Ever since I've been coming here to RD the one thing that seems to get repeated frequently, whenever radio formats are discussed especially, is that radio caters to advertisers. I would guess that TV does also. The medium caters to the advertisers, not the other way around.
For example, when a highly rated talk show went over the edge a few years ago, there went the advertisers. Advertisers rule. The medium has to play to their tune.
I could be wrong -- but that's just an observation from reading posts here on RD by the experts.
The NFL seems to do this (hence, the artificial breaks in the game). NFL Football is still the most popular sport in the country, even with the artificial breaks in the game for advertisers. One would think that MLS could learn from the NFL's success.
And I also think that perhaps MLS could Americanize the sport a little more: for one thing, get rid of the archaic Anglophile terms ("nil" and "pitch" -- here in the US it's Zero and Field), which makes the sport seem like a narrowly tailored geek sport as opposed to the kind that Joe Sixpack wants to watch on TV.
For example, when a highly rated talk show went over the edge a few years ago, there went the advertisers. Advertisers rule. The medium has to play to their tune.
I could be wrong -- but that's just an observation from reading posts here on RD by the experts.
The NFL seems to do this (hence, the artificial breaks in the game). NFL Football is still the most popular sport in the country, even with the artificial breaks in the game for advertisers. One would think that MLS could learn from the NFL's success.
And I also think that perhaps MLS could Americanize the sport a little more: for one thing, get rid of the archaic Anglophile terms ("nil" and "pitch" -- here in the US it's Zero and Field), which makes the sport seem like a narrowly tailored geek sport as opposed to the kind that Joe Sixpack wants to watch on TV.