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Report: Concerned over falling ratings, NFL considering ways to speed up game

While the NFL has seen an uptick in ratings numbers over the last two Sundays, the league is still taking a look at how it can better adapt games on television to better appeal to a changing viewership.

Via John Ourand of SportsBusiness Journal, fewer commercial breaks, a shorter halftime and a more streamlined play-review system are among the things the league is considering as a means of getting – and keeping – eyes on its games.

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Addressing the one thing fans likely complain about the most, the annoyingly-high number of commercial breaks, is, according to Ourand, the least likely to happen.

The NFL was in Mexico City on Monday night. (AP)
The NFL was in Mexico City on Monday night. (AP)

“The NFL is looking into whether advertisers would pay more for the exclusivity of fewer ad breaks,” Ourand writes. “When I asked a network ad sales executive if broadcasters could make as much revenue from fewer ads, I was greeted with laughter.”

Network executives of course want no part of fewer commercials. CBS, NBC and Fox pay an average of more than $1 billion a year for the right to air NFL games, and ESPN pays nearly $2 billion annually. That money has to be made back, and then some.

So unless the NFL starts taking less from the networks, thus making it easier for them to air fewer ads, the high number isn’t changing.

The NFL’s network partners charge up to $700,000 per 30-second ad spot.

As for the other options, Ourand calls it “realistic” that halftime could be shortened from 12 minutes to 10, again with networks’ blessing. Speeding up replay review, by centralizing the process in the league office, as the NHL and NBA do currently, could be one solution, and one that could be instituted quickly.

Other possibilities Ourand mentions: letting the stadium PA announcer handle announcing penalties, and reducing the number of broadcast windows (i.e. Thursday night, Sunday day, Sunday night, Sunday morning on the weeks of London games, Monday night…it’s too much).

The length of game is now averaging 3:12, up five minutes from 2014.