What major sport is the most TV friendly?

[Thriller Ant]

Sports get some of the highest TV rating out of all programming. Entire Sundays are scheduled around NFL games. Same goes for weekends and European soccer. The championship games/matches/series are must-see programming. But what sport is most TV friendly?

Baseball: No. Drags on, often has long periods of little to no action. I love baseball, but it is tough to watch an entire game on TV.

Basketball: I feel like basketball is hindered by TV. Basketball is a game of rhythm, and TV timeouts really impair that. The NCAA tournament shows another issue with basketball, as most people only tune in for the last 3-5 minutes of each half.

Soccer/Football: It's entertaining if you enjoy the sport, but it has the opposite problem from basketball - too few breaks. I love watching the World Cup, but it was tough having to sit for 45 minutes without being able to get up for anything without risking missing anything.

The next two would be my choices for 1a. and 1b. as I can't decide which one is better for TV.

Hockey: Just enough action, even in a low scoring game. Frequent enough breaks in the action for snack/bathroom breaks. Plus, it is really easy to keep up with what is going on while watching on TV.

American Football: Same idea as hockey. Frequent enough breaks, always action, easy to pick up on what is going on whenever you turn it on.

So what say you, WZ? What is the most TV friendly sport?

 

[gd]

I'd have to say soccer, for sure. The whole no commercial thing really does it for me. They're a killer in basically every other sport, except for perhaps hockey. You know how long the game is going to take and don't have to be bothered with all the other stuff surrounding most sporting events, it's all about the action.

That was one of the biggest reasons I enjoyed watching the World Cup this year, along with the fact that the field looked pretty freakin' sweet in HD. Great stuff.

 

[Thriller Ant]

I must say, that is a huge plus for soccer. You do know exactly how long it is going to be and all that. The problem is the time commitment. You run out of soda, beer, snacks, or need a drink and you can't take care of that because the second you walk away, something happens. Knowing exactly how long the game will be is a great thing, but 45 minutes non-stop is a long commitment, especially for watching sports.

 

[Davi323]

American football. It has everything a television network wants. You have plenty of breaks, which means commercials, which means revenue. A TV network loves revenue.

From a viewer watching at home's perspective, the breaks give you time to go to the bathroom, get a snack, and flip over to another game. The presentation itself is fairly straight forward, 4 equal length quarters, with a possible single OT quarter. There are no 7th quarters to a football game, like a baseball game could have 15 innings, football is much easier to schedule. You know it will take about 3 hours.

But what does it for me is the quality of the camera work. Between the close up zooms of big hits, instant replays, we as the viewer can see the game from a lot of different perspectives, because cameras are EVERYWHERE. Football has a very high TV production value.

 

[Captain Jive]

American Football, unlike what was mentioned about baseball, you dont have to watch people standing around for 10 minutes before something happens. when the ball changes possession or during a timeout, it goes to commercial, so you can also take a break. Even in basketball, the last minute of a game can take forever, the clock runs down 3 seconds and a team takes one of their 237941 timeouts. American Football also has plenty of action, you can hear the crowd getting into it.