Roger Goodell, CBS Held Meeting On How To Improve NFL's Pace of Play

CBS Corporation president Leslie Moonves and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell recently held discussions about how to quicken the league's pace of play. 

Cynthia Littleton of Variety passed along comments Wednesday from Moonves, who said the meeting touched on a multitude of possible changes. Altering the way replay challenges are handled and changing the in-game commercial schedule were among the ideas discussed.

His remarks came amid questions about the network's advertising outlook involving the NFL, which witnessed a drop in ratings during the 2016 season. He said the hope is to find a solution that's "equally beneficial" to the NFL, CBS and the companies purchasing commercial time, per Variety.

"We're trying to make the game as good an experience as we can make it," Moonves said.

Darren Rovell of ESPN reported in January the NFL ratings dropped eight percent across the league's various television outlets (NBC, CBS, Fox, ESPN and the NFL Network). In all, the average number of viewers for a game fell from 17.9 million to 16.5 million.

Numerous theories were suggested for the sudden drop, including the hotly contested U.S. Presidential Election and a weak batch of primetime games, among others.

It's all relative, of course. Rick Porter of TV By The Numbers pointed out five of the top eight programs in total viewers for 2016 were NFL related, led by Super Bowl 50 with 111.9 million.

Looking ahead, pace of play is certainly an issue with the audience having more entertainment options and potential distractions at their fingertips.

Zachary M. Seward of Quartz examined research by the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal in 2013 to find the average game lasted 3 hours and 12 minutes, even though there were only 11 minutes of actual game action.

Along with replay challenges, which can bring the game to a grinding halt, one of the biggest problems is the commercials that surround scoring plays.

After a touchdown, there's usually a commercial break followed by a kickoff — which usually results in a touchback — and then another set of advertisements. And sometimes there's an additional group of commercials if they are forced to review the touchdown.

When you add it all up there can be upwards of five minutes without any meaningful action. Changing that would help the pace of play and improve the overall NFL viewing experience at a time when most sports leagues are wrestling with the same concerns.