There’s a site I use where you can download sports videos. Often you can find the “compressed” version of a gridiron football game. An NFL game on TV typically lasts 3 hours from the kickoff to the final whistle. The game clock runs for 4 15-minute quarters, but they stop that clock all the time. Any time there’s a point scored, the ball is turned over, or the clock hits a special value (end of quarter, 2 minute warning to the end of a half, etc.) they stop the clock and while things happen there’s a commercial break. They also have commercial breaks every time either team calls a timeout. But, what’s extra ridiculous is that there are “TV Timeouts” when the network itself calls a timeout so they can show some commercials. Anyhow, that’s how a 1 hour game expands to fill a 3 hour slot.
So, these compressed games, you’d think they could shorten it to just 1 hour, right? What’s amazing is that they actually manage to compress it to about 30 minutes. Not only do they cut out everything happening while the clock is stopped, they even cut out stuff when the clock is running but nothing much is happening – the players are getting up to the line, the quarterback is calling out before the snap, etc.
So, gridiron football is about 83% filler, and 17% actual action.
There’s a site I use where you can download sports videos. Often you can find the “compressed” version of a gridiron football game. An NFL game on TV typically lasts 3 hours from the kickoff to the final whistle. The game clock runs for 4 15-minute quarters, but they stop that clock all the time. Any time there’s a point scored, the ball is turned over, or the clock hits a special value (end of quarter, 2 minute warning to the end of a half, etc.) they stop the clock and while things happen there’s a commercial break. They also have commercial breaks every time either team calls a timeout. But, what’s extra ridiculous is that there are “TV Timeouts” when the network itself calls a timeout so they can show some commercials. Anyhow, that’s how a 1 hour game expands to fill a 3 hour slot.
So, these compressed games, you’d think they could shorten it to just 1 hour, right? What’s amazing is that they actually manage to compress it to about 30 minutes. Not only do they cut out everything happening while the clock is stopped, they even cut out stuff when the clock is running but nothing much is happening – the players are getting up to the line, the quarterback is calling out before the snap, etc.
So, gridiron football is about 83% filler, and 17% actual action.