NHL experimenting with increasing tv timeouts by 30 seconds

[Rand0m]

I never watch the games live anyway, I always wait about 30-40 minutes before starting it so I can just skip all the commercials! This will just mean 4 presses of the 30s skip button instead of 3!

 

[TheTotalPackage]

If this happens I’ll be a lot less likely to watch games. I’d gladly trade European style jerseys for no commercials at all.

How about 90-second commercials and absolutely no ads on jerseys. Instead of finding ways to help promote the sport/league better and find ways to enhance their current revenue streams, they are instead making the viewing experience worse, bastardizing the aesthetics of their jerseys and helmets with lame sponsor logos that look awful, and hawking betting on the games to the max which makes one question the legitimacy of these games at times.

 

[Ghost of Murph]

Meh, I hydrate a lot so this just allows me to pee without straining to push it out faster so that I don't miss any action. Thank you NHL.

 

[NyQuil]

Meh, I hydrate a lot so this just allows me to pee without straining to push it out faster so that I don't miss any action. Thank you NHL.

So much for the Gatorade bottle by the couch.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Soooo ... They want people to quit watching altogether?

That won't happen over 30 seconds. But it will happen at some point. That is what is killing broadcast TV.

 

[Whalers Fan]

The total difference is a minute and a half over the course of a full two and a half hour game. Get over it.

For now, that may be true. But once a sport starts down this path, it usually continues to add more and more TV commercial break time. Eventually you end up with what the NFL and NCAA football have become -- a lot of long commercial breaks. If you are actually attending the game in person, it's painful. The TV timeouts at the University of Michigan football games seemed to go on forever when I was at games in the Big House.

I also have season tickets to the US NTDP, which doesn't have long breaks -- usually just one halfway through the period to shovel the snow off the ice. The game has a noticeably better flow than an NHL game, and it's also much shorter. An average game lasts about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

 

[Deep Blue Metallic]

I rarely watch games live, and fast-forward though commercials and intermissions. Make the ad breaks an hour long for all I care.

NB - not a solution for those whose buddies text every 5 minutes asking "did you see that goal?"

 

[VivaLasVegas]

NHL trying their hardest to decrease viewership. They already have too many ads... getting almost as bad as HFboards spammy forum. It's gross.

The HF ads are only for those too cheap to drop the $12 ... basically, the freeloaders at a community picnic who complain about the taste of the free food.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

The total difference is a minute and a half over the course of a full two and a half hour game. Get over it.

Probably said this about ads as well....

These commercial breaks are noticeably longer.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Soooo ... They want people to quit watching altogether?

That won't happen over 30 seconds. But it will happen at some point. That is what is killing broadcast TV.

Every season the NHL pushes me closer to giving up on the league.

Best sport. Worst league.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

I don’t get why people complain so much.

Three commercial breaks per period. That’s 1.5 minutes more per period. Which is 4.5 minutes more per game.

If they take off one minute of intermission time then the game will run 2.5 minutes longer than usual.

People complain because of the sheer tonnage of ads you have to endure just to watch a friggin hockey game in the current NHL.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

People complain because of the sheer tonnage of ads you have to endure just to watch a friggin hockey game in the current NHL.

Look at the way it has evolved in broadcast TV. 5 minute commercial breaks are the norm. In movies the breaks keep getting longer as the movie progresses. They are sometimes up to 10 minutes by the end. I've forgotten what movie I was watching by then. Or just lost interest. They will gradually do the same thing to hockey if we let them.

Trouble is that as viewers tune out they sell even more ads to make up for the lost eyeballs. Broadcast TV is dying and they still haven't figured it out.

 

[ElysiumAB]

Between the ads on the ice, the animated ones on the boards, the score box, the helmets, the sweaters, etc, it’s getting harder and harder to spot the action.

Don't forget the on screen ads during icings and the gambling info on the ticker.