Soccer: Not Suited for American Television
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One thing that is blatantly obvious when watching soccer on North American television is that it does not fit easily into the television advertising paradigm. There are no predictable breaks in the action. Soccer, at the FIFA level, is two halves of forty five minutes. The game official handles the ball as little as possible. For example, if the ball goes out of bounds, the game official does not need to hand off the ball to the player. As much as possible, there is little to interrupt the flow of the play.
The question becomes ‘where do you put the advertising?’. It is unusual for a sporting event to play on for forty five minutes without a pause in the action. A natural pause in the play is an opportunity to present a commercial. If the advertising were to take a minute or two or three away from the soccer action, the fans would be annoyed. Very annoyed. - In some parts of the planet, if this occurred, there would be riots. Seriously.
North American sports lend themselves to commercial interruption. Think of the pauses in sports such as football, baseball, basketball, hockey and so on. Even the spectators at the televised games expect a ‘television interruption’ and play resumes after the commercials are aired.
In soccer, there may be a pause for an injury. However, the length of time for that pause is not predictable. And the injury is important information to the viewer. It is a decision point in the game and to place a commercial there would not be wise. So therein lies a major hurdle for presenting soccer on television. Advertisers want predictable air time when the viewer will not be antagonized with an advertising pause. During a soccer game, those moments are rare.
Catherine Forsythe
[tags]soccer, advertising, television, commercials, fifa[/tags]
6 Comments
Rishtardo
September 24th, 2007
at 2:44pm
The best way for advertising on a soccer match is to show the product logo and their slogan on the screen. And the announcers would tell them, “This segment is brought to you by…” Since 1985, Univision (formerly S.I.N.) has displayed its sponsors’ logos on the screen.
Is this betting
September 24th, 2007
at 6:21pm
Interesting to hear the discussion from the other side of the pond! I’m sure European TV stations want to have a commercial break in the play but that is just not going to happen. When a live game is broadcast there are many adverts in the build-up period and then the important segment for two to three minutes before kick-off. The last advert is shown and then the game starts. Adverts immediately at the half-time whistle and then again after 90 mins is up. More adverts before interviewing star players and the sponsors are happy. Also there is much money generated from shirt sponsorship and hi-tech advertising hoardings. If the advertising opportunities were not there then there would not be the huge amount of money sloshing around the game. Just my opinion…I’ll get back to work…
Daniel Gray
September 24th, 2007
at 6:57pm
There is no question. The present scheme works just fine on GOL and FoxSoccer.
UnderHerd
November 9th, 2007
at 9:58am
Surely this topic should be titled “American Television: Not Suited for Soccer”? :)
forsythe
November 9th, 2007
at 11:10am
UnderHerd - point well make!
Catherine
zxcasd
January 20th, 2008
at 6:14pm
i think americans have Attention-Deficit Disorder…. the national love is American football… a 60minute game split up in 4 quarters that take 3 hours or more to play……. b/c a single play action takes 10s, then 20-30s of break for discussion on the next play…… then injury takes up some more time…. and people are distracted by the sideline cheerleaders, the marching band, …..
besides, if you want English Premier League/Italian soccer, they have advertisements on the billboards, computer-added banners onto the soccer field…. my best opinion is that americans cannot sit around and wait for the action