Ever try to explain American football to a non-fan? When you do it sounds like a real boring game. The players run around for a few seconds . . . then they all fall down in a big pile. Then we wait for a couple minutes while they slowly get up; meet in a huddle to talk about what they are going to do next and then run around for a couple more seconds.
According to a Wall Street Journal study of four recent football broadcasts the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes.
In other words, if you tally up everything that happens between the time the ball is snapped and the play is whistled dead by the officials, there’s barely enough time to prepare a hard-boiled egg. In fact, the average telecast devotes 56% more time to showing replays.
So what do the networks do with the other 174 minutes in a typical broadcast? Not surprisingly, commercials take up about an hour. As many as 75 minutes, or about 60% of the total air time, excluding commercials, is spent on shots of players huddling, standing at the line of scrimmage or just generally milling about between snaps. In the four broadcasts The Journal studied, injured players got six more seconds of camera time than celebrating players. While the network announcers showed up on screen for just 30 seconds, shots of the head coaches and referees took up about 7% of the average show. ● More from: Football Games Have 11 Minutes of Action – WSJ.com
