Super Bowl XXXDDD

[crazy canuck]

The game itself is pretty good. Football is fun. I just hate the NFL 

The trick is to DVR, time it so you can click through all the crap you don't want to see and end up live near the end of the game.


Much more enjoyable

[Jacob]

I don't watch American football, but I'd think another trick would be to mute the commercials and have conversations (or surf the net or whatever) during the various breaks.

[Valmy]

American Football would be a lot more fun to watch if a 1 hour game wasn't stretched into 3 hours with tons of downtime/ad breaks.

Disagree man. It would make absolutely no sense if the clock just kept running 

The ad breaks do suck but all sports here have them. When you are at the game everybody just sort of stands around (well the cheerleaders dance and the and band plays and all that) waiting for the TV guy to give the thumbsup.

[Syt]

American Football would be a lot more fun to watch if a 1 hour game wasn't stretched into 3 hours with tons of downtime/ad breaks.

The Big 10 Network (and I'm sure others) will show replay of games with just the time with the play clock running.  It's unwatchable like that; football is a game of position the set ups and the penalties are needed in order to understand what's going on (and, as Yi says, the analysis and replays also do I good job of providing context.)  The commercials are too much, especially in big games like this (and even more so, for the Superbowl, if you don't get the US commercials,) but that could be said for all major American sports.

Let me rephrase: "... if a large chunk of the run time wasn't commercial breaks."

[Savonarola]

Let me rephrase: "... if a large chunk of the run time wasn't commercial breaks."

Heh, well I can't disagree with that.  I don't watch a lot of sports, but when I do I usually use the CC method, start late and use the DVR to forward through commercials.

[grumbler]

The streaming service I use  doesn't/can't show commercials, so the screen goes blank and silent when the commercial break starts.  I use that time to get in three or so turns of War in the Pacific and shift back to the stream tab when the sound comes back.

[Razgovory]

I didn't notice many commercials.  Except that they were putting clams in M&Ms.  I think I'll skip that.

[FunkMonk]

Wait, do the folks in Europe not see all the commercials during the Super Bowl? What do you do with all that free time ?

[The Larch]

Wait, do the folks in Europe not see all the commercials during the Super Bowl? What do you do with all that free time ?

Sleeping? 

I mean, the Super Bowl takes place at ungodly hours for an European audience, I'm not really sure how many people do watch it at this side of the pond.

[Grey Fox]

Wait, do the folks in Europe not see all the commercials during the Super Bowl? What do you do with all that free time ?

The commercials are for the US audience. Even Canada doesn't get them.

I watched most of the Super Bowl in French. Historically, they have less ad time to sell than the US broadcast they are dubbing over so there is a little more statistical analysis.

[Syt]

Wait, do the folks in Europe not see all the commercials during the Super Bowl? What do you do with all that free time ?

When there was still ESPN Europe broadcasting NFL, they'd have a loop of station promos and ads for their programs running. It got pretty grating. No idea what's happening now.

MLB.tv just goes to the MLB logo during ad breaks when watching their streams.

[FunkMonk]

I can't process the Super Bowl without the ads. The ads are basically the point of the whole production 

[Josquius]

Wait, do the folks in Europe not see all the commercials during the Super Bowl? What do you do with all that free time ?

Sleeping? 

I mean, the Super Bowl takes place at ungodly hours for an European audience, I'm not really sure how many people do watch it at this side of the pond.

I would take a rough unscientific arbitrary stab that in a given year 1 in 20 men aged 18-40 try to watch it and 1 in 8 of those succeed.

There always seems to be one guy everywhere I've worked.

[Savonarola]

I can't process the Super Bowl without the ads. The ads are basically the point of the whole production 

I've seen it without (when I was in Colombia); it's definitely not the same experience.  (It also brings home how long the commercial breaks are for the Superbowl.)

[Valmy]

I can't process the Super Bowl without the ads. The ads are basically the point of the whole production 

I mean I guess technically the ads are the point of everything that appears on TV. That and cable and/or streaming fees.