of which approximately 45 minutes (not including halftime) were commercials. We compared that broadcast with three 2022 SEC games on ESPN. They followed the same format and averaged between 45 and 46 minutes. No noticeable change from last year.
The Athletic also compared the Week 2 Wisconsin-Washington State game (which falls under the Pac-12’s contract) on ABC with the network’s Week 2 USC–Stanford broadcast a year earlier. Sure enough: same 3-4-3-4 format, with the same exact total of 43:30 in commercials. For the Big 12, we matched the 2022 TCU-Baylor game on Fox with the 2023 Oregon-Texas Tech game on Fox. Both followed 4-4-4-4 formats with approximately 39 minutes of commercial time. And for the Big Ten, we compared Fox’s 2022 Nebraska-Northwestern matchup in Week 0 with its Week 3 broadcast of Western Kentucky-Ohio State this season. Same 4-4-4-4 format, same total of 46 minutes.
The consensus seems to be that broadcasters have used the new rules to shorten the broadcast time without affecting their total commercial time. Raise your hand if this outcome shocks you.
September 21st, 2023 at 12:12 PM ^
Right. The idea is correct here. They've reduced plays and kept the same amount of commerical time, so you're watching the same amount of commercials and less football, and it does feel like it.
The rules are also bad for college teams. Mack Brown is right to point out the larger rosters in college football, more walk-ons etc, and the importance of letting guys who practice get in games to feel better about it.
Honestly, I really hope there is a strong push to go back. It has made for a worse viewing product and is harder on team cohesion.
September 21st, 2023 at 12:22 PM ^
Doesn't this mean that we're getting the same amount of commercials, but less game?
September 21st, 2023 at 1:03 PM ^
Yes, my thought was we would have more commercials and less game
September 21st, 2023 at 12:25 PM ^
I am interested to see what happens as the season progresses; the games do feel like there are fewer plays and more commercials but at least as UM fans it has been against three absolute tomato cans so everything feels like a slog midway through the first half. For example, I think there were two commercial breaks around the BGSU defensive end injury, which is somewhat atypical obviously but also made a nothing game feel extra long.
But yeah, I'm a bit surprised that the networks haven't dumped even more ads into the space.
September 21st, 2023 at 12:28 PM ^
So we're getting slightly shorter total start-to-finish broadcast time, the same amount of commercials and therefore a higher ratio of the time dedicated to commercials?
Ugghhh, between this and weekends like the last one where barely anyone in the top 25 played a soul it's getting easier and easier to just not tune in. The commercial timeout with 11 seconds left last week was just a figurative middle finger from the advertisers telling us they don't care about the fans.
September 21st, 2023 at 1:03 PM ^
it's true there weren't many ranked matchups last weekend but man it was a fun time
September 21st, 2023 at 12:43 PM ^
I would love to see the trends over the last 20 years. It definitely started getting really bad about 5 years ago.
September 21st, 2023 at 12:47 PM ^
Its bad, and I hate it. The commercials are absolutely insane...from old rules to new rules. Its less football and it sucks
TV Execs laughing all the way to their yachts. Fuck em
September 21st, 2023 at 12:48 PM ^
It makes sense to me that there could -- at least theoretically -- be a vicious cycle going on here -- the more unbearable the networks make the games to watch, the more we shift to viewing on DVR and skipping commercials. Leading to the networks introducing even more ads.
September 21st, 2023 at 12:53 PM ^
They keep missing the point. The games have gotten tediously long because of the ad breaks. We experience it the most because we get. four ad breaks per quarter plus promos and everything else they can slip in. They *do* sell the extra spots, by the way.
What they've done is take away football because the ads were pushing the football games to 4 hours and the games were running into each other. So they changed the ratio.
September 21st, 2023 at 1:02 PM ^
yea, the gross number of ads hasn't changed in the last year. But to reduce the time, rather than reduce the ads, they've reduced the football.
September 21st, 2023 at 2:05 PM ^
And they're trying to be cute with their asinine explanations in the article as if we're all so simple.
September 21st, 2023 at 4:48 PM ^
Before TV took over college football a game was about 2 hours and 55 minutes long. If there are 16 commercial breaks each game, I would assume before TV that would take about 8 minutes of down time to send the kickoff unit on the field or to send the team onto the field after a punt - 30 seconds each time. Maybe more if you count the time in between quarters because I think that is longer too and I don't know if that is in the 4-4-4-4. That means the commercials have added almost a half hour of sitting and listening to a DJ or Anthony Bellino. To get the games down to 3 hours and fifteen minutes that means that they have cut out at least 10 minutes of football but probably more because football is more pass intensive than it was before TV. An out of bounds play used to stop the clock and now it starts on the ready to play. The clocks keeps running on a first down. So the rules changes have traded football for the DJ and Anthony Bellino and made he DJ and Anthony Bellino a higher percentage of the overall time at the stadium.
September 22nd, 2023 at 10:09 AM ^
I was very surprised to read that article and not see any mention of the ratio. It's not difficult to see through the networks and NCAA saying "see, we didn't put in more ads!" but realize while technically true, the few minutes they're shaving off overall game length is the part you actually want to see.
I don't like to jump to conspiracy theory, but it's such an elementary connection to make that I wonder if these reporters who are typically excellent were instructed to just parrot the message from the networks/NCAA rather than interpret the data even in the most basic way.
September 22nd, 2023 at 5:11 PM ^
Exactly - the ratio
September 21st, 2023 at 1:01 PM ^
One thing about the athletic is that they benchmark these numbers to last year, and they benchmarked last year against 2017 - and I totally believe them that commercial time hasn't increased in the last year or since 2017. But they've definitely reduced plays, and i think the biggest increase in time of commercials and games happened before 2017. I'm so curious as to what commercial times were like in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015. Quick googling doesn't make it easy to see game run times from the not-too-distant past.
The other thing - 45 minutes of commercial for a 60 minute game (which usually doesn't include halftime, which is fine) - that is just too damn much. When did this get normalized? I REALLY hope Peacock has like, one commercial break per quarter moving forward. I would be so willing to pay for that. But, nope.
September 21st, 2023 at 8:31 PM ^
It's the creep that is typical of late capitalism: keep pushing the consumer as far as you can.
Whatever the number of breaks per quarter, the lengths of commercial breaks went from one, to two, to three, and now closer to four minutes.
September 21st, 2023 at 1:09 PM ^
Why do we all accept a product that's nearly one quarter commercials? That's insane. Wtf is wrong with us?
September 21st, 2023 at 1:27 PM ^
Unfortunately we love college football, therefore we are at their mercy.
I use the mute button.
September 21st, 2023 at 1:57 PM ^
1/5 commercials, 1/10 halftime, 3/10 game play, and like 4/10 "normal" clock stoppages that don't result in commercials?
I get why they looked at a 200 min broadcast and were like "ah yes, the real problem is the clock stoppages without football. fans don't understand this is what bothers them." But those stoppages include plenty of untimed football. I'd much, much rather they put commercials on those - miss a replay here or there - without missing more football. Instead of trying to reduce that time, make commercial stoppages come down even 5 minutes and get those 5 minutes with copious in-game advertising and literally everyone would laud it as brilliant.
Or charge me more for peacock but just promise that the broadcast won't be delayed for commercials - there will only be commercials during quarter breaks and in between plays without stopping the action.
September 21st, 2023 at 1:32 PM ^
How much would it cost for a subscription service to go "commercial free" during game time? For example, you get a 3 minute ad window when they change sides of the field every quarter and you get halftime ads.
Imagine if Elon instead of lighting 44 billion on fire for Twitter/X, he created "The College Football Network" (shoot he could have just called that X). For 100 dollars you get the network and they have rights to all of FBS lets say. Totally not possible I know, but I think people would shell out the money for that option.
September 21st, 2023 at 1:45 PM ^
We would have to make up the difference for the B1G's increasing appetite for revenue. The conference makes close to one billion dollars in TV revenue.
September 21st, 2023 at 1:43 PM ^
This will get me down voted but needs to be said. Brian Cook, Seth, and others consistently advocated that college football essentially become the NFL lite (pay the players). This is precisely what has happened and will only get worse.
Advocating that college football adjust it's model in such a way that more individuals can get a piece of the pie means that maximizing revenue potential becomes the goal. The NCAA power brokers, athletic departments, and coaches weren't just going to voluntarily reduce their revenue to compensate the players. Increased revenue would be the goal, has been the goal, and will be the goal moving forward.
The tradition of college football is all but gone. The new tradition is now trying to maximize us and the potential profit we can bring; the idea of watching our favorite school's football team is gone.
I have plans to forgo watching live broadcasts and instead watch the cut version on YouTube if Michigan wins. I will only attend one game a year and watch the Ohio State game live. This will save me roughly 30 hours of time each year and best of all, no commercials. I love the University of Michigan, the athletic department, and the football team but college football is no longer about showcasing our student athletes against another schools student athletes.
September 21st, 2023 at 5:00 PM ^
Have you been paying attention? It’s clear that maximizing revenue IS already the goal. I mean… *gestures towards literally every decision made in the past decade plus*
The point is that since they’ve already sold CFB’s soul, let’s maybe direct some of that money to the people who are putting their bodies on the line instead of just funneling more into execs, admins, and coaches pockets.
September 21st, 2023 at 1:45 PM ^
I posted about this in another thread a few weeks ago as I work in TV and have access to format logs for all major networks that and compared a few from last year to this year and they were identical. I even posted the format for the Virginia vs. Tennessee game a few weeks ago if you want to see what the actual ABC commercial format looks like:
https://mgoblog.com/comment/244950149#comment-244950149
Here's another one I've been working on comparing... FOX 2013 prime time college football format vs. FOX 2023. The results? If I did my math correctly, they're nearly identical and I've posted them below for those interested in seeing them.
To clarify some of the geek speak below, all breaks are national breaks except LCL, which are local affiliate breaks (typically at the end of each quarter). Break 5, for example, is 2:20 (2:00 national network followed by 20 seconds for the local affiliate).
I did not include the 1:10 local in Break 23 to the total. The reason is because this is the end break and depending what is airing next local affiliates may opt to make this break longer or shorter (for example, if they are airing local news after the game, they may add an extra minute of commercials before news because viewership will prob be higher at that time and they can make more money selling ads there).
This is the standard game format. It does not include floater breaks for things like injuries and teams taking time outs that networks will add as time allows.
Also, as I explained in the other thread, if the game moves at such a pace that not all breaks can be aired during the current quarter, they will make them up elsewhere. Say Michigan goes on a 9 minute drive to open the game and they only air breaks 1, 2, 3 and 5 in the first quarter, they will make up Break 4 in the 2nd quarter. Could be cramming in a 5th break, could be combining two breaks together into an extended break, etc...
Games can run longer or shorter, but the advertising time doesn't seem to change much. Networks paid a lot for the rights to air games and they gotta get paid.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL ON FOX 2013 PRIME TIME FORMAT
Pre-kick – 2:00
1st Quarter
Break 1 – 2:15
Break 2 – 2:15
Break 3 – 2:15
Break 4 – 2:15
Break 5 (End 1st) – 2:20 (2:00 NET/:20 LCL)
2nd Quarter
Break 6 – 2:15
Break 7 – 2:10
Break 8 – 2:15
Break 9 – 2:15
Break 10 (End 2nd) – 2:55 (:30 NET/2:05 LCL/:20 NET)
Half Time
Break 11 – 2:50 (1:30 NET/1:00 LCL/:20 NET)
Break 12 – 2:55 (:20 NET/2:05 LCL/:30 NET)
3rd Quarter
Break 13 – 2:15
Break 14 – 2:10
Break 15 – 2:15
Break 16 – 2:15
Break 17 (End 3rd) – 2:25 (:30 NET/1:55 LCL)
4th Quarter
Break 18 – 2:15
Break 19 – 2:15
Break 20 – 2:15
Break 21 – 2:10
Break 22 – 3:50 (1:40 NET/2:10 LCL)
Break 23 (End break) – 1:35 (:25 NET/1:10 LCL)
TRT: 55:25
COLLEGE FOOTBALL ON FOX 2023 PRIME TIME FORMAT
Pre-kick – 2:00
1st Quarter
Break 1 – 2:15
Break 2 – 2:10
Break 3 – 2:15
Break 4 – 2:15
Break 5 (End 1st) – 2:20 (2:00 NET/:20 LCL)
2nd Quarter
Break 6 – 2:15
Break 7 – 2:10
Break 8 – 2:15
Break 9 – 2:10
Break 10 (End 2nd) – 2:55 (:30 NET/2:05 LCL/:20 NET)
Half Time
Break 11 – 2:50 (1:50 NET/1:00 LCL)
Break 12 – 2:55 (:20 NET/2:05 LCL/:30 NET)
3rd Quarter
Break 13 – 2:10
Break 14 – 2:10
Break 15 – 2:15
Break 16 – 2:15
Break 17 (End 3rd) – 2:20 (:25 NET/1:35 LCL/:20 NET)
4th Quarter
Break 18 – 2:10
Break 19 – 2:15
Break 20 – 2:15
Break 21 – 2:10
Break 22 (Postgun) – 3:50 (1:40 NET/2:10 LCL)
Break 23 (End break) – 1:35 (:25 NET/1:10 LCL)
Commercial TRT: 55:00
September 21st, 2023 at 8:41 PM ^
Does that include promos as well as straight commercial advertising?
It would seem not, as it would seem (especially Fox) broadcast breaks are much longer than 2:15 - much closer to 3 or 4 minute interruption of play.
That some of a break is occupied by promos (before or after the commercials, while in-stadium or not) as opposed to ads matter little to the fan in the stands or at home really, it is an expanded interruption of the game.
September 21st, 2023 at 10:23 PM ^
Yes, I included promos in my times. I simplified the format above, but here's a snippet of the actual format we receive from FOX that breaks down the segments (SEG), commercials (CML), promos (PRO), local breaks (LCL), and billboards (which is basically when they come back from commercial and put a graphic on the air and say something like, "Today's game is sponsored by Coca Cola"). This is the format for last Saturday night's game.
I did not include the pregame show at 7:30pm because those can vary. If you have back-to-back games and the first game runs long, they might kill breaks if necessary for time, so I just wanted to focus on the game itself.
So you have your opening segment, the prekick break, which is 2:00 of commercials, followed by Segment 1, which would be kickoff/start of the first quarter. The next break there's 2:00 of commercials + 5 second MLB on FOX promo + 10 second billboard for Heineken and State Farm (10 seconds is just a generic time, it could take a few seconds more to less but no big deal). So Break 1 is 2:15. Back to the game for segment 2, then Break 2 is 2:00 of commercials + a 10 second promo for Special Forces, so a 2:10 total break. Not going to post the entire log, but you get the gist of it.
September 22nd, 2023 at 7:49 AM ^
I appreciate you adding this. When Red Hat steps on the field why does his clock says 2:45 not 2:15?
September 21st, 2023 at 2:10 PM ^
Remember that time they took a commercial break after a punt with 11 seconds left in the game only for Michigan to take a knee?
If that doesn't scream "piss on the fans" I don't know what else does.
September 21st, 2023 at 2:31 PM ^
This is a classic example of why the commercials seem so much worse even though they have the same number of them as they did last season.
So--you need 4 commercial breaks in the 4th quarter, and you can only take them at team timeouts, changes of possession, injuries and replays. BG had the ball at their own 20 to start the quarter.
First commercial: some time during BG's possession there was a BGSU injury
Second commercial: BG kept the ball until they had to punt it away at 9:10 to go, when they went to a break
Third commercial: M went 3 & out so we went to commercial with 6:53 to go and BG ball 1st & 10 on their own 35.
Fourth commercial: BG slowly drives down the field and misses a field goal with 0:11 to go. What can you do? It's ridiculous, but they sold that commercial time.
Nobody called timeout in the fourth quarter. There were only 3 changes of possession because of the clock rules. They actually try to load up the commercials in the 4th quarter as early as possible, especially in a blowout. They just couldn't do it. I'm afraid that the next thing will be mid-drive commercials, but hopefully they draw the line before allowing that.
(Personally I would support a rule limiting breaks to 2 per quarter, but we would have to be prepared for a different sport in terms of the number of games that get televised).
Also, it's pretty crazy that Michigan only ran 4 offensive plays in the quarter, and one of them was a kneel down. I don't think I have ever seen that.
September 21st, 2023 at 4:51 PM ^
I usually stay until the end but I wasn't waiting 3 minutes to see a fourth string quarterback take a knee. It was already past my bedtime. I wonder if I missed a maize and blue Michigan wins light show.
September 21st, 2023 at 3:17 PM ^
Just ran some quick numbers from https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/plays-per-game. And just as we thought...
- 2014-2022: plays per game per team average was between 72.1 in 2014 and 69.5 in 2021. Not including the COVID season.
- In 2023... 60.2
We're getting less football and it's a crime. Its actually 86.7% of a game based on the low mark. Imagine them cutting soccer down to 38 minute halves, or 10-minute quarters in the NBA.
September 21st, 2023 at 4:05 PM ^
Was unable to read the article, but please tell me they didn't come to this conclusion after analyzing and comparing a grand total of two 2023 games with two similar games from 2022. The data are incredibly suspect if we are only looking at such a small sample size.
September 21st, 2023 at 5:02 PM ^
What would be real helpful to know is the exact time of the kickoff. Last Saturday was a 7:30 game but it was almost 7:45 when the game started. Sometimes when there is a noon game the kickoff is just about at noon.
Is there anywhere where this information is published?
September 21st, 2023 at 6:22 PM ^
Unfortunately, when they changed the timing rules to more closely match the NFL and shorten games, I think we all knew they'd sell the same number of ads - not reduce them and increase the price.
Maybe they could get away with that. Corporations budget ad spending, not number of ads. But perhaps number and price are already in the contract.
I stopped watching non-Michigan games entirely because of the ads about five years ago. So far, Michigan has only been on broadcast television once this season, and I tuned out after watching a lot of the first half against UNLV. Last season, it seemed they were on broadcast most weeks. It's a shame about the Rutgers game, seeing as they're doing a good job building up a real Big Ten-level program.
The NFL figured this out more than a decade ago. It's not good for the sport, creating a product that new fans won't get into because of the commercial load. When's the last time an NFL game ran four hours? There are weeks when they have to run filler before the 4:25 second game on the designated network because none of the 1:05 games lasted long enough.