Roger Goodell has not been perfect in his time ruling over the NFL as commissioner; but when it comes to integrating the league into day-to-day society, he’s been pretty on point.
Many will say he was handed a goldmine and all he’s has to do is not mess up it, but the NFL has gone through challenging times, from players doubling as serial killers off the field, to horrific crimes against women, all the way back to the drastic changes in how the public consumes games and information; and Goodell has been at the helm for it all.
The NFL does however share a problem with most other professional sports; the games are too long–and the play reviews, injuries, commercials & timeouts don’t help.
Roger Goodell spoke to USA Today’s Tom Pelissero about how the league offices were looking at shortening next season’s broadcast time to keep viewers attention better, included doing away with back-to-back commercials before & after the opening kickoffs:
“It drives me crazy,” Goodell said. “We call those ‘double-ups.’ They actually occurred 27% of the time [on kickoffs last season]. And that’s still too high for us.”
Goodell also spoke on altering the way commercial breaks are spread out throughout the quarters. Currently, the NFL runs five, six, five, & five ads respective to quarter, and would be looking to slash that down to a standard pattern of four commercials per quarter.
“What we’re looking to do is take that down time out, which is not entertaining,” Goodell said. “And in our research, we had biofeedback, so we could see what they were watching and you could tell when they’re not as interested in what’s happening in the broadcast.
“In today’s day and age, we have to give our fans every reason to watch what’s happening, find what they see on television and in the stadium as compelling. Don’t give them a reason to turn away.”
With key plays now being available on most platforms & devices in almost real-time, fans’ attention spans are all-time short, and only getting shorter. The NFL will need to continue to look for ways to pack more action in less time if they want to keep the comfortable lead on all the other professional sports in the ratings department.