Commercial-Free Sports TV? Fox Takes A Solo Shot

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, December 23, 2016

Limited commercial interruption sounds appealing to many. But no commercial interruption? Sounds like an ad for Netflix. Now add the word “sports” to this.

What about no TV commercials for a college basketball game? That’s a unique play -- and Fox Sports will be doing just that for one game.

For its Dec. 30 game between St. John’s and Seton Hall women’s basketball teams on its FS2 network, the telecast will have no TV commercials. Plus, viewers can listen in live on both teams’ coaches, who will be miked up.

Now, we doubt Netflix is thinking this next wave of TV programming -- commercial-free sports programming. But you have to believe someone will try.

New TV business formulas are being mulled all the time. Perhaps a new sports league -- or one based on an existing sport -- might find reason to offer some commercial-free telecast or nearly commercial-free sports viewing.

Think about soccer. The game has no natural breaks -- and a 90-minute game takes less than two hours to finish. Instead, we get TV commercials before and after the games, and at halftime, with on-screen ads attached to the constant on-screen score.

Other sports have continuous action: Nascar, Formula One and cycling. But TV networks have no problem here in offering up TV commercials.

All that means grousing new TV consumers -- in the future -- might be looking for new ways to cut down on other TV advertising time. In turn, they might not mind paying subscribers fees in lieu of watching free TV programming (which, of course isn’t totally free, coming from a pay TV provider and/or internet provider).

The Fox marketing efforts looks to tout women’s college basketball -- with one college game.

Now, do the math.

How much is Fox pulling in total revenue advertising from one regular season women’s college basketball game? Not much you say. Well, that might be some allocated small cost for a marketing stunt.

And if it works, it will be something for other sports -- somewhat flying under the radar --  to consider.