Americans for Responsible Advertising Inc. was tuned into the championship game of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and it had its stopwatch with it. It counted record amount of sporting event advertising.
The telecast ran two hours and 22 minutes.
The clock was running and basketball was being played for 40 of those minutes.
Commercials consumed a bit more time than the actual game: 44 minutes. AFRA pegged that as 33% of the total broadcast. AFRA said that was the highest percentage it has ever recorded.
It noted further that viewers were subjected to numerous other advertising messages, including “nearly subliminal speed” flashes of the NCAA logo before and after breaks and via signage in the venue where the game was played.
The organization quoted a Wall Street Journal report stating expected tournament related income of $800M for NCAA, up 500% from its level 20 years ago.
AFRA asked, “At what point will fans stay home and use their DVRs to watch games so that they can fast-forward through the storm of commercials that they would otherwise be exposed to?”
RBR+TVBR observation: What AFRA needs to also count is the amount of money sports fans paid to watch the game on CBS. The answer is of course $0.00.
That’s not what CBS pays for the right to broadcast the game.
NCAA can hardly be blamed for accepting the price the market delivers.
CBS can hardly be blamed for setting the market for sports rights – it would rather pay as little as possible. Tell that to the other bidders.
CBS can further hardly be blamed for trying to make back its investment with a little extra to please its shareholders.
And as AFRA points out, if the commercial load gets too heavy – something responsible broadcasters are well aware of, by the way – viewers have recourse to their recording devices, which they can use to watch the game without having to witness any commercials at all.
Either that, or this game becomes a pay-per-view event. Do you think viewers would be happy with that model? We don’t.
