Goodell: NFL looking at cutting commercials, other changes to speed up games

[polamalubeast]

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said during his annual pre-Super Bowl press conference that the NFL is examining how to keep games moving — and retain TV viewers — and expects some changes to be implemented for the 2017 season.

Among those changes are a potential reduction of TV timeouts from five per quarter to four. The NFL experimented with that in Week 16 of the 2016 season, and Goodell said the league is also studying how replays and replay challenges are processed, as well as how quickly teams return to the field following mandatory stoppages and TV timeouts.

“There are a number of things we think we can shorten the management of the game, to focus less on stoppages and more on action,” Goodell said.

Goodell said that, based on early input, the NFL is “leaning very heavily” towards reducing the number of commercials and expects “to see a lot of changes this offseason” in regard to the length of games.


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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...peed-up-games/

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[43Hitman]

Less commercial's are a good thing. Not sure how they can guarantee "high quality football on Thur night" without flex scheduling. Unless I have it wrong, that would be brutal on teams being flexed into those games. Even with a week's notice that would suck. I bet we get at least one.

[fansince'76]

Considering it is commercials that drive TV revenue, good luck with that.

Or maybe Goodell really is stupid enough to think that TV networks pay billions out of the goodness of their heart for the right to carry the games.

Here's the formula, Rog:

Advertisers paying beaucoup money → TV networks paying beaucoup money → NFL

[st33lersguy]

If he wants high quality Thursday night he can start by cutting out the asinine practice of giving everyone a Thursday night slot. Quality Thursday night football requires keeping the likes of the 49ers, Browns, Rams, and Jags off primetime

[Butch]

Get rid of Thursday night football, there is no need for it, and even though we don't have bad color splash uniforms most teams do those can go too.

The number of commercials is absolutely ridiculous.

[tube517]

Define a catch and you won't see 10 minute referee huddles trying to figure out wtf a catch is.

NFL's own damn fault. You change rules that don't need to be changed and you make the game more difficult to officiate and then the game is longer.

As far as commercials, stop having every little moment sponsored. "This is the Pennzoil Injury Timeout"..."This is the Pepsi 3rd quarter summary" Just end that shit already.

[SteelerFanInStl]

They definitely need to reduce the number of commercials. It's completely ridiculous. Way too many commercial breaks. It messes up the flow of the game.

I don't like Thursday night games either but I don't see those going away.

[86WARD]

Considering it is commercials that drive TV revenue, good luck with that.

Or maybe Goodell really is stupid enough to think that TV networks pay billions out of the goodness of their heart for the right to carry the games.

Here's the formula, Rog:

Advertisers paying beaucoup money → TV networks paying beaucoup money → NFL

They'll just up the rates...they don't care.

[Born2Steel]

I'd rather just watch the commercials this year.

[steelreserve]

They'll just switch to four five-minute commercial breaks instead of five four-minute breaks. They're not going to cut the amount of advertising.

That still would be better than the way they do it now. The sheer number of breaks makes the flow of the game so stilted and herky-jerky it's almost impossible to get into sometimes. And SUPER boring to watch in person; every few minutes there's a few-minute break of just fat guys standing around with their hands on their hips.

At any rate, if this also eliminates the touchdown-commercial-kickoff-another-commerial bullshit, I would be all for it.