Planning to watch the Super Bowl on Feb. 7th? Get lots of snacks and prepare for boredom.
Out of 174 minutes of a typical football broadcast, only 11 minutes include shots of the ball in play, according to the Wall Street Journal's study of four recent NFL football games. Other studies back them up.
As for the other 163 minutes of game time, commercials take up about an hour. That's almost a third of the broadcast.
The rest, up to 60 percent of the total air time is spent on shots of players walking on the sideline, drinking energy drinks or huddling between snaps, according to the Journal. Not to mention replays, crowd shots and other filler silliness.
One not-so-fun fact: Football cheerleaders typically get about 3 seconds of air time.
All that lag in action means high costs for TV producers.
In the past decade, regular-season football telecasts have evolved into major productions that can cost between $150,000 and $250,000. Networks say they have anywhere from 80 to 200 people on hand per game with dozens of cameras. (NBC says its broadcasts require seven production trucks.) Producers say all this technology has made it easier to show shots of wacky fans, demonstrative coaches on the sidelines and video segments prepared before the game.
Watch this video on how Wall Street Journal reporters came up with the numbers. They also shoot off more stats.
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