NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell isn’t short on advice from TV executives about how to improve ratings.
In addition to a suggestion from FOX that the league has too many broadcast windows, CBS chairman Les Moonves said he talked to Goodell about speeding up games, potentially by reducing the number of commercial breaks.
“If there are ways of doing advertising in different ways that are equally beneficial, we’re looking at that, and we’re trying to make the game as good an experience as we could make it,” Moonves said, via Fortune.
The idea of “doing advertising in different ways” will not mean fewer commercials, but it may mean fitting the commercials into the game differently so that there are fewer delays, or shorter delays. Moonves also discussed with Goodell ways that the referees could see the replays more quickly so that replay reviews would be shorter.
Although the NFL remains the most popular programming on American television, last year’s ratings decline early in the season caused some consternation. The TV networks and the NFL don’t want to see another decline in 2017.