The NFL for this coming season has been working with broadcasters to restructure ad pods for fewer TV breaks, and CBS Chair, President & CEO Les Moonves addressed the topic while attending Allen & Co.'s Sun Valley Conference. CNBC’s Julia Boorstin noted fewer ads "would be terrible for CBS," as "that's your most valuable ad time." Moonves responded, "We're not going to reduce ads. They're just going to be reconfigured in a different way so perhaps instead of there being five breaks, there are four breaks that are slightly longer. But you're right, we're paying over $1 billion a year, as are a lot of our competitors." Moonves added, "Everybody's looking to improve their product, including the NFL." Meanwhile, Moonves discussed "TNF," saying the '17 slate of games will "be better," as the "matchups are better this year." He also noted the NFL in "experimenting" with the likes of Amazon and Verizon is good as streaming is the "wave of the future." Moonves said of NFL ratings on the whole, "The NFL was down a lot last year ... but I think this is going to be a much better year. The matchups are good" ("Squawk on the Street," CNBC, 7/13).
FAN FRIENDLY: Boorstin notes NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Patriots Owner Robert Kraft are also at Sun Valley, and along with Moonves have said that the league is "working to make changes to make this coming fall football season more engaging than ever." Goodell said of fewer ad breaks for '17, "One of our big efforts is to try to make sure that we make the experience, whether they're watching on television or whether you're in our stadiums, make it a more compelling experience for our fans and that means trying to do less breaks, trying to make sure that we're not over-commercializing, trying to find ways in which we can take downtime out of the game and focus on the action which is what the fans all want" ("Squawk Box," CNBC, 7/14).
