Last I checked, soccer was a pretty popular sport around the globe. More popular than basketball, I might add.
And if you’ve ever sat on the sofa and watched a soccer match, you’ve probably noticed that there are no TV timeouts. You get 45 minutes of action, then you can get up and make a sandwich, and then you go back and get 45 more minutes of non-stop action, commercial-free.
Why can’t the NBA be quite as enjoyable?
Don’t get me wrong … I’d watch an NBA game instead of a soccer match 99 times out of 100, the exception being the World Cup. But the more and more I watch basketball, the more it bothers me that the game has no flow. And I am not just talking about Hack-a-DJ or Hack-a-Dwight or the increasing reliance on video review. Those momentum killers are a part of the game, the intentional fouling a matter of tactics; the video reviews a necessary evil.
What kills me are the commercial breaks. There are automatic timeouts at the 6-minute and 3-minute mark of the first and third quarters, and at the 9-minute, 6-minute and 3-minute mark of the second and fourth quarters. What this means is that with the exception of the first six minutes of the first and third quarters, NBA basketball is played in 3-minute segments.
This gives the game about as much flow as a clogged toilet. And along those same lines, it stinks.
So what can be done?
The money the NBA receives from its broadcast partners is astronomical, and those broadcast partners make that money back by selling commercial time. But in the age of TIVO and DVRs and short attention spans, how many people are actually watching those commercials? I’d love to find a study that delves into that particular question. My guess is that the number is probably around 50 percent, and even then … how many people are going out and switching their insurance to State Farm just because Chris and Cliff Paul say they should.
What if State Farm did a different type of deal in which its logo was affixed along the bottom of the screen, replacing the crawl that spews headlines and out of town scores and serves as nothing more than a distraction. Let’s say State Farm bought advertising exclusivity for the entire first quarter, and the automatic TV timeouts were eliminated. State Farm’s commercials would run when normal timeouts were called, and between the first and second quarters. Bud Light could do the same thing for the second and third quarters, and another advertiser could purchase the fourth quarter. Would that type of exclusivity bring the networks the same amount of revenue that they are currently getting by cramming 3 minutes of commercials into each timeout?
Yes, this is a revolutionary idea, and the NBA is not exactly overflowing with revolutionary thinkers.
Commercials are a necessary evil, but the quality of the product should take precedence over the needs of the TV partners. And let’s face it: The game needs some fixing in terms of flow. Changing the Hack-a-Shaq rules will not solve the bigger problem. And when we have a situation like Tuesday night when the best series in the playoffs, clippers-Spurs, ends at nearly 2 a.m. in the East Coast, there is a problem. If an hour can be shaved off the game time by eliminating mandatory TV timeouts, why not take a look at it?
More on that concept in this video with CineSport’s Brian Clark.
Chris Sheridan is publisher and eeditor in chief of SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.
Even if you keep the TV timeouts…why do NBA coaches need 6 additional timeouts per game? That’s insane. They could easily cut that number to 4 and save two timeouts per game, and add in the State Farm add or whatever on the bottom of the screen.
Awesome article Chris! I live in Europe and you don’t need to compare basketball and football (not soccer…) to assess the differences.
Just take European basketball for that matter. There is no TV time out so apart from coaches TO you get a constant flow and rhythm to the game.
There are other ways to advertise: companies logos on the court, or jerseys is one. Constant logos on TV screen during broadcast. Yes, advertising is a necessary evil but it should never dictate the core of the game…thats when you lose your soul and product.
Thank you Chris, that´s how i think. Ads are running the game to the ground. It´s terrible to watch and it just helps making the game uglier and uglier.
I was a slave of these telecasts, but ever since they started selling NBA League Pass online i solved this problem. I don´t watch live games anymore, with a few exceptions in the playoffs. I watch the games commercial free on League Pass and i save about one hour of my time.
This is a problem with american sports in general, and they need to change this because people are just sick with these constant breaks. Thankfully now we have things like streaming that help us get through the garbage and just watch the games instead.