While many viewers watching the College Football Playoff National Championship are complaining about seeing too many commercials, those watching ESPN’s 4K broadcast are apparently complaining about having too few.
At least that’s what seems to be the case as Notre Dame and Ohio State duke it out for the title in Atlanta.
Viewers of the 4K stream are widely reporting having no commercials during what otherwise would be media timeouts. Meanwhile, viewers of the traditional broadcast are complaining about a ridiculous commercial-load as lengthy drives by both teams in the first half caused some unique circumstances for ESPN to meet its advertising obligations.
The decision not to air ads on its 4K stream seems odd for an event of this magnitude. While the 4K stream might not have nearly the same amount of viewers as the traditional broadcast would, that still seems like some money being left on the table.
It’s unclear whether this is intentional or not. Per ESPN, the 4K feed is available on Comcast, DirecTV, Dish Network, Optimum, Sling TV, Verizon and YouTube TV. 4K channels are generally only available on a higher-tier of service, so (optimistically) this could be a way to reward customers willing to shell out a bit extra for the higher quality feed.
More realistically, there’s another explanation. Whatever the case may be, some viewers find the lack of advertisements strange. Others think it highlights just how ridiculous the commercial-load typically is.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.