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According to a Wall Street Journal study of four recent broadcasts, and similar estimates by researchers, the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes.

So what do the networks do with the other 174 minutes in a typical broadcast? Not surprisingly, commercials take up about an hour. As many as 75 minutes, or about 60% of the total air time, excluding commercials, is spent on shots of players huddling, standing at the line of scrimmage or just generally milling about between snaps. In the four broadcasts The Journal studied, injured players got six more seconds of camera time than celebrating players. While the network announcers showed up on screen for just 30 seconds, shots of the head coaches and referees took up about 7% of the average show.

Football—at least the American version—is the rare sport where it's common for the clock to run for long periods of time while nothing is happening. After a routine play is whistled dead, the clock will continue to run, even as the players are peeling themselves off the turf and limping back to their huddles. The team on offense has a maximum of 40 seconds after one play ends to snap the ball again. A regulation NFL game consists of four quarters of 15 minutes each, but because the typical play only lasts about four seconds, the ratio of inaction to action is approximately 10 to 1. (At the end of a game, if one team has a lead and wants to prevent the other team from scoring again, standing around and letting the clock run down becomes a bona fide strategy).

Sir Purrcival wrote:If it wasn't for the Senate scandal, I would have said any day of the parliamentary channel. They devote hours of coverage where absolutely nothing happens.

sj-roc wrote:The Kentucky Derby probably doesn't fare too well in this sort of analysis, either. It only lasts about two minutes and how much on-air time do they devote to it?

Not quite as bad as the 60m dash, at least. But I admit I don't really know from horse racing anyway; do these things have any sort of undercard of other races?

I remember watching KD coverage for the first time as a kid and the pre-race stuff just seemed to go on forever. Finally the race started but when it ended I was like, that's it?

Coast Mountain Lion wrote:

sj-roc wrote:The Kentucky Derby probably doesn't fare too well in this sort of analysis, either. It only lasts about two minutes and how much on-air time do they devote to it?

Not quite as bad as the 60m dash, at least. But I admit I don't really know from horse racing anyway; do these things have any sort of undercard of other races?

I remember watching KD coverage for the first time as a kid and the pre-race stuff just seemed to go on forever. Finally the race started but when it ended I was like, that's it?

Any horse race is part of a day's program or card of races, generally around eight to twelve of them. I think the KD is usually the eighth and last of that day's card at Churchill Downs. Likewise with boxing, wrestling and probably other "martial arts" type sports there are at least a couple of preliminary bouts featuring lesser players before the big match of the program happens.

Toppy Vann wrote: The NFL allows far too much time eaten up plus with fair catches and kick offs into the end zone not needing to be run out with no single point - yes, there is a lot of downtime.

TheLionKing wrote:Would be interesting to see the stats of a typical CFL game.