How Going to Commercial During the Super Bowl Works

Commercial television breaks are the ruin of all NFL fans. They interrupted a game already full of stops, bombard the spectators with meals and force fans and players on stage to stop around two and a half minutes, sometimes in the cold cold.

However, commercials are the soul of the NFL without them, the announcers could not afford to pay the league thousands of dollars for rights fees, money that is destined to pay the salaries of the players and much more.

Most games have 18 commercial breaks. Some waiting times, such as at the end of the first and third quarter and in two -minute warnings, are set. The league and networks avoid taking breaks if the opening impulse of the team’s game ends rapidly, because they want fans to settle in the transmission. If everything goes well, the last commercials run in the two -minute warning in the fourth quarter.

Most of the commercial breaks, thought, are chosen in real time, since the executives of the league, the producers of networks and the officials in the field look for natural breaks in the action. Finding them is more art than the science that each game develops differently, with long units, three and jumps, waiting times and trainers.

“Our fans know that the commercial breaks are coming,” Said Mike North, Vice President of Broadcast planning and scheduling at the nfl “The Whole Idea from where we sit is to try to use breaks to cover Downime: IFE AFTER Astefy score there Astefy to Scully to Scully a There, a There, to sculo a score to Scully to Scully to There, to There, after a score, a score to Scully to Scunta A Scuenta to the point to the point there, Vert;

Their decisions will be seen on Sunday for more than 100 million spectators who look at the Super Bowl and, advertisers expect, 30 second commercials, some of which cost more than $ 8 million. The ads are so valuable that the networks, Fox this year, add two additional breaks, the duration of the game, which raises the total to 20.

The League, networks and officials in the field call a minimum of four commercial breaks per quarter, but try to balance between too many breaks that interrupt the flow of the game and expect too much and risk having to put the game watch.

The logistics of determining when calling television waiting times requires an intricate telephone tree in a three -hour game. The referee, who controls when a game begins and stops and can cancel a request request, communicates with the rear judge, who is in constant contact with two lateral officials standing near the Yardas line. One of them wears a green hat and repeats the league. The other has orange gloves and works for the network.

They talk to Mr. North and other league officials in the press box and producers in the production truck outside the stadium. Sometimes, the decision to go to the commercial is obvious, as after a score. On other occasions, the league and the network take a break after an injury or a coach challenge. The official who uses orange gloves will cross his arms in an “X” to indicate that the network wants to go to break. The referee will fly the whistle and stretch the arms to form an T, which means that the game stops for about 2 minutes and 20 seconds.

Sometimes, the Green Hat official will hold a sign with “: 30” printed to indicate that the network wants to take a waiting time for 30 seconds, not a complete rest of 2:20. When the breaks end, the referee turns his arm on his head three times, and the game clock restarts. If a team calls a waiting time, but the network does not want to go to commercial rest, the official with the orange gloves will turn his arm in a circle on his head.

Some commercial waiting times are based on hearts. At the beginning of the playoff game of the divisional round between the Los Angeles Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles, the Rams coach, Sean McVay, challenged a call from an incomplete pass in the third Down. The officials ruled that the receiver had dropped the ball, but the repetitions were conclusive, so Mr. North and NBC went to commercial because they bet that the review would not be fast. When the break ended, the call was overloaded and the impulse of the Rams continued. Mr. North felt good, they could use a rest sailor.

“As a producer, one of his responsibilities is not. 1 is to create the best possible flow for the spectator at home,” said Fred Gaudelli, a NFL games producer during ABC, ESPN and NBC. “I produced games for 35 years, and I never made a game when all the commercials did not enter. They will enter. So do not worry. We are going to the best for the viewer.”

Once or twice per season, a referee will restart the game during a break, forcing the network to separate from commercials. If the networks cannot play all the commercials, they will do it to an advertiser later in the season. There is no such option with the Super Bowl, because it is the final game of the year.

For decades, the networks took waiting times when they wanted. But since the end of the 1990s, the NFL has regulated its length, frequency and placement. The NFL standardized the breaks to include four commercials of 30 seconds and approximately 10 seconds for the networks to execute promotions for other shows or for the speakers to discuss elements of the game.

In 2016, to address the complaints of the spectators, including Commissioner Roger Goodell, who closely observes the games, the League made an integral vision of how commercial ruptures affected the experience of spectators, players and fans in the stadium.

He discovered that the need to group in 20 or 22 breaks per game led to unnatural stops. For example, the networks routinely break commercial after an extra point, returned to the stadium for the beginning and then returned to the commercial. If there was a point with a few seconds in the first quarter, the League determined that there was no need to take a commercial in the change of possession because there is always a break at the end of the quarter.

Then, in 2017, the NFL reduced one of the five game tasks in the game each quarter, but increased the length of the breaks to 2 minutes 20 seconds.

“These changes are destined to give more than you want: a competitive game with less interruptions and distractions of the action,” Goodell wrote in a letter to fans who explain the movements.

It turned out that Fer breaks, increased attention in commercials. Networks also introduced “double boxes” that show an advertisement on one side and one of the stadium in the other box. The League tried to improve the flow of the game, among other things, it will not break the duration of the late returns and the winning units of the game and allowing the referees to review the calls on a tablet to large screens on the sidelines.

When a complete break feels too disruptive, networks can introduce an analyst to discuss a controversial called or lateral reporter to provide updates on a player’s injuries.

“Anyway, you are using natural inactivity time, so people are never stopped with” Why are Aren “play?” Hans Schroeder said, Executive Vice President of Media Distribution in the League. “That is great for people on stage and it’s great for people who saw at home.”