About ESPN inserting very brief ads between plays

Books and movies (ready player one in this case) always show us our inconvenient future if checks and balances aren’t adhered to in the future.

I remember when the blind sheep said for other sports it was "no big deal" and "you'll get used to it". As long as morons keep defending it, they will continue multiplying until the games become unwatchable.

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Any second that is not the actual content people want, is a second that can be used for monetization. This is the world we live in now, and it’s fricked up.

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Prime example is the “hydration breaks” that Fox and FIFA dreamed up as a way to show ads during the World Cup. They couldn’t stand to have a 45-50 straight minutes of game action without showing a single ad. Nevermind there were ads all over the field and stadium.

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Prime example is the “hydration breaks” that Fox and FIFA dreamed up as a way to show ads during the World Cup. They couldn’t stand to have a 45-50 straight minutes of game action without showing a single ad. Nevermind there were ads all over the field and stadium.

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I was somewhat okay with the hydration breaks since they've had them in previous World Cups. They just went with them in all matches this World Cup as countries complained some countries were getting them and others weren't. I definitely think they'll continue going forward.

But I think FIFA should've put in writing, as part of their contract with FOX, that the network can not go away to any commercials during the hydration breaks.

Telemundo never went away during hydration breaks and just went back to the booth or announcers to review the match. From what I know most other countries did the same.

It was largely only FOX that used the hydration breaks to put in commercials. Again, just put in the contract that no commercials are allowed during hydration breaks and FOX must stay with the match. Either with the announcers directly or the booth team on site or back in the studio. Make it clear that broadcasters can not profit from the hydration breaks.

I mean it's FIFA and the World Cup, they have all the leverage. If FOX wouldn't do it, NBC/USA, ABC/ESPN or CBS would have tripped over themselves to get the games and agree to those terms.

ESPN's scorebar is also unnecessarily bigger and uglier.

If they do that shite during the regular season I’m out

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In the era of smart phones and sports apps, there's no need for a bottom line + a scoreboard during live coverage. Too much shite on the screen.

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The only reason I don’t mind it is because I’d rather be glued to one screen instead of 2. The upset alerts and score updates in a close game are fine by me.

Sunday night's NFL broadcast on Fox had a brilliant treatment at the bottom of the screen. The whole screen was of the game, and just the minimum words and small images of the two teams were superimposed (individual word boxes) as if it was closed captioning. It was so easy to ignore unless I had a question (time remaining, etc.)

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In the era of smart phones and sports apps, there's no need for a bottom line + a scoreboard during live coverage. Too much shite on the screen.

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100%! It’s a relic from the 90’s and even then it wasn’t a thing they had on the screen the entire time. It screws up the aspect ratio of the screen and is a distraction. At least the NFL forced them to get rid of it during MNF.