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The American World Cup Introduced Ad Breaks–and Everyone Hates It

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Re: The American World Cup Introduced Ad Breaks–and Everyone Hates It

#11
post #3

I became a baseball fan when I was nine years old and that lasted for thirty years. About 4 years ago I stopped watching the games because I couldn't stand the announcers reading ads during the inning, sometimes between pitches. I don't mind a 3-5 minute commercial break I can mute and ignore or skip with a DVR buffer. Traditional TV commercial breaks are the most benign. But I can't listen to 5-10 second micro-ads t…

It bugs me even listing on the radio when the radio announcer or talk host suddenly transitions into an advertisement. Feels like the scenes in the Matrix when ordinary people suddenly morph into agents.

They'd stop talking, there would be a pause, and in that brief moment I was bracing myself for the lame shift into advertiser voice. Anticipating it was putting me on edge and when I realized that I knew there was no enjoyment in it left for me.

Re: The American World Cup Introduced Ad Breaks–and Everyone Hates It

#12
post #3

I became a baseball fan when I was nine years old and that lasted for thirty years. About 4 years ago I stopped watching the games because I couldn't stand the announcers reading ads during the inning, sometimes between pitches. I don't mind a 3-5 minute commercial break I can mute and ignore or skip with a DVR buffer. Traditional TV commercial breaks are the most benign. But I can't listen to 5-10 second micro-ads t…

And literally everything has a sponsor. "Vitello on his way to the mound for a Tavis Law Mound visit". "Matt Chapman in the Golden Gate Carpet on-deck circle." "Don't forget, it's Taco Bell Tuesday here at Oracle Park. Every Tuesday is Taco Bell Tuesday!" Ugh.

You forgot the official truck of the MLB and the game stats powered by Google Cloud and the instant replay brought to you by Zoom and please sir, won’t you consume some more?

Re: The American World Cup Introduced Ad Breaks–and Everyone Hates It

#13
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And literally everything has a sponsor. "Vitello on his way to the mound for a Tavis Law Mound visit". "Matt Chapman in the Golden Gate Carpet on-deck circle." "Don't forget, it's Taco Bell Tuesday here at Oracle Park. Every Tuesday is Taco Bell Tuesday!" Ugh.

The ads are so stupid too because you know absolutely no one on earth is buying some product because it is on a dugout or they named a stadium after it. "Oh I'll bank with SoFi because they payed for naming rights," Only someone in marketing would think like that. It's like they've been drinking the kool aid so long they don't know how stupid it all looks to normal people. "Kia forum, great I'll go buy a Kia!" Sorry,…

I've heard it explained that they don't expect direct sales, but when you need a bank and your looking at options you'll realize you've heard of sofi so it must be better than the ones you've never heard of. I don't know how that train of thought applies to things like coke ads though

Re: The American World Cup Introduced Ad Breaks–and Everyone Hates It

#14

You guys have no idea how bad things can get. As an average IPL game of T20 cricket viewer can tell you. Basically every over consists of 6 balls bowled, times 40(each team gets 20 overs) And ads are sold on each ball, so 240 ad slots for sale, these are overlay ads, so basically the feed gets reduced to 70% of the screen and you see an ad for the remaning 30% typically for 5 secs. On top of this after each over(6 ba…

Ive held a long belief that sports fans are a main demographic that has allowed enshittification of tv to happen. Without you guys eating this up and asking for more where would we be?

Re: The American World Cup Introduced Ad Breaks–and Everyone Hates It

#16
post #3

I became a baseball fan when I was nine years old and that lasted for thirty years. About 4 years ago I stopped watching the games because I couldn't stand the announcers reading ads during the inning, sometimes between pitches. I don't mind a 3-5 minute commercial break I can mute and ignore or skip with a DVR buffer. Traditional TV commercial breaks are the most benign. But I can't listen to 5-10 second micro-ads t…

> I can mute and ignore or skip

That's the point though. They want your attention, so not getting it is a failure signal. And they'll try anything they can think of to succeed.

Re: The American World Cup Introduced Ad Breaks–and Everyone Hates It

#18
post #7
post #4

This is probably the most disruptive change that has been introduced to the sport. Every world cup has introduced something new, such as yellow / red cards, 3 points for victory, goal line technology, VAR, and so on. This year there is a time limit until you must perform a throw-in, among other things. But also these "hydration breaks". I think they have crossed a line. It is so obviously not for the benefit of the g…

I have always joked the Super Bowl was a long commercial with football breaks in between. Guess they're going for soccer this time too.

Wow, I have no idea how accurate it is, NFL is not in my country, but google says there is about 11-16 minutes of actual play??

    Commercials, 45 – 60 mins
    "Standing Around" & Stoppages, 65 – 75 mins
    The Halftime Show, 25 – 30 mins
    Replays & Commentary, 15 – 20 mins
    Actual Football Action - The ball is live and in play, 11 – 16 mins
versus what it says about AFL,

    Actual Football Action - The ball is live and in play, 80 mins
    "Time-Off" Stoppages, 30 – 40 mins
    Commercials, ~15 mins
    Scheduled Breaks, 32 mins
Wonder how that effects the social dynamic of watching games, I imagine you have more time to "shoot the breeze" during an NFL game. It's also not apples to apples comparison as my understanding of NFL is that it's probably shorter but more packed intervals, setup -> crunch, setup -> crunch. AFL can have a bit of back and forth to it maybe.

Also this says nothing of on-ground and around-ground ads which I always found depressing, which I guess must exist in all sports.

Re: The American World Cup Introduced Ad Breaks–and Everyone Hates It

#19
post #7
post #4

This is probably the most disruptive change that has been introduced to the sport. Every world cup has introduced something new, such as yellow / red cards, 3 points for victory, goal line technology, VAR, and so on. This year there is a time limit until you must perform a throw-in, among other things. But also these "hydration breaks". I think they have crossed a line. It is so obviously not for the benefit of the g…

I have always joked the Super Bowl was a long commercial with football breaks in between. Guess they're going for soccer this time too.

American football is unwatchable to me for that reason. It’s so stop-start. 30 seconds of play followed by 3 mins of ads. It’s just insane. Feels like the entire game was designed around maximizing commercial sales heh

Re: The American World Cup Introduced Ad Breaks–and Everyone Hates It

#20
post #7
post #4

This is probably the most disruptive change that has been introduced to the sport. Every world cup has introduced something new, such as yellow / red cards, 3 points for victory, goal line technology, VAR, and so on. This year there is a time limit until you must perform a throw-in, among other things. But also these "hydration breaks". I think they have crossed a line. It is so obviously not for the benefit of the g…

I have always joked the Super Bowl was a long commercial with football breaks in between. Guess they're going for soccer this time too.

Imagine the in-person experience. While the long stoppages for the benefit of TV advertisers are taking place, absolutely nothing is happening in the stadium. Untelevised sports offer a far superior in person experience in the US, but most people don't even think about this entertainment option.
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