Friday, December 3, 2010

Costas and Commercials Outweigh Action

Anyone with plans to curl up on the couch for a long night of ice dancing and ski jumping Monday will have their patience tested. That's because there's a good chance they'll watch more commercials than actual Olympic action.

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NBC Sports announcers Al Michaels and Bob Costas

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An analysis of NBC's 3 ½-hour program Friday night showed that there were 56 minutes, 41 seconds of commercials over 24 breaks—that's three more minutes than actual event action that was showed. Ski jumping, which took up about 30 minutes of the broadcast, featured less than two minutes of action, compared with four minutes, 46 seconds of replays (there was, on average, more than one replay per jump). More than half the time during the compulsory-dancing segments showed action, but good luck getting into a rhythm watching the sport: A commercial break separated each routine.

Most televised sporting events have similar setups, including commercials every half-inning in baseball and eight TV timeouts in NBA games. A Wall Street Journal study last month showed that NFL broadcasts feature just 11 minutes of action.

The one hour, 40 minutes of the NBC broadcast that wasn't action and commercials included more than 10 minutes of instant replays and more than 10 minutes of preprepared video packages. The blimps were hard at work too, offering 2 minutes, 18 seconds of aerial shots. And don't forget NBC frontman Bob Costas, who was featured in solo shots and interviews for more than 17 minutes—including two glimpses of his trademark on-set fireplace.

We'll Be Right Back

Here's a breakdown of what was seen in one 3 ½ -hour NBC broadcast of the Olympics.

Time

%

Commercials

56 m, 41 s

27

Action

53 m, 37 s

25.5

Bob Costas

17 m, 19 s

8.2

Replays

10 m, 26 s

5

Video Segments

10 m, 13 s

4.9

Medal Ceremonies

5 m, 25 s

2.6

On-site athlete interviews

4 m, 59 s

2.3qtdz

Online.wsj.com

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