Is Football Action Packed? Maybe Not So Much.

In today's Wall Street Journal, David Biderman provided a very insightful time analysis of NFL football coverage. It turns out that in the typical game, the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is only about 10 minutes and 43 seconds. In a typical broadcast, this leaves 174 minutes of "other" coverage. As many as 75 minutes, or about 60% of the total air time, excluding commercials, is spent on shots of players huddling, standing at the line of scrimmage or just generally milling about between snaps. Surprisingly, network announcers showed up on screen for just 30 seconds, while shots of the head coaches and referees took up about 7% of the average telecast. Among the sampled games, ESPN showed the most replays, Fox was the leader in showing players on the sidelines, and CBS devoted the most time to cheerleaders (a mere 7 seconds). Next time, I think I'm going to hurry a little less when fixing a sandwich, getting a drink, or taking a bathroom break.