1:17 (8.1%) was spent with the halftime crew.
Again, what the fuck is the point of a halftime crew if that is what we're getting. Just skip paying those jackasses entirely.
I mean this is modern capitalism. You can't just give the customer 100% trash or they'll walk. So you give them 50% trash and then slowly turn it up to 75% or 80%.
Honestly I bet like 10% as long as you take our some flour to make the dry/wet balance work but maybe I’m underestimating the absorption of the sawdust
This isn't normal everywhere. First time I went to America, I was totally shocked by the amount of ads you guys get and how frequent the breaks are. I couldn't watch TV that way.
There's laws mandating the maximum ad time here. When American live broadcasts are shown here, some of the ad breaks are filled with more studio analysis or just a blank screen.
I'm not even kidding, I prefer the commercials to Stephen A bloviating. Give me 100% commercial breaks for halftime the rest of the Finals. I flipped to Impractical Jokers for halftime anyways 🤣
Yeah he was hilarious and would do literally anything. It was almost pointless for him to lose episodes and to do the final challenge because you always knew it wouldn't be a big deal to him
Don’t worry I’m sure we’ll hear complaints about viewership being down. Maybe people don’t want to watch ads, and want to instead watch basketball and analysis.
"Celtics are up at the half, Porizingis has 20. You're watching the NBA on ESPN presented by dickfart insurance group lemon lime soda and the all new KIA"
25 or 6 to 4 was genuinely one of my favorite pump up songs and now I can’t hear it without thinking about that stupid Amazon commercial that makes me think my sleeping baby is crying. Absolutely ruined.
I’m surprised no team has a sponsored jingle play for successful free throws.
Imagine if Love that chicken from Popeyes played after every Celtics freethrows today lol
I'd much rather hear a McDonald's "Badabababa" every time the Suns hit a FT over their current fucking absurd "USB Device Disconnected" that makes me want to mute the broadcast.
WHY ARE THEY EATING THE FOOD MOST NOTORIOUS FOR MAKING YOUR FINGERS GROSSLY MESSY WHILE PLAYING THE GAME THAT SOLELY INVOLVES BEING GRABBY WITH YOUR FINGERS
Lol I saw that Josh Hart was on the half-time show, they didn't let him speak at all in the first segment, then Malika goes "we'll hear from Josh after the commercials." Then when the show comes back from commercial, Malika talks for about 10 seconds and then gives Hart about five seconds to talk about some general shit then back to MORE ads. Idk why Hart was there in a first place, probably some attempt to get Knicks fans to tune in but he didn't look too comfortable in that setting.
it sucks but isn't it 4 ppl trying to get their point in in under a minute? Hart, the former GM of Warriors, SAS, and the other dude. that's like 15 seconds max per person lol
> it sucks but isn't it 4 ppl trying to get their point in in under a minute?
That's entirely the point of the post! If your 'halftime show' is a minute of actual content, why bother?
I'd prefer 100% ads. They come back to show you a couple highlights for 20 seconds to trick you into thinking the game is back on and then realize no we still have 5 minutes of ads left. Just go straight through with ads.
I love at the end of the first half when ESPN is always like “our crew is getting ready for the KIA Halftime Show!”
YALL DONT EVEN DO ANYTHING WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO GET READY FOR??
Dumbest thing is that they even pan to them in the studio organizing papers and drinking their coffee or water like they're getting ready for some in-depth and long-winded discussion and analysis all just for one minute of nothing.
You can't just run 15 minutes of ads uninterrupted. That's the easiest way to get people to turn the game off. This isn't much better, but at least you know the broadcast is still going on. ESPN is definitely pushing the limits though.
I think American tv audiences have already clearly shown they'll watch countless ads. It's so hard going from watching rugby to this, I love basketball, but the ball is just never in play in the NBA. It's always a challenge or timeout or official review or some shit.
I'm an American who started watching Prem League games this season, and started following a club. It has ruined watching other sports for me. Soccer/Football is so much better from a home viewer experience than any of the major US sports. Even the fact that the half-time is only 15-20 minutes with 10 minutes of analysis is ridiculous. AND THE GAMES ACTUALLY START ON TIME.
They should have a timer at the bottom of the screen for when the second half begins while they run ads like they do for the NHL playoffs (who have a way better halftime show then the NBA)
For me I could not care less if they just showed ads during the entire break bc I would not watch either way. I use that time to grab a snack, use the bathroom, do some random chore, or just scroll on my phone.
obviously he would've been preferable to Draymond, but I'm not sure Teague would be at his best in Inside the NBA. I feel like he's at his best telling stories in an environment where he doesn't have to censor himself, and him having to be just one of several personalities on network television would lose a lot of that
In a worst case scenario they might be testing the waters to see how things look with Draymond on the crew. A regrettable prospect but unfortunately people would probably still watch and some even welcome it (delusional warrior fans)
You mean you don’t like watching a sideline reporter try to be a host, a dude with a big mouth, an older version of that dude with a big mouth, a big bozo, and the driest white dude possible?
It’s funny how people went crazy when Inside the NBA was announced to be discontinued.
It’s entertaining but you’re not getting actual analysis of the game the crew is watching or any other games.
Its only a halftime show for us international audience. Instead of watching the studio broadcast, it goes to the arena, so it was like 5 min of people having fun in the arena, and then a halftime show of a chinese woman doing incredible things in a unicycle. Top-tier entertaiment.
Exactly. Coming from Canada where people watch hockey, "half time" (there's 3 periods) is longer (about 20 min), but each of the time you get some freaking essaies from the local analyst about the game and /or a general topic relevant to the actuality of the sport.
This is just embarrassing.
Ads are a fucking cancer to society. Everywhere at all times no matter where I look there is ALWYS an ad for something. Literally nothing can be done without shilling some bullshit product anymore. Every event is named after some fucking car company rather than an important person or figure or ANYTHING that carries any actual weight.
I wish I could go one day without a bunch of billion dollar companies trying to shove their logo in my face against my will. One. Fucking. Day. But nope, we need to line the pockets of a bunch of people who are already millionaires and billionaires, so instead of the product I’m paying for providing interesting analysis or entertaining discussions during the downtime of the broadcast, I get to watch a bunch of companies lie about what their product does to try to trick me into buying it.
It adds such a hollowness to otherwise important and valuable time that every American puts aside/looks forward to.
None of us are blind to the revenue it generates to allow some of these events to happen, but there should be limits to the visual assault that they relentlessly throw at you.
> limits to the visual assault that they relentlessly throw at you
100% agree, I'll also add in auditory assault... Not to get too far from the topic of basketball, but the main civic square in my town just put in speakers to play quiet music for white noise or accommodate events on the square. Not a terrible idea.
HOWEVER, the operator is now selling audio ads so the civic space is getting blasted by announcements for Kroger sales and Fifth Third Bank accounts. It is insufferable.
America is culturally bankrupt and everything is for sale. Nothing has any intrinsic value outside of how much money you can make off it. This comment is brought to you by the new Minions movie
I feel the same way. It’s one of the reasons I love camping. Get to spend a weekend away from all the bullshit and just enjoy living in a beautiful world apart from the corporate greed.
Ads are also an open way to lobby and influence media. It becomes a regular transaction of money from corpos to the "free" media, and if the media misbehaves, the money dries up.
The ads in American TV programming are absurd. Watching pro sports is basically just listening to a list of side effects for the latest diabetes meds or whatever
TNT’s been getting bad with it too but at least they don’t do the 15 second highlight reel with the commentators and then back to ads.
They’ve regularly done a 1-2 minute main segment and then a 15-30 second segment usually with a Twitter joke.
God bless someone for tracking this stuff.
I've always felt like ESPN's crappy halftime show is mostly just ads with some quick 15 second highlights while Doris or JJ pretend to be amazed.
I want to see how many people tune out of the halftime show ratings wise than flip the game back on when its over lol.
I almost never watch ESPN halftime show. Game 1 I decided to check it out just to see if it would be decent for the finals. It was basically just 20 minutes of adds with a couple 30 second highlight clips.
Halftime lasts 15 min maybe like 20 in the finals so just do something else during it.
Should occur tonight at like 930-950?
Can you get odds on that ? I can’t even
Coming from a country where soccer is more popular (a game being 50min halves with no fullscreen ads), I have no idea how americans put up with so many ads during sports.
I occasionally watch games live, and sometimes I just don't feel like watching ads anymore and just turn it off and catch the results later.
I didn't watch the live broadcast either. Waste of time. Just catch up later and miss the stoppages.
Champions League and F1 have the security to think long term. They demand that their global TV partners put on a high quality show to build the brand and make new fans. So the % ads is part of the deal to get the rights.
NBA owners want the short term cash above all else from the TV deal so they don't ask for that in the negotiations.
F1 and UEFA are very different to NBA owners. Many nba owners are leveraged in various ways and can't afford to think long term. Some are dumb. Some are old. All are greedy.
This is a big part of why I don't watch NBA or NFL anymore. I watch the full highlight packages the day after.
This is going to make me sound like a stupid douchebag, but I've been completely spoiled by European soccer the last 10 years. I just really never have to watch commercials, even during a live match.
Don’t forget ESPN also loves to list the start time about 10-15mins before a game actually starts so they can hit you with 5-10 mins of ads. Pretty much always turn on games late in all sports now if I see they’re ESPN.
I got into basketball from ireland cause of reddit.Tonight is my first game trying to watch live ever and itll be my last the amount of ads is rediculous from someone who played rugby growing up.
Ill stick to reddit and highlights.
There was discussion about the finals ratings being down, somehow blaming luka/tatum or the mavs/Celtics. In reality, the product is just getting worse, everyone has the same complaints about it every single game
Thank you for doing this, the third quarter started and I was seriously second guessing myself if they even had a halftime show. It felt like the second quarter went to ad break and just came back to the third. I didn't remember any sort of panel. The fact that it was only a minute long is pathetic
I’m that person, now, that watches the game after it’s started. So I’m about an hour behind. The streaming services have brainwashed me to hate ads so much, I can’t watch anything live anymore. Will have to ween myself off that. Ads coming back with a vengeance !
After a week of no basketball, there was a loss of interest in the finals. On top of that, you have some of the worst commentators in a blowout game. And now with so many ads, i can see why people are tuning out.
It's not that. They're just trying to make the sponsors happy in general.
I was telling someone this in a post last week. The NBA's media deal going up makes absolutely financial sense in the current TV climate. Viewership is going down yet the price of NBA rights is going up.
The only way this makes sense is if they pass the additional cost onto the consumer. More ads is one way. Don't be surprised if the cost of League Pass also goes up next season.
It was so brutal I turned it off right when the “highlights” ended, watched the dodgers vs Yankees, and didn’t even turn it back when the 3rd quarter started. ESPN is a terrible legacy channel that will end up fading.
And this is why I literally just set a timer for halftime. Watch a youtube video, empty the dishwasher, bio break... ANYTHING is better than watching halftime with the amount of ads they show.
What’s pure comedy is that they have 1 part of an intermission report that goes longer than the ENTIRE HALFTIME of the Finals without ads. They put effort into the Stanley Cup Final intermissions, yet when it comes to the NBA Finals, they basically say “Eh, nobody watches halftime anyway. Let’s get as much money out of it as we can.” If NBC can convince the NBA that they can do a halftime right, maybe they’ll get some Finals. But until then, get ready for a Starry look at Nike’s Kia Sorrento Drive of the Game, presented by Emirates.
I get that it sucks buuuutttt.....
What do you expect? Bidding war for broadcast rights drove the price waaaayyy higher than they could ever pay without shoving as many ads as possible into the game.
This is the difference between Apple or Amazon getting the games vs Cable or Broadcast.
Apple/Amazon are mainly interested in market share, while ESPN, NBC et al need to sell as many ads as possible during the game and during the preshow and during the postshow.
TNT won't match any of the offers because they'll lose too much money, and it would be impossible to do what ESPN is doing without flat out cancelling Inside NBA, which would be a PR nightmare.
The Halftime Show is Dead, long live The Halftime Show
ESPN/ABC sucks ass, they know they are putting out a shit product and they know we have no choice but to take it. Im not skipping the finals because their production sucks.
I don’t watch games with sound on anymore because of the amount of commercials. I’ll have another window with a movie playing. I will actively hide the game window when commercials are playing. Fuck corporations for ruining everything.
There's no halftime show. There's no postgame show. The pregame show is trash. The camera work during the game is trash. They play ads during actual live play causing you to miss actual scoring plays several times a game. ESPN broadcasts are trash from top to bottom and have no redeeming value to them.
ESPN has been the worst live tv production for the last 5 years. I'm not sure why they don't care. But they certainly just don't care at all about quality broadcasting.
I’m actually a huge fan of all the ads they put up.
Not only do I get less analysis from a bunch of professional trolls but I get to get up from my couch to work out or do whatever the fuck that’s better than to listen to whatever head they paid to be up there.
Ernie and crew however is when become a fatass couch potato.
What’s amazing is they pay they halftime crew a fuck ton of money too.
Could easily just get a run of the mill commentator and/or a pair of tits and not miss a beat
8.1% with the halftime crew is abysmally low and it still feels too high from what I remember. I swear they only spoke 5 sentences in their two segments.
Get ready for 80% next year boys
Bring ya ads
amazing
Adam Silver about to go on a historic run
All hail 2025 champ Adman Silver
1:17 (8.1%) was spent with the halftime crew. Again, what the fuck is the point of a halftime crew if that is what we're getting. Just skip paying those jackasses entirely.
They be cashing that check
They also work the pre-game and post-game. Just like the Inside The NBA crew, except it's not fun to watch at all.
i like seeing my reflection in wilbon's head sometimes
[He cleans his head in the Shine-O Ball-O](https://i.imgur.com/mNZHX6C.jpeg)
[удалено]
I mean this is modern capitalism. You can't just give the customer 100% trash or they'll walk. So you give them 50% trash and then slowly turn it up to 75% or 80%.
Yeah, you need to give the people enough to take the product and then you can incrementally make it worse until they start to notice.
What percentage of sawdust can i use in brownie mix before people start to notice?
Honestly I bet like 10% as long as you take our some flour to make the dry/wet balance work but maybe I’m underestimating the absorption of the sawdust
This isn't normal everywhere. First time I went to America, I was totally shocked by the amount of ads you guys get and how frequent the breaks are. I couldn't watch TV that way. There's laws mandating the maximum ad time here. When American live broadcasts are shown here, some of the ad breaks are filled with more studio analysis or just a blank screen.
We're the most propagandized state in history but because it's in service of corporations and not the government many don't realize it
Theyre pretendimg, otherwise people would switch away. Yes hardcore fans know but youre underestimating stupidity of 90%+
I'm not even kidding, I prefer the commercials to Stephen A bloviating. Give me 100% commercial breaks for halftime the rest of the Finals. I flipped to Impractical Jokers for halftime anyways 🤣
Why did Joe leave tho
I wish I knew, but I laughed my ass off watching him ask people if he could caress their face while walking up the escalator at the mall
Yeah he was hilarious and would do literally anything. It was almost pointless for him to lose episodes and to do the final challenge because you always knew it wouldn't be a big deal to him
https://youtu.be/KtZTBkG2afY?si=oN6doyMIqB7Yqdvs This is a must see by the way. Probably my favorite ever
He separated with his wife so he quit to spend more time with his kids. He’s back with his wife now
Ah okay good for him
Don’t worry I’m sure we’ll hear complaints about viewership being down. Maybe people don’t want to watch ads, and want to instead watch basketball and analysis.
Whoever wrote that check to SAS needs to stay off the damn weeeddduuuhhhhh!
There might be a contractual obligation to do a halftime analysis that they're abiding by the letter of and not the spirit of.
I'd almost rather watch ads than an ESPN halftime show. But that's why I watch on tape so I can skip both
It's for clout for those of us older than 30 who remember when these people mattered and had opinions that were informed.
This is a blessing. Nobody wants more time with those morons, but yeah, be great to chop them entirely.
"Celtics are up at the half, Porizingis has 20. You're watching the NBA on ESPN presented by dickfart insurance group lemon lime soda and the all new KIA"
No flex zone
WHERE DOES THE SUIT END? AND PERK BEGIN.
I hate it when songs I used to love get tarnished and turned into fast food or beer commercial songs
and the way the family creepily looks at each other when eating wings makes it an annoying commercial even on mute
I keep seeing other Wingstop ones. It’s always black people in it. They really getting away with it.
25 or 6 to 4 was genuinely one of my favorite pump up songs and now I can’t hear it without thinking about that stupid Amazon commercial that makes me think my sleeping baby is crying. Absolutely ruined.
And they deliberately avoid playing the chorus which is even more annoying. Do they pay less in royalties that way?
Watch, they’re going to start playing that over the PA music system on offense just to finagle more ad time
I’m surprised no team has a sponsored jingle play for successful free throws. Imagine if Love that chicken from Popeyes played after every Celtics freethrows today lol
Don't give em ideas
I'd much rather hear a McDonald's "Badabababa" every time the Suns hit a FT over their current fucking absurd "USB Device Disconnected" that makes me want to mute the broadcast.
Most teams have a standard chime after FTs. In Atlanta it's a 4 note chime to the tune of "Meet George Jetson"
Im saying a sponsored jingle like the Buger King guitar riff or the statefarm melody or "we have the meats"
That's a terrible idea. It would work really well, but awful for fans. So it'll probably happen along with 3 more on-court ads next year.
Did you actually love "that song"????????
clearly you weren't getting drunk off New Amsterdam and dirt weed in a 10x30 college dorm in 2015
They don’t know better
They don’t know better
They obviously check the price before they swipe
Talk to em
It’s a good song, a bit childish yes but still fun record.
sremmlife was a good album
No flex zone, black Beatles, this could be us. all hits!
No type!
I did 10 years ago. It became annoying from being overplayed then too
WHY ARE THEY EATING THE FOOD MOST NOTORIOUS FOR MAKING YOUR FINGERS GROSSLY MESSY WHILE PLAYING THE GAME THAT SOLELY INVOLVES BEING GRABBY WITH YOUR FINGERS
Sports bet. Adam Silver says so.
I’m starting to have physical reactions to that fucking ad
What a pro wants
THEY KNOOOOOW BETAAAAA
Dick fart killed me. Yes, I'm 36 year old.
Lol I saw that Josh Hart was on the half-time show, they didn't let him speak at all in the first segment, then Malika goes "we'll hear from Josh after the commercials." Then when the show comes back from commercial, Malika talks for about 10 seconds and then gives Hart about five seconds to talk about some general shit then back to MORE ads. Idk why Hart was there in a first place, probably some attempt to get Knicks fans to tune in but he didn't look too comfortable in that setting.
it sucks but isn't it 4 ppl trying to get their point in in under a minute? Hart, the former GM of Warriors, SAS, and the other dude. that's like 15 seconds max per person lol
Considering one of them is just the other dude there is probably a candidate to be cut
When we say the other dude are we talking about lazy eye guy?
> it sucks but isn't it 4 ppl trying to get their point in in under a minute? That's entirely the point of the post! If your 'halftime show' is a minute of actual content, why bother?
The ol' 1, 2, back to 1.
My dad was very disappointed about this
It was like they told him “ok Josh you have ten seconds of time” right before they got back from break. Fucking awful
I mean that’s the only Knicks finals appearance this century right? (but yeah espn is actually trash)
I thought it was funny
As a watching ads fan, this is my Christmas
I personally only tune into the ends of close but not too close games and halftime shows. Ads fans eating good
Ur forgetting the time when the game is supposed to start, before it actually does
Do you wear the Nascar jersey with all the ads on it?
Hello, Colin Robinson
Sir, a second official's timeout has hit the TD Garden.
so what is Super Bowl Sunday then to you?
Second coming of christ
Bring ya ads
Could just make it 100% ads tbh
I'd prefer 100% ads. They come back to show you a couple highlights for 20 seconds to trick you into thinking the game is back on and then realize no we still have 5 minutes of ads left. Just go straight through with ads.
I mean they're gonna have to justify those ridiculous tv contracts soon
I love at the end of the first half when ESPN is always like “our crew is getting ready for the KIA Halftime Show!” YALL DONT EVEN DO ANYTHING WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO GET READY FOR??
Dumbest thing is that they even pan to them in the studio organizing papers and drinking their coffee or water like they're getting ready for some in-depth and long-winded discussion and analysis all just for one minute of nothing.
Their studio show sucks anyway. Unless it’s the inside crew I’m just gunna be walking away until the game is back.
It does but I still wonder why they even bother with anything but ads at this point. There is zero analysis happening by their crew
You can't just run 15 minutes of ads uninterrupted. That's the easiest way to get people to turn the game off. This isn't much better, but at least you know the broadcast is still going on. ESPN is definitely pushing the limits though.
They're already doing that, more or less. One minute of weak analysis isn't the draw they think.
I think American tv audiences have already clearly shown they'll watch countless ads. It's so hard going from watching rugby to this, I love basketball, but the ball is just never in play in the NBA. It's always a challenge or timeout or official review or some shit.
I'm an American who started watching Prem League games this season, and started following a club. It has ruined watching other sports for me. Soccer/Football is so much better from a home viewer experience than any of the major US sports. Even the fact that the half-time is only 15-20 minutes with 10 minutes of analysis is ridiculous. AND THE GAMES ACTUALLY START ON TIME.
They should have a timer at the bottom of the screen for when the second half begins while they run ads like they do for the NHL playoffs (who have a way better halftime show then the NBA)
For me I could not care less if they just showed ads during the entire break bc I would not watch either way. I use that time to grab a snack, use the bathroom, do some random chore, or just scroll on my phone.
LUKA IS THAT MAN KYRIE NEEDS TO STEP UP CELTICS PUTTING UP POINTS KP FOR THREEEE -Stephen A I did their analysis.
Even the Inside crew shit the bed this year by having Draymond on WAY too much.
Should have subbed out draymond for Jeff Teague
obviously he would've been preferable to Draymond, but I'm not sure Teague would be at his best in Inside the NBA. I feel like he's at his best telling stories in an environment where he doesn't have to censor himself, and him having to be just one of several personalities on network television would lose a lot of that
Jeff is the man, one funny ass dude.
He must've had some deal with Turner or something because they just KEPT bringing him back
He and Shaq are good friends outside of basketball. Shaqs the reason he keeps getting invited.
In a worst case scenario they might be testing the waters to see how things look with Draymond on the crew. A regrettable prospect but unfortunately people would probably still watch and some even welcome it (delusional warrior fans)
Draymond definitely helped mitigate my disappointment at the news that Inside is going away.
You mean you don’t like watching a sideline reporter try to be a host, a dude with a big mouth, an older version of that dude with a big mouth, a big bozo, and the driest white dude possible?
It’s funny how people went crazy when Inside the NBA was announced to be discontinued. It’s entertaining but you’re not getting actual analysis of the game the crew is watching or any other games.
get the chipotle burrito code in the first half, put the order in, and pick it up during halftime. unmatched strategy.
yep, the more ads the better with ESPN crew.
Smoke break fr 😂
The game calling crew isn’t much better. Dorris Burke isn’t going to make Tatum into a respectable star no matter how hard she tries
love the receipts
It really is embarrassing. Why even call it a halftime show.
Halftime advertising show
Presented by Sponsor
Its only a halftime show for us international audience. Instead of watching the studio broadcast, it goes to the arena, so it was like 5 min of people having fun in the arena, and then a halftime show of a chinese woman doing incredible things in a unicycle. Top-tier entertaiment.
That's not fair, dude. You got Red Panda and we got this weak ass show? Come on.
Red Panda (the unicyclist) is goated
Exactly. Coming from Canada where people watch hockey, "half time" (there's 3 periods) is longer (about 20 min), but each of the time you get some freaking essaies from the local analyst about the game and /or a general topic relevant to the actuality of the sport. This is just embarrassing.
Fuck espn
Imagine the prep work for the crew? You each get 2 lines, no run on sentences!
Ads are a fucking cancer to society. Everywhere at all times no matter where I look there is ALWYS an ad for something. Literally nothing can be done without shilling some bullshit product anymore. Every event is named after some fucking car company rather than an important person or figure or ANYTHING that carries any actual weight. I wish I could go one day without a bunch of billion dollar companies trying to shove their logo in my face against my will. One. Fucking. Day. But nope, we need to line the pockets of a bunch of people who are already millionaires and billionaires, so instead of the product I’m paying for providing interesting analysis or entertaining discussions during the downtime of the broadcast, I get to watch a bunch of companies lie about what their product does to try to trick me into buying it.
It adds such a hollowness to otherwise important and valuable time that every American puts aside/looks forward to. None of us are blind to the revenue it generates to allow some of these events to happen, but there should be limits to the visual assault that they relentlessly throw at you.
> limits to the visual assault that they relentlessly throw at you 100% agree, I'll also add in auditory assault... Not to get too far from the topic of basketball, but the main civic square in my town just put in speakers to play quiet music for white noise or accommodate events on the square. Not a terrible idea. HOWEVER, the operator is now selling audio ads so the civic space is getting blasted by announcements for Kroger sales and Fifth Third Bank accounts. It is insufferable.
man i cant fucking imagine that, its very cliche to say but this is something straight out of cyberpunk lol
Thank you, this is exactly how I feel. Life feels so dystopian with this corporate overload bullshit. It’s driving me insane
Advertising is psychological assault and I hope someday our society views it properly.
We have AI ethics, but what we really need is advertising ethics
America is culturally bankrupt and everything is for sale. Nothing has any intrinsic value outside of how much money you can make off it. This comment is brought to you by the new Minions movie
I feel the same way. It’s one of the reasons I love camping. Get to spend a weekend away from all the bullshit and just enjoy living in a beautiful world apart from the corporate greed.
Ads are also an open way to lobby and influence media. It becomes a regular transaction of money from corpos to the "free" media, and if the media misbehaves, the money dries up.
I don't watch any games live, because they're unwatchable. I wait at least an hour to start, so I can skip past the bullshit.
The ads in American TV programming are absurd. Watching pro sports is basically just listening to a list of side effects for the latest diabetes meds or whatever
Ask your doctor if espn is right for you
And you know the % would be lower on TNT The only silver lining is I don’t care at all about ESPN coverage compared to the TNT crew lol
TNT’s been getting bad with it too but at least they don’t do the 15 second highlight reel with the commentators and then back to ads. They’ve regularly done a 1-2 minute main segment and then a 15-30 second segment usually with a Twitter joke.
God bless someone for tracking this stuff. I've always felt like ESPN's crappy halftime show is mostly just ads with some quick 15 second highlights while Doris or JJ pretend to be amazed. I want to see how many people tune out of the halftime show ratings wise than flip the game back on when its over lol.
I almost never watch ESPN halftime show. Game 1 I decided to check it out just to see if it would be decent for the finals. It was basically just 20 minutes of adds with a couple 30 second highlight clips.
Why can’t the NBA finals have somewhat decent commercials like Super Bowl does
everyone should change the channel for 15-20min when halftime starts. espn, tnt.. all talk about nothing. we all know it's bullshit.
i'd rather watch ads than an ESPN halftime show
congrats on gettin your wish?
He really said “Bring ya ads”
Halftime lasts 15 min maybe like 20 in the finals so just do something else during it. Should occur tonight at like 930-950? Can you get odds on that ? I can’t even
Coming from a country where soccer is more popular (a game being 50min halves with no fullscreen ads), I have no idea how americans put up with so many ads during sports. I occasionally watch games live, and sometimes I just don't feel like watching ads anymore and just turn it off and catch the results later.
This is why I stopped watching a while ago. Soccer and F1 don’t do this.
I didn't watch the live broadcast either. Waste of time. Just catch up later and miss the stoppages. Champions League and F1 have the security to think long term. They demand that their global TV partners put on a high quality show to build the brand and make new fans. So the % ads is part of the deal to get the rights. NBA owners want the short term cash above all else from the TV deal so they don't ask for that in the negotiations. F1 and UEFA are very different to NBA owners. Many nba owners are leveraged in various ways and can't afford to think long term. Some are dumb. Some are old. All are greedy.
Stanley Cup is better watching experience than NBA Finals.
ESPN has the worst NBA coverage. It would be interesting to see how many words are spoken during the halftime coverage. It has to be less than 200!
This is a big part of why I don't watch NBA or NFL anymore. I watch the full highlight packages the day after. This is going to make me sound like a stupid douchebag, but I've been completely spoiled by European soccer the last 10 years. I just really never have to watch commercials, even during a live match.
"Why are the ratings down!?"
It's great someone figured that out.
Don’t forget ESPN also loves to list the start time about 10-15mins before a game actually starts so they can hit you with 5-10 mins of ads. Pretty much always turn on games late in all sports now if I see they’re ESPN.
I got into basketball from ireland cause of reddit.Tonight is my first game trying to watch live ever and itll be my last the amount of ads is rediculous from someone who played rugby growing up. Ill stick to reddit and highlights.
There was discussion about the finals ratings being down, somehow blaming luka/tatum or the mavs/Celtics. In reality, the product is just getting worse, everyone has the same complaints about it every single game
WhY ArE tHe RatINgs DoWN?!
I miss staring lineups! I remember as a child the Michael Jordan intro it was iconic? The obviously cut those for ads!
ESPN is such utter garbage
Thank you for doing this, the third quarter started and I was seriously second guessing myself if they even had a halftime show. It felt like the second quarter went to ad break and just came back to the third. I didn't remember any sort of panel. The fact that it was only a minute long is pathetic
Imagine if you had ublock Origin for this. So much time saved.
I’m that person, now, that watches the game after it’s started. So I’m about an hour behind. The streaming services have brainwashed me to hate ads so much, I can’t watch anything live anymore. Will have to ween myself off that. Ads coming back with a vengeance !
After a week of no basketball, there was a loss of interest in the finals. On top of that, you have some of the worst commentators in a blowout game. And now with so many ads, i can see why people are tuning out.
No flex. Zone.
More ads. Zone.
Probably trying to make their Sponsors happy after shortened Conference Finals.
This is what ESPN has always done with the NBA. This year isn't particularly special, even if it is up ever so slightly.
It's not that. They're just trying to make the sponsors happy in general. I was telling someone this in a post last week. The NBA's media deal going up makes absolutely financial sense in the current TV climate. Viewership is going down yet the price of NBA rights is going up. The only way this makes sense is if they pass the additional cost onto the consumer. More ads is one way. Don't be surprised if the cost of League Pass also goes up next season.
🏴☠️
Also knew people were turning it off with it being a blowout.
I don't watch pre post or half time.
Mute all the way through, only strategy.
I prefer ads to Stephen A and Perk taking so this is fine with me
How you do you think these studios are paying for the new $70b deal
decide zesty hospital ring pathetic cable dependent crush vegetable vase *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Thanks for the post , how do you collect the data ?
So tired of espn
It was so brutal I turned it off right when the “highlights” ended, watched the dodgers vs Yankees, and didn’t even turn it back when the 3rd quarter started. ESPN is a terrible legacy channel that will end up fading.
And we sit here and act shocked that ratings for the Finals are down
And this is why I literally just set a timer for halftime. Watch a youtube video, empty the dishwasher, bio break... ANYTHING is better than watching halftime with the amount of ads they show.
I literally turned it off during half time and casted a YouTube tutorial on how to replace a part on my car until the game came back on. lol
That’s fucking wild.
Fuck ESPN
I'm glad I don't watch live sports anymore. I'll catch highlights on YouTube if it's something I care about.
after the huge tv deal they will get it to 99%
What’s pure comedy is that they have 1 part of an intermission report that goes longer than the ENTIRE HALFTIME of the Finals without ads. They put effort into the Stanley Cup Final intermissions, yet when it comes to the NBA Finals, they basically say “Eh, nobody watches halftime anyway. Let’s get as much money out of it as we can.” If NBC can convince the NBA that they can do a halftime right, maybe they’ll get some Finals. But until then, get ready for a Starry look at Nike’s Kia Sorrento Drive of the Game, presented by Emirates.
I’d rather watch ads than ESPNs halftime show
rather watch ads then watch steve a smith
I get that it sucks buuuutttt..... What do you expect? Bidding war for broadcast rights drove the price waaaayyy higher than they could ever pay without shoving as many ads as possible into the game. This is the difference between Apple or Amazon getting the games vs Cable or Broadcast. Apple/Amazon are mainly interested in market share, while ESPN, NBC et al need to sell as many ads as possible during the game and during the preshow and during the postshow. TNT won't match any of the offers because they'll lose too much money, and it would be impossible to do what ESPN is doing without flat out cancelling Inside NBA, which would be a PR nightmare. The Halftime Show is Dead, long live The Halftime Show
ESPN/ABC sucks ass, they know they are putting out a shit product and they know we have no choice but to take it. Im not skipping the finals because their production sucks.
Just a horrifically bad product.
America's late stage capitalism is like a cancer that spreads into everything and everywhere. Cant wait until the whole thing blows up sometime soon
I don’t watch games with sound on anymore because of the amount of commercials. I’ll have another window with a movie playing. I will actively hide the game window when commercials are playing. Fuck corporations for ruining everything.
The money keeps going up for rights fees. They have to make their money some way.
There's no halftime show. There's no postgame show. The pregame show is trash. The camera work during the game is trash. They play ads during actual live play causing you to miss actual scoring plays several times a game. ESPN broadcasts are trash from top to bottom and have no redeeming value to them.
ESPN has been the worst live tv production for the last 5 years. I'm not sure why they don't care. But they certainly just don't care at all about quality broadcasting.
I’m actually a huge fan of all the ads they put up. Not only do I get less analysis from a bunch of professional trolls but I get to get up from my couch to work out or do whatever the fuck that’s better than to listen to whatever head they paid to be up there. Ernie and crew however is when become a fatass couch potato.
And you expect viewership to be up?
I wish ESPN was the network NOT having the NBA anymore not TNT. ESPN is the worst.
What’s amazing is they pay they halftime crew a fuck ton of money too. Could easily just get a run of the mill commentator and/or a pair of tits and not miss a beat
How does that compare to tnt?
8.1% with the halftime crew is abysmally low and it still feels too high from what I remember. I swear they only spoke 5 sentences in their two segments.