MLB and the MLBPA on Thursday announced a plan to "reduce the national commercial break by 25 seconds," but the league has "yet to secure the approval of the networks," according to Anthony Crupi of AD AGE. MLB wants to shorten the "middle-inning and between-inning ad breaks, reducing the commercial time from 2:25 per interval to an even two minutes." This would "erase the equivalent of 15 30-second spots from the networks' available inventory, slashing the average in-game load from 67 ads to a hair over 50." The move would cut just over seven minutes off of each broadcast, but the "cost of keeping things moving would be dear for Fox and ESPN." If this change had been in place during Fox' broadcast of Red Sox-Yankees last June 30, the net "theoretically could have been forced to leave approximately $885,000 on the table" based on its unit cost. The loss of "any ad revenue is less than ideal given the amount of cash the network is forking over to carry the games," though there are different "options on the table" like a double-box. Other executions that "may be deployed to keep the ad dollars flowing under a shorter break structure include on-screen bugs, booth reads and special premiums." One source said that the terms of MLB's existing pact with Fox and ESPN "prohibits the league from making any unilateral changes to the ad loads" (ADAGE.com, 3/14).
NOT A PERFECT SYSTEM: SI.com's Tom Verducci wrote shortening commercial breaks "sounds like a no-brainer," but there will be "times when your TV screen is in a two-box -- an ad playing in one box with the sound up, and game action muted in the other -- and somebody hits a first-pitch home run." The compromise viewers will "have to accept" is the "inevitability that something big will happen while an ad is playing next to the live, soundless view" (SI.com, 3/14).
