NFL Looking to Start Split Screen Commercial Breaks

The National Football League has a problem. Not only is it losing ad revenue, it is also losing fans who are sick of the ads. Now, the league is looking for solutions to both problems at once and is considering some changes in its commercial breaks including airing commercials on a split screen during playing time.

The NFL is looking to emulate auto racing where commercials are aired on one part of the screen while the race is being aired on another part, according to Bloomberg. Some will be shown in split screen, with an ad on one side and what’s happening in the stadium on the other. Fox has experimented with split screens during NASCAR broadcasts.

The NFL will also allow liquor ads, something that has been banned in the past.

Fans have been complaining about the ad breaks for some time, and league officials hope that the split-screen gambit will soften the length of the breaks.

Some feel that there may be some benefit to the idea.

“Well, football doesn’t have the same continuous action that auto racing does, but there still could be some benefits in seeing coaches and players interact with one another during stoppages,” Awful Announcing noted.

Other ideas are also being discussed, such as including fewer ads per break.

The NFL is compelled to do something, though. Viewership has fallen so far that the networks have had to give money back to advertisers.

Last year the networks were forced to provide advertisers with what are termed “make-goods.” The cost of advertising is predicated on the number of viewers a TV commercial will reach during a pro football game. But with ratings falling, often by double digits, advertisers began demanding their “make-goods” because ads are hitting far fewer eyes.

Many felt the problems stemmed from the anti-American protests started by former San Francisco 49ers second-string quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who began protesting the country at the start of the 2016 season. Indeed, at the time the revenue loss was called “the Kaepernick effect.”

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.